Father Diagnosed w/ lung&liver cancer

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-17-2004
Father Diagnosed w/ lung&liver cancer
8
Wed, 06-07-2006 - 9:12pm

Hi I am new to the board...

I lost my mother 8 years ago in a tragic car accident. My sister and I were devastated but we still had our dad...

My Dad just had a catscan done and leisons were found on his lung and in his liver. He has had colds on and off for a few years and recently he has lost a lot of weight and looks very frail. I am terrified. He has multiple lesions in both his lung and liver...more so in the liver. Does anyone have any experience with liver cancer? Tomorrow a biopsy will be done to specify what stage the cancer is at...I guess since its spread from the lung to the liver it means that its more advanced cancer..so I am not getting my hopes up.

Any words of hope would be great..

Sarah

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-22-2003
Thu, 06-08-2006 - 4:37am

Hi Sarah and I am so glad you found us.

Judy

cl-ivhjude

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2002
Thu, 06-08-2006 - 9:51am

I don't know what to say, but I offer {{{{{{{{hugs}}}}}}}}.

Express!
Beth "Petrouchka"

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-17-2004
Thu, 06-08-2006 - 8:20pm

Judy!!

I can hardly wait to share your info. with my father. You have really given me great hope and I can see how much support from other's helps. I am desparately trying to have a positive attitude it is just so hard...I feel like im walking on clouds and just in another world. My father and I are EXTREMELY close and he just means the absolute world to me.

I will keep you updated...thank you SO SO much for your response. Ohh one thing..I read that 80% of liver cancer is non-operable...is this true? It seemed he had given up all hope when they told him his liver was non-operable..but I've read there are treatments out there that can zap the cancer in the liver..it is a relatively new treatment called..Radiofrequency Hyperthermic Tumor Ablation (RFA) technology..have you ever heard of it?? So you say they cleared the cancer in your liver...is this true? He also has it all over his liver. I also read on his Cat scan report that one of the tumors on his liver is something like 6 x 7 cm that is rather large...and scaryy.. You also said that chemo cleared it from your lungs is this true? Obviously I dont know much abotu cancer...but I am learning.

Anyway I will let you know when the results come back..

Thanks again...

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-22-2003
Sat, 06-10-2006 - 1:42am
Yes Sara it is true that my tumor in my lung and the tumors in and on my liver are gone gone and gone.

Judy

cl-ivhjude

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-17-2004
Sun, 06-11-2006 - 10:34pm

Hi Judy...

Your story is truly an inspiration. I hope my father is as lucky as you as my sister and I can not imagine life without him. Our mother was kille in a tragic car accident when I was 21 and my sister only 16. 8 years later my father is diagnosed w. cancer. I just had my first baby she is 6 weeks old...it was just so hard to go from such a happy time to this. Anyway I just wanted to share a little more backround with you.

This week we will find out a lot more. My father has been very tired lately and like I said has lost a lot of weight...we are trying to get him to eat more so that he has some energy. Anyway about chemo...he was asking me will he ever feel ok on some days or will he alwasy feel terrible? Can you share a little bit of your experience w/ chemo because we really have no idea about it. What will happen to him?? We are all just terrified...he has held our family together...now we have to hold him together!!

Your responses are truly an inspiration...I have shared them all with him and you can see hope come across his face...

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-22-2003
Mon, 06-12-2006 - 2:26am

Thank you for your kind words Sarah, I am glad they give hope because there is hope.

Judy

cl-ivhjude

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-17-2004
Tue, 06-13-2006 - 3:16pm

Hi Judy...

By the way my bestfriends name is Judy ;-) just thought I'd mention that it is a very familiar name to me ;-)

Anyway, I wanted to give you an update and had some questions. We finally have some good news. It seems that there are lesions only in the left lung. I guess you can live with one lung so that is good news. One of the masses is 3.3x2.3 cm and the other is 2mm. SO there are two lesions in the lung and they are not exactly tiny. The REALLY scary thing is the liver. There are multiple masses in the liver. One is very LARGE it is 8.7 x 7.2 cm which to me is almost the size of a tennis ball isnt it?? I wish that was the only mass in his liver but there are more. It says there are smaller scattered hyperechoic leisons seen and additionally in the right lobe there are leisons measuring 3 cm, 2 cm and 4 cm. I mean to me this is REALLY SCARY. I am praying that this radiofrequency ablation could be the answer. It is just horrible.. What is worse that doctors just dont seem to care... We are desparately waiting for the biopsy results..those were only notes from the catscan. The problem is that we cant find the name of a good oncologyst..no one will take him until his biopsy is in and we are afraid that by the time it comes in and we call the hospital to try and make an appnt the next appnt wont be until the end of july and my father is scared to death that the cancer is just going to eat his liver before he can even get in. We wish we had more contacts ... someone that would take my dad sooner but I guess we have to wait like everyone else. We still need to find out if the primary source is from the lung or liver...I guess we keep hearing that once we find this out then we need to look for an oncologyst that specializes in either lung or liver cancer is this true?? Or do oncologyst's just treat all cancer no matter where it is in the body?

Any feedback would be wonderful... Thanks again and again...

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-22-2003
Wed, 06-14-2006 - 6:13pm

Oncologists do specialize and there are also general Oncologist which treat all kinds of cancer.

Judy

cl-ivhjude