He's hanging in there....

mom2mande · Regular Joined: 29 Jan 2008 Posts: 10

On Jan 18th my grandfather was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer that had spread to his liver and lungs and at that time his health was going downhill so fast it seemed. Currently though so far he is doing pretty well given the circumstances. He isn't having any reactions really to the chemo, back pain is at a minimum where he doesn't take any pain medication where as just 4-5 weeks ago he had horrible back pain and was on a good amount of pain meds. His appetite is great and eating all the time. He was originally supposed to do chemo once a week for 3 weeks then have a week off before doing it again for 3 weeks then a recheck. Well after his 2nd week of chemo he went back for the 3rd round and his platelets were a tad too low. This was discouraging for everyone. So last week no chemo but this week his platelets were fine so he had chemo 2 days ago. He meets with the oncologist next week after his next round of chemo and they will find out if the chemo is slowing it down. How will they be able to tell this? What kind of chemo is the usual one for pancreatic cancer? My grandma didn't know the name of it but said it's whats also used for advanced stage ovarian cancer. Unfortunately I haven't been able to spend a lot of time with my grandparents the past couple weeks between myself being sick or my 4 kids passing germs back and forth I just don't want to expose my grandpa to anything. He did make it to my 2yr olds bday party this past weekend and he really look good. He has lost weight but he just looks good and he says he feels really well. I just feel like there is hope even when statistics say there really isn't.

brainman · Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:21 am Post subject: Re: He's hanging in there....

mom2mande, I am sorry about your grandfathers cancer. There are several things that they might do to check to see if the chemo is doing anything... basically, the same kinds of test that they did to diagnose him except no biopsy... they will run a series of blood tests and scans. I do hope that the results are good.
_________________
Jim
Site Administrator and long-term cancer survivor
1992 Astrocytoma grade 2, left motor strip
2005 Recurrence this time said to be an Oligodendoglioma grade 3, same location.
My Story Part 1: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?p=7350
My Story Part 2: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=8029
Blog http://jimhawkinsport.blogspot.com/

prettyinpink · Regular Joined: 07 Feb 2008 Posts: 10

I am so sorry about your grandfathers diagnosis of PC. It seems that he is doing well on the chemo. The one that is so effective for PC which also is given to Breast Cancer patients is the same chemo that I done well on. Gemcitabine which is also called Gemzar. My Gemzar treatment was for two weeks on with one week off. I never received the full dose the 2nd week because of low platlets. This is common for Gemzar patients and it has very mimumun side effects.. I am doing well also and I have a CT every 10 weeks to monitor my tumor. With your grandfather back pain subsiding it tells me the tumor may have shrunk a bit. I don't want to give you the idea that he is curable or that the turmor will disapear but with this Chemo it gives the patient better quality of life. I am glad you are researching you grandfathers illness. I wish you and your family good luck and good health.
Take care,
Janice

mom2mande · Regular Joined: 29 Jan 2008 Posts: 10

Thankyou for the well wishes. My grandpa saw the cancer dr yesterday and they are changing his "routine" up a bit. Instead of doing 3 weeks of chemo on and 1 week off they are going to do 2 weeks of chemo(once a week) and then off for a week and will just keep doing that. He was also given a prescription for some kind of blood building medicine to give his blood a boost is what my grandpa said. He also said the dr was so surprised on how well my grandpa was feeling and basically told my grandpa that he has no explanation for it. We don't need an explanation because we know his strength is coming from up above. I realize there is no 100% cure, it just brings back the little bit of hope we have with how my grandpa is feeling. I was just so scared weeks ago that he was going to continue going downhill so fast because before the chemo he was so sick and had to force himself to even function and eating was totally out of the question. I asked him if he would be having another CT Scan in the near future and he wasn't sure, he said he would be receiving a complete schedule of his times for chemo and any extra tests in the mail.

	Cancer Forums Forum Index -> Pancreatic Cancer Forum	All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

A website for discussions about any type of cancer, including lung cancer, breast cancer, mesothelioma, prostate cancer, laryngeal cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma and others