From 6 to 10 cm met on the liver in less than 3 months

Hi

Sorry to hear about your dad . My mum had chemo first then bowel and liver resection and immediate recurrence then back to chemo with an extensive liver resection. Your dad had to find a starting point and the positive is not having to worry about obstructions in his bowel during chemo . That’s one issue over and done with. I hear what your saying about the liver mets but sometimes it’s more a case of how responsive will he be to chemo . My mum had an extensive spread to her liver . One tumour was five cm and after just six rounds of chemo ( not a lot) it was no longer visible on the scan . I am not going to pretend to understand this but it was explained to us as long as the person is chemo responsive the chemo works well due to the rate of cell division . Fast growing tumours can divide as quickly as they can multiply. Her lung met was extremely slow growing 2 mm over a year so she was not even given chemo just had surgery .

The thing to remember is the liver is a really big organ . Despite the spread my mum had segments 1 to 3 which were clear which allowed them to remove 73% of her liver . It did not matter so much what was happening in the other segments as long as the part they were leaving was disease free . Or so it seemed to me . After her surgery the consultant just said he found what they expected to find “ cancer” . He did not go into details at that point and to be honest at that stage it was enough ! 

Someone once said there can be more than one step to NED in a stage 4 setting and whilst some people fortunately do experience that for others there are a few more hurdles but that does not mean a longer route may not get them to a better place health wise . I focused on tumour burden at this stage and imagined each process reduced the tumour load in her body , gave chemo less work to do , reduced the number of organs we had to consider . It was slow and had its bumps and that’s before you get to all the patient is enduring.

He is well set up for his chemo now and you can watch his CEA numbers and hopefully give you a boost if they achieve a downward trajectory.

I wish him every success with his chemo . 

take care of yourself too . I know only too well the anxiety and overwhelming mind games that go on trying to get a handle on a situation you have to entrust into the care of others .

Court 

Hi Court,

Thank you for your message. I managed to calm down and get hope. Thank you so much. I am looking forward to my dad's chemo and hopefuly he will respond well this time. 

Thank you also for sharing your mum's journey it's incredible x

Lots of love xxx