Sara from Houston, Texas, USA. Co-caregiver to Kelly Lester, who had intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. The following summarizes Kelly's treatments:
November 2005 - Kelly diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma after having pain in her upper right quadrant for 10 months. (Many missed diagnoses in the interim)
December 2005 - April 2006 - Kelly became a patient at MD Anderson in Houston, Texas. Her chemo protocol was a 21-day cycle of oxaliplatin and Xeloda, with infusion of oxaliplatin on Day 1, pills of Xeloda on days 1-14, and no treatment on days 15-21. Kelly received 3 rounds of this protocol, and experienced 17% shrinkage of her tumor by the conclusion of the 3rd round. Kelly continued with the protocol for three more rounds, at which point her surgeon agreed to proceed with an attempted resection.
late April 2006 - 1st attempted liver resection - Aborted because the surgeon determined Kelly had developed fatty liver.
May 2006 - The surgeon conducted a portal vein embolization to direct more blood to the cancer-free lobe of the liver. No chemo was administered while the cancer-free lobe was allowed to grow.
June 2006 - 2nd attempted liver resection - surgeon saw seeding on Kelly's abdomen, terminating the procedure.
July 2006 - New chemo protocol begins: Gemzar and cisplatin via infusions. This protocol continued through September 2006.
October 2006 - scans showed this protocol was not working, and the tumors were growing.
November 2006 - Kelly decided to stop all treatments, and passed away 7 days later at 31-years-old. Somewhere out there, all our loved ones who have passed are laughing at Kelly's sarcasm.
30-something caregiver
