Husband recently diagnosed with cc

Dear i3Carats, sounds like a steady as you go report and that is good. We actually like contained tumors. Hopefully the tumor will now start shrinking and we can be even happier!

Well, today Robert just completed two days of chemo therapy and seems to be just fine.  The doctors tell us that 7 to 10 days after treatment to not be surprised if he is feeling tired and achey.  any thought on this would be appreciated.  Thanks again for all the  suppport.

Someone once told me that having cancer is like living in a parallel universe.  I never understood what my friend was eluding to until now.  I just spent the last week brewing concoctions from a vietnamese friend which invoves 10 jujubes and ginsing root to a gallon of water for 16 hours.  These roots and herbs are brewed on low heat  in a porcelain lined pot with a wooden spoon to combat the side effects of chemo therapy.  Surprisingly, it is giving my husband tremendous energy and focus.  He is in the second round of gemzar and oxilliplatin and has only felt fatigue and a little stomach ache which was promptly cured by the tea he drinks twice a day.  Apparently ginsing is a cure all for everything from cramps to cancer.  Anyone else out there have tried it?

Robert is just finishing the second cycle and so far he's fine except I have a question.  Before they administered the  gemzar yesterday the blood test showed his platelets  at 80,000 and the nurse said he was borderline for chemo.  They went ahead and gave him gemzar and last night the platelets were at 137,000.  How fast do they recoup.?

Thanks for your info.  We went to see the radiation oncologist yesterday who gave me the impression that radioemboilization is as effective as chemo embolization or less so.  This was perplexing and I wanted to ask you all of your experience with radioembolization.   I was under the impression that using  all three  modes of therapy were the most effective.  Any thoughts?

Hi again, thanks for answering my post.Your foundation is the one bright spot in my cc psyche.  Robert is 62 years old and in great health except for this 10 cm tumor on his liver.  He will be having a follow up cat scan next week to see what has changed in the last month.  Thank you all for your information.

Hello again,  Roberts doctor called today and  suggested he do gemzar and oxciliplatin in consecutive  sameday administrations.  Do you think there is a risk in toxicity?  Why do they normally do this in two consecutive days every two weeks?  Any input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks Marion.  This is such a difficult and tumultuos road.  Today we were informed that our insurance will only pay a small portion of outpatient chemo therapy but will pay for in patient therapy  and this is causing a big problem for the hospital.  Have you ever heard of anything so crazy?

13carats....I hear you.  Given the rarity of occurrence of Cholangiocarcinoma, insurance companies have little data to fall back on.  It seems that they design blanket rulings based on their own criteria (whatever that may be.) In this instance it appears that the insurance company wants defer a certain amount of cost to the hospital. I know very little this subject; hopefully someone out there is able to offer some information to us. 
These are my thoughts:
Enlist the help of the prescribing physician. He/she will have plenty of experience with denial of coverage.
Ask the Hospital personnel about the rulings for Medicare patients in re: to treatments of this disease. This sets the tone most insurance companies follow. 
Try not to become overly upset; these issues (generally) are worked out.

Hugs,
Marion

Thanks for the input.  I went to customer service at the hospital and then to pastoral services and between them they are dealing with the insurance company.  I still have no idea who will ultimately  figure it  out but  meanwhile we are getting outpatient treatment.  Ill keep you posted....

Hi Nancy. My daughter, Lauren is also on Oxaliplatin. For a few days after receiving her infusion, her fingers lock up. So it might be from that chemo. Has he tried exercising since? Hers always goes away after a few days.