Meeting With the Oncologist

First of all, I cannot express how positive and hopeful my parents felt after leaving Dr. Nibley’s Office this morning. My dad is in good hands for sure! 

The first person they met with was Audrey, my dads patient advocate. She takes care of the insurance and financial stuff and also the supportive services like classes. All the classes are free. She gave a schedule of these classes to my mom and dad so they can sign up for them if they want to. There is a fishing trip on the schedule as well! Cool!

Next they met with Dr. Nibley’s P.A., Melissa. She was very kind and after going over my dads medical records and health history, she answered some of their initial questions and then checked my dads incisions and such to make sure everything was healing well and also took a blood sample to check his bilirubin levels. She said my dads cancer was somewhere between stages 2 and 3. Definitely not 4! YAY! There was some new information that Melissa gave them, that probably doesn’t matter at this point, but it was that my dads gallbladder had cancer in it. But that doesn’t change anything… even if the gallbladder was the “primary” source of cancer, the treatment for gallbladder cancer and liver cancer is pretty much the same.

Proposed Treatment

When Dr. Nibley came into the room, he pulled out a sheet of paper and drew pictures while he explained things and then proposed his suggestions for a moderately-aggressive treatment plan.  He was very positive and upbeat and mentioned several times about what an advantage it was that my dad is so young ;) He totally expects my dads body to respond well to the treatment. However, before the chemo/radiation can begin, Dr. Nibley wants to make sure that the liver is functioning properly because the chemo drugs will be processed through the liver and it needs to be as healthy as possible. 

Because there is a risk that the large tumor could shift and squeezes off the bile duct again, he would still like a bile drain to be surgically installed. He plans to consult with Dr. Bladder, the radiologist/surgeon who “unsuccessfully” attempted this last week, to see what may be done to accomplish this successfully this time. Dr. Nibley was always very patient and compassionate and offered much hope!

As soon as possible, after my dads liver is functioning properly, he will be given a round of chemo therapy and radiation therapy. Dr. Nibley said that a round is basically 3 weeks of chemo/radiation and 1 week rest. After each round of treatment, my dads tumors will be measured to see if they are shrinking which is the main goal at this point.  

Note:  In case any of you are wondering… surgically removing the large tumor is not advisable because of its position near many vital organs.  (We asked if the tumors shrank enough could surgically removing them eventually be a possibility, and he didn’t completely discount that idea…) We also asked Dr. Nibley if a liver transplant could be an option but he said in the case of cancer it is not typically approved due to the fact that small cancerous cells can still be lurking within the body. Liver transplants for cancer patients has not been highly successful.