My Liver Cancer Blog
my first blog, a way for me to process my experience of being diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma
about
I am a professor at a Canadian university. I’m married, have close relationships with my family, love my 2 dogs, love travel, and enjoy hiking (but day hikes only – not really into the hut-to-hut thing). I really hope I can get through this and do some major hikes again in the future. Thank god I also love reading novels (literary prize winners, but also espionage, detective, and sometimes Sci-fi). And thank god I live in an era of excellent tv. And thank god I love writing. There are many things I can still do that I love, even having cancer and being more home-bound than I would like to be.
If you’re new, I recommend starting with How I Found Out.
recent posts
Author: Helagrl
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Feeling a little low today, though maybe only because I didn’t get enough sleep. Everything seems worse with not enough sleep. My husband didn’t sleep either. We’re both nervous. And not enough sleep because tomorrow night I’m getting my first CT scan since starting chemo/immunotherapy. I’m in the middle of the third cycle, so 5…
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from a year ago, or 2 or 3 years ago, and wonder, “Was the tumor growing in me then?” What about then? What about then? It gives me an odd, even eerie, sensation to look at photos of some of my happiest moments of the last few years, and to think that this nasty little…
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He was a surgical oncologist, a father of young sons, a beloved colleague and mentor at the hospital. He died unexpectedly. I only met him once, when he showed me the CT scan of the tumor in my liver and informed me that it was currently too large and too involved with important veins to…
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and waiting, and waiting, and so much waiting. Can my cancer people who know what I’m talking about give me some likes on this one? There is the waiting to get the weekly bloodwork done (though, to be fair, this wait is normally pretty short). There is the waiting to find out the results of…
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I’ve joined a couple of online support groups specifically for people with cholangiocarcinoma and their caregivers. I haven’t posted anything yet – I still feel like a newcomer in a foreign land who is gradually learning the local language. I tend to be a shy and self-conscious language-learner, reluctant to speak (or post) unless I’m…
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My therapist, my oncologist, and lots of nurses have encouraged me to stay physically active. “Movement is medicine,” my therapist likes to say. And one very Russian nurse urged me to walk at least 30 minutes every day, with my bent arms swinging vigorously forward and back with each stride. She brusquely demonstrated the correct…
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Things I feel lucky about: (1) That apart from having a deadly disease, I’m healthy and strong: normal appetite, able to take long walks and I’m gradually building back up to running, reasonable blood pressure, normal blood sugar. (2) That so far the side effects from chemo have been negligible (knock on wood) – a…
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Having gastritis has been annoying (but boy would I like to go back to when that was my only problem, and have that truly be my only problem!). I’ve had to give up a lot of foods I like to eat: no acidic foods (so no tomatoes or tomato-based sauces; no citrus fruits or other…
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My very good friend from university, L, came to visit for a couple of days, and it was wonderful. I told her that my therapist and my oncologist encouraged me to stay active (“movement is medicine”), and so I had been going for long walks a few days a week. So we went on walks…
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Ok, so the two things that are really saving me are the chemotherapy (or at least I hope so – I won’t know if the tumor is shrinking until they do a scan to check) and the love of my family and friends. But more on those later. Here are two other things that are…
My Liver Cancer Blog 