Cancer 101

People have asked us some questions that are now "old hat" to us.

But they are not "old hat" to many of you ...

So here is a brief rundown of a few questions that keep coming up.

1. What does terminal mean?

*an advanced stage of a malignant neoplastic disease with death as the inevitable prognosis.

*A malignancy which is expected to cause the patient’s death in a short period of time—i.e., weeks to several months to a few years.


This means that at this point, because of staging and because of the fact that the cancer has spread from the point of origin (the liver) it is terminal cancer.

See above (horrible) definition of terminal.

There is no cure for terminal cancer.

Not just Kyle's kind of cancer, any kind of "terminal cancer" (or terminal illness) falls into this category.

Period.

They can treat it.

They can treat the symptoms, but they cannot cure it.

Treat vs. Cure.

See the difference?

We are treating Kyle's cancer for as long as possible.

I know people say a "miracle" can always happen, which I suppose it can.

But the reality is, that will probably not happen.

Sorry to be "Dorien Downer", but I have yet to see a "cured from terminal cancer" or "raised from the dead bible miracle" in my lifetime.  

I would be happy for a first here and now.

I would jump for joy.

I would take the miracle.

Don't get me wrong.

I would.  I would.   I would.

(OHHHH how I would!)

I have HOPE for time and HOPE that my husband will be 
one of the strong ones...but I am not holding out much hope he 
will be here to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary.

I suppose that makes me faithless?

Or grounded in reality?

Or some of both.

You can throw rotten tomatoes at me if you want to.

Here's the thing, I am prepared to fight with my husband for as long as possible and hope for the very best, longest amount of time he can get with a good quality of life.

I have taken a hold of his hand.  We are facing forward.

Somedays with tears streaming down our faces.

But we are bending INTO the wind and walking.

Backs straight.  Chins up.  (Thanks Joan!)

Superman shirts on!

Ready to battle.

I hope for YEARS!

I hope that Kyle is one of the lucky ones to get YEARS!

That is ALWAYS my hope.

Every waking moment of every single day.

Every breath of every waking moment of every single day.

Every single day.

But NEITHER of us are willing to go down the road of prolonging life when it gets to the point that being "here" means no more quality of life. 

For that is no longer living.

Time will tell "how long" terminal will be for Kyle.

It is an ugly fact of this cancer.

I think we're all pretending a little bit this will not be the case...but no Doctor has given us reason to think anything else at this point.

Neither has God actually.

We weren't promised any miracles, or any healing by the Big
Guy upstairs either.

Sadly.  For I so wished to hear that.

So I guess we can all be mad at the doctors, and at God.

Couldn't ONE of them have "fixed" this if they wanted to?

(I personally am not mad at either--but just in case you 
need someone to be mad at...don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger, or blogger in this case!)

So, for now, Kyle is receiving chemo to extend his life.

We will take a HUGE extension if that is granted to him.

Here's the thing...

We are ALL "terminal"....

...some of us are just a little more "terminal" than others.

2.  "I have a friend with liver cancer too..."

This is not always the case.  

Cancer is classified by WHERE it originates.

So lets take Kyle.

His cancer started in the liver.

It has ALSO spread to the lungs.

However, here's the tricky part.

He does NOT have lung cancer in his lungs--he has LIVER
cancer in his lungs.

Metastatic cancer that has spread from it's point of origin
is still (almost always) the kind of cancer it started out as.

In his case, Liver Cancer.

The cancer in his lungs?  Still called liver cancer--weird huh?
(NOT lung cancer).

If you have a friend with breast cancer, or colon cancer, or lung cancer...and it has metastasized (spread) to their liver...it is NOT liver cancer.

Clear as mud?

Okay, let's rinse and repeat...

Cancer is named by its "origin point".

Liver cancer starts in the liver.

It can spread to ANY other body part but is still liver cancer.

Breast cancer that spreads to the liver, is well, still breast cancer--it's just in the liver now.

The KIND of cancer you have also determines the type of treatment you receive as a cancer patient and also your prognosis.  (As some cancers are more readily and easily curable than others).

#3.  Why can't they just operate and take out his liver and/or those cancer tumors in his liver?

The BIGGEST reason is because his cancer HAS ALREADY spread to other organs.

THIS IS THE BIGGEST REASON.  It has spread.  That is always bad news.  Period.  No one wants the spreading kind of cancer, they want cancer that has rooted itself firmly only in one spot and has not moved.

Anywhere else.

It's better that way, trust me!

Even if they took out his liver (or tumors in his liver) via resection or a transplant, he would STILL have liver cancer in his body, in other locations.

And because it has already spread, it is back to #1. 
(terminal and not curable in the case of liver cancer).

There is no way to STOP the growth of the cancer cells at this point.  

We can "slow them down, halt them, retard their growth (via chemo)--but not stop them...as in "put an end to them forever" kind of stop them.

It has, as they say, "left the house".

Or in his case, "left the liver".

Another reason an operation is not an option is because his immune system is already "fighting" the cancer inside and outside of his liver.

It's fighting hard!!!

The doctors explained it to us by saying that IF a doctor were to remove all, or part, of Kyle's liver then his immune system (which is already fighting the cancer there and other places) would be SO weakened in trying to recover from a surgery, or transplant, it would no longer be able to suppress the remaining cancer cells in his body and the cancer would basically "explode" everywhere inside of him.

Basically like a small time bomb going off inside of him--killing him even more quickly.

We don't want that happening.

And thankfully neither do our doctors.

Remember that "time" thing we're trying to buy here?

We want LOTS of it!

Lots.Lots.Lots.

Time is good.  It is our friend now.

We hope to become BFF's with it by the end of this journey.

We hope to reach up and embrace yards and yards of time.

Whole yarn skeins full of it!

We hope to bath in it and have it drip off of us luxuriously!

We love time.

#4.  What about people who have cancer surgery and then have chemo and/or radiation?  How come they can do it and not Kyle.

I don't know everything there is to know about cancer, but am assuming in what I've been told and learned in all my research that a person that is able to have surgery and then chemo/radiation is more like a stage 1 or stage 2 kinda guy or gal.

Possibly stage 3.

The cancer has probably NOT "left the house" (or place of origin).  So therefore a Doctor can remover the cancer from it's primary location and then chemo or radiate the &*@# out of that spot in the hopes of killing off any tricksy remaining cancer cells that may have been missed by surgery.

Those cancer cells?  They like to hide and then pop up again
in the most surprising places.  

They are pretty Bad-A cells.

It's all about staging and metastasizing and those kind of (not so) sexy words.

The bigger the number of Staging (1, 2, 3, 4) the more awful the prognosis.

The farther the spread...well, again the less anyone can do.

#5.  When will chemo end for Kyle?

Pretty much...

...never.

He will be on some kind of treatment, possibly chemo, for
as long as he has time left.

Sounds fun huh?

At some point the cancer will outsmart the chemo and not be stopped by it anymore.  (those tricksy cancer cells!)

Meaning it will grow and spread some more.

No one knows if that will be after one round of chemo or 
10 rounds of chemo or 20 rounds of chemo.

There is no predicting at all what the case will be.

Each person is different.

Each person responds differently to chemo.

Each persons body does its very own thing in terms of statistics
and numbers.

Kyle will be his very own number.

In the end, either chemo (and the bad side effects) will be too much for his body to take anymore.

OR, the cancer will be too much for his body to take anymore.

And it will be time to give one, or the other, or both, a rest.

We're banking on time though.

With either, or both.

If anyone has any other questions?

You can leave a question in comments...I will try and answer it.

Cancer 101--that's what I've got for today.