Pancreatic cancer patient’s experience of fighting cancer

  I am 75 years old and a monkey. I used to be in fairly good health and usually did not have a cold or fever. It’s just that my blood pressure is a little high, and I can take one Zhenju blood pressure tablet. Last year, I had a fight with my brother before the Spring Festival, which made me very angry. After the Spring Festival, I often feel sick to my stomach, I don’t eat well, and I feel bloated when I eat a little more, which I thought was a stomach problem. I was afraid of running out of money in my health insurance account, and I was afraid of suffering, so I put it off.  It was not until last June that I went to the hospital for ultrasound and CT and found many lumps in the tail of the pancreatic body and a tumor marker CA199 of more than 2,000 that I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The surgeon told me frankly that since the lymph nodes in the abdominal cavity were enlarged on the CT film and the superior mesenteric artery and the pancreas were adherent, it would be difficult to eradicate the cancer by surgery, and there was a high possibility of recurrence and metastasis after surgery. I thought about it and felt reluctant, so I went to the oncology clinic. The medical oncologist’s opinion was the same as the surgeon’s, suggesting me to have systemic intravenous chemotherapy. Then I started the systemic chemotherapy. From June to December, I had five cycles of intravenous chemotherapy, starting with Kinzel plus Oplatin, and then Kinzel alone. The treatment was combined with Chinese herbal medicine. During the first two cycles of chemotherapy, although there were also reactions such as stomach discomfort, in general, after chemotherapy, I felt that my abdominal distension had improved and my appetite had also improved.  However, the effect of the next few cycles of chemotherapy was not obvious. In December, the oncologist suggested me to have radiation therapy. I went to the radiotherapy department for radiation therapy. Since the gas pedal machine in Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital was dismantled, I took a bus to Hangzhou No. 4 Hospital for gas pedal therapy every day. At the beginning, I felt very tired and had a poor appetite. After about two weeks of treatment, my appetite slowly improved, and I felt good about eating and sleeping. This year, the whole family had a happy reunion in the Spring Festival.  I followed the doctor’s advice and underwent radiotherapy on the liver while consolidating the treatment on the pancreas. After two courses of treatment, I was discharged from the hospital and went home. It was the middle of June, one year after the discovery of pancreatic cancer. At that time, I only thought that the mass in the tail of the body had been completely eliminated after repeated radiotherapy to the pancreas, and that a little abdominal distension might be a side effect of intestinal adhesions after radiotherapy. However, half a month later, his appetite gradually decreased again, and he felt bloated after eating a little bit more. On July 21, he was hospitalized again and was found to have obstructive jaundice, a mass on the head of the pancreas, and damage to liver function, as well as ascites. The doctor thought that the liver function was impaired and no more radiotherapy could be given, and that only interventional stenting could be done, so I had the stenting done in the radiology department. After CT localization and liver puncture, it was found that the intrahepatic bile duct was dilated and the common bile duct was obstructed by pressure. A guidewire was then placed and passed through the common bile duct all the way to the duodenum, then a balloon catheter was dilated, and then two stents were placed to completely solve the problem of obstructive jaundice.  I wanted to perform radiotherapy on the head of the pancreas after the liver function was restored, but inadvertently the next day there was peritoneal inflammation due to duct prolapse, which completely broke my strength. Although the peritonitis was controlled through anti-inflammatory and abdominal drainage treatments, I lost weight and lost strength, and the mass in the head of the pancreas grew larger and larger, and later developed into vomiting whatever I ate and burping all day long, without recovering my strength. In the end, I was throwing up everything I ate, not wanting to eat anything, and burping all day. The doctor had to give me fluids to support my treatment. At the beginning, I became feverish when I was given recurring amino acids and fat emulsions, and later I became cold and feverish even when I was given albumin and glucose. Then the doctors exhausted all kinds of methods, but they could not save my mission.  Looking back on the whole process of fighting cancer, which took 1 year and 4 months, although the medical conditions were not as good as those of Pavarotti and other international celebrities, the treatment results were not worse than theirs. However, there are several lessons worth learning for future generations: 1. Pay attention to all kinds of discomfort in the body and go to the hospital for examination once you have discomfort symptoms that last for more than half a month. If early detection is possible, the treatment effect may be better.  For inoperable pancreatic cancer, radiation therapy is still a good method. Nowadays, linear gas pedal is used for accurate positioning and easy dose control, which is more effective than the previous isotope treatment and has less side effects. At present, there is a kind of computer-controlled modality radiotherapy, which is even better.  3.After tumor treatment, we still need to be vigilant and review in time, like me, if we can find out the problem of pancreatic head earlier, and again radiotherapy to pancreatic head, then we can prolong life more.  4, Chinese medicine treatment is the characteristic of our country and is indispensable. I have been to many hospitals for Chinese medicine treatment, and I have also followed the method of Dr. Liu Taiyuan in the book, drinking appetizer soup and beef tendon soup, although there is a little effect, but in the end, it is difficult to cure.