Liver cancer--transplant - Cancer: Pancreatic & Liver Message Board

liz49 · 01-31-2006, 04:41 PM

Hi--I an new to this board and goping for some help, not sure if this is the right place to be.
My husband (age 52) has had HepC for over 30 years--we've been aware of it for about 8. He's been tested, had biopsies, etc., and though of course his enzymes are always elevated, he's been healthy. Late in Dec. he had his routine biopsy & blood work done and then a ct scan, then an MRI. He has a 3 cm cancerous growth on the caudate lobe of his liver. It was deemed inoperable by 2 surgeons and so we are now facing the only hope we have which is a liver transplant. Has anybody else out there had this experience? Needless to say, this caught us by surprise as we had always been reassured that he wouldn't suffer any real side effects of the HCV. (He does not drink or smoke and is in good general health).
we are in the process of qualifying him for a transplant, luckily for us we live in a city that has a major hospital that does theses routinely, but I am still terrified. Any help or info on this would be well received.
Thanks.

happyelf · 01-31-2006, 09:01 PM

Hi Liz--Welcome to the boards! I'm sorry you have to be here, but I think you've come to the right place. There are a lot of great ppl here with info and personl exp and you'll get a lot of support here.

I am so sorry to hear of your situation. This is very scary for you both...it doesn't matter if the hosp is known for doing these...if they've just celebrated #500...if it's a teaching unicv hosp...it's still all new to you and your husband. And even tho you knew abt his Hep, this probably feels like it came from left field. I'd be terrified too. How are you doing? How is your husband doing?

I know some of the ins and out of the "transplant thing" but I was lucky enough to be taken off the list, altho I do still see the transplant team/specialists routinely for testing. My situation was not cancer related, but liver failure from number of things. Have you looked into the ALF? They have alot of good info. How far into the qualifying process are you? You said you're near major city w/a hosp that does these things--that's good...best place to be. Hang in there...if there's any ?'s you have I'd be happy to try and answer. Take care of yourself too, ok? Gina

liz49 · 02-01-2006, 11:33 AM

Thank you, Happy Elf!! It was good to hear anything from anyone out there!
Our hospital is LDS hospital in SLC. Not a University hospital, but a teaching hospital, nevertheless. It has a good track record and we feel pretty confident in the surgeons---and we're through all the pre-testing and my husband's case will be presented next Tues (fingers crossed) for acceptance. So at this point there is nothing we can do but wait--my husband is an engineer and extremely into details, facts, stats, etc., so he is well informed. we also have a close friend who had a transplant 15 years ago (and he's 71 and doing great) so we do have the knowledge.just not the actual "ok, you're in".....that waiting period has to be the worst, just waiting for the call.

I am trying to take care of me, but I really don't know how to do that!! My husband is really stoic all day and at night he just needs me to baby him--but I still have kids at home, so I'm fussing somebody all day, everyday. Lucky for me I do have a very strong support network of friends, butother than the wife of the aforementioned transplatee, nobody can imagine what I'm feeling.

thanks, though, for your info. You said you were taken off the list--do you still expect to have a transplant at some point?
Liz49