Father in law has Stage IV

audib · Regular Joined: 29 Jun 2007 Posts: 19

Hi. I have posted before but have not had need to in several months. My father in law was diagnosed with Stage II pancreatic cancer 15 months ago. He could not have the Whipple due to where the tumor was located but has been managed with chemo and radiation. His CA-19 numbers have been good and his CAT scans have shown no growth of the initial tulmor. He has really been doing very well-living his life normally and enjoying all the things he likes to do-golf, playing poker etc. This week he went into the hospital with a fever. They have just changed the diagnosis to Stage IV and the oncologist is recommending hospice. We are all so numb-we knew this was eventual but I thought we would be seeing signs of declining health over a period of time and there have been none. My question is, what is next-will he go down hill very fast or because he has been relatively healthy, will this linger? Will we see signs of something to know the end is near? Besides pain management is there anything else to do? Will they continue chemo or take him off of it altogher and by doing so will this make him go faster? His daughter (my sister in law) is getting married in Oct and I was wondering if we should move up the wedding, or perhaps people live for several months after this diagnosis. As I said, he has been living his life almost exactly as before diagnosis. Except for a 40 lb. weight loss, he has been pretty good and except for this fever, we felt the chemo/radiation has been managing his disease for the most part.

amyf · Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 5:50 pm Post subject: Re: Father in law has Stage IV

I would get a second opinion. My husband (46) was diagnosed a year ago July with Stage IV and it still doing great. He pretty much lives as he did before (adjusting of course for doctor visits, scans, treatment, etc.). If your FIL is still in pretty good shape, a diagnosis of stage IV in and of itself should not be a reason for hospice. Once on hospice he will not be able to get any treatment--just pain relief, etc. There are many, many doctors out there who just throw their hands up at a diagnosis of PC and assume there is nothing to do, but they are wrong. See if he can be seen at a high volume cancer center and try to find a doctor who sees a lot of PC patients. There are some new and sometimes very effective treatment options that are not considered "standard of care" but are being used quite frequently. Also, contact the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network for information about doctors in your area. All of this, of course, has to be what your FIL wants--it's up to him in the end. Good luck and hang in there!

Amy

jessica026 · Regular Joined: 17 Jan 2008 Posts: 39

its hard to say..my mom was doing so well too, and it just went so very fast.....she went from having 1-2 years..then shortly after the dr told her weeks, and it was indeed weeks.
everyone is different though.

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