Did anyone need chemo BEFORE hyst? My date is TOMORROW!!!

Thank you to beditor and JanD for helping me to rationalise through some of this STUFF.

And also to nmil who helped me remember that this is an 'is' and that I don't have a lot of control over what 'may' happen. I somehow keep forgetting to turn this over.

Now, for the new terror, at the hem-onc on Friday, I needed to get heparin shots due to the past problem with clots. I had a zillion appointments on Friday, so we opted to leave there without the shot and just get an extra one on the tail end (no pun intended!) for today. Now, I find out that what I was waiting for at the onc's office was chemo which they neglected to tell me, but admittedly, I should have asked.

Did anyone out there need chemo BEFORE surgery???

Hi Bek

I am sorry you are having to deal with all of this before surgery. I have not had this, but wanted to send you a big .

Hopefully, someone here will have some expierence with what you are going through.

Best wishes

S

Usually if you have a high stage of cervical cancer (Stage 2b and above) they will usually do chemo & radiation before the hyst (and sometimes instead of). It is usually a low dose of cisplatin done once a week and it is used as a radiation sentizer (making the cancer cells more receptive to the radiation.). Although I have a stage 2b cervical cancer I had my surgery before they knew that I had it.

What type of chemo are you having, and what type of cancer do you have?

I wish you the best of luck on your surgery and recovery.

God Bless

Dear BEK...My friend was diagnosed in March 03 witrh stage 4C OvCa and had 4 rounds of Taxotere and Carboplatin before they did her surgery 2 weeks ago. When they did the surgery the only cancer left was microscopic. She is doing great and will restart her chemo next week I think.

Bertha

My friend, diagnosed in July of 2000 with stage 3C ovarian cancer, had three chemos (Taxol/carbo) before surgery. Her tumors were large, and the chemo shrunk them, making surgery easier and more thorough. She's a 4+ year survivor.

BEK,
Sorry you are going through this! What kind of cancer do you have? What stage? Sometimes doctors do chemo and/or radiation to shrink tumors before they remove them. Is this what is happening with you? It is very strange that you are getting chemo without being told! That's just awful! How many rounds of chemo will you have? One of the woman in my support group had ovarian cancer and she had 3 chemos, one every three weeks, then surgery, then 3 more chemos. It seems to be working beautifully. Her CA125 went from 12,000 to under 100 after the first 3 rounds of chemo and surgery.

Hugs and comfort,
Janie

Hi Bek,

I have a friend who did need chemo before her hysterectomy because the doctors felt that her tumor was way too big to operate on.

The chemo did shrink the tumor, surgery was performed, and then more chemo.

She is doing very well and you will too.

Rosalie

BEK,
What is happening tomorrow? Your first chemo? Surgery? I am confused.

Thanks,
Janie

I have a question of those of you who know someone who ...or you yourself did...had/have chemo before surgery.

In the case of Ovarian cancer, for instance....Now..I thought the only way to be sure that you even had a malignant tumor was to operate, then do a pathology on the tumor. How do they know that it's a malignant tumor otherwise, and then how do they decide that you need chemo before they do a pathology? I'm intrigued..and confused!

Hi K9,

As I posted earlier, my friend did have chemo first and it was for Ovarian cancer. I am sure that the doctors suspected the tumor to be cancerous because her ca125 number was way way up into the seven thousands.

From what she had told me, they were afraid to operated first because the tumor was soo big, as seen on a cat scan, and that it might rupture during removal which would not be a good thing.

Hope this helps.

Will meet you in my oncologists office tomorrow morning!!

Rosalie