My grandad - 6 months later and they still don't know if he has liver cancer

As some of you know my gradnad had an operation to remove his bowel cancer in December, there was some complications which mean't he was in hospital for 4 weeks however he is now more less recovered, they are also assusuming his bowel cancer has gone, even though they haven't done any tests to confirm this.

However in November a consultant phoned my grandad and said we need to see you urgently, he told him it was awful news and his cancer had spread to his liver. My gradnads had another test a few weeks ago, the results from this has not shown any cancer up.

One minute the doctors are saying he needs another live threatening operation, the next they are saying they can't operate and now they are saying that his cancer is probably gone completly. How can different consultants have so many different opinions?

Of course this means more tests, my grandad was exepcting to have an other operation, so I suppose this is good news, but if this doctor today was wrong we have all got our hopes up. He is 79 now and has loads of other medical problems so he isn't really that fit to have another operation.

Reply 1

Sam_B

poor guy. hope he gets better!

Reply 2

AT82

Sam_B

poor guy. hope he gets better!

He is pretty much recovered now, he always looks well for his age, he was in bad health before he was diagnosed of cancer but most of his other health issues are not live threatening.

Its just all this messing about which is annoying, I suppose that is what happens when you get older.

Reply 3

queenselphie

I cant imagine how frightening it must be for him, it must seem like people are fooling around who have his life in their hands. Much as I respect and admire doctors, I sometimes have trouble trusting them - they're only human and can make devestating mistakes. I hope this gets sorted for you soon.

Reply 4

Helenia

The reason there is so much doubt is that cancer is not a simple disease. Tests are not infallible and can often be inconclusive. It's bad that he's having to go through all this, as well as all of you, but the simple answer is that sometimes you just can't know for sure.

Reply 5

SciFi25

Bloody doctors, grrrr.

Reply 6

annabellewalter

My dad had liver cirrhosis years ago and they've always known he's at high risk of liver cancer, they do tests on him all the time, and they've just dont one and told him he has 4 months to live and there is nothing they can do. He really annoyed because he thinks they forgot to do a blood test in August. I can empathise with your situation, my dad's been in and out of hospital for years and I never have a clue what the hell is going on. Buy your grandad a livestrong band....he'll like that.

Reply 7

AT82

annabellewalter

God knows how hard it must be for you and your family, its bad enough with my grandad but he is much older and he hasn't been told he is dying.

I suppose you all have to be strong and brave for your dad. I assume your dad has had a second opinion and stuff?

Reply 8

annabellewalter

No second opinion. My dad is 60 though, and alcoholism has battered his liver soemthing rotten. :smile:

Reply 9

Trigger

bless you AT it'l all be ok

Reply 10

Helenia

lessthanthree

my grandma had 6 tumours in her liver; you'd think that through the amount of operations she'd had in her lifetime they'd have noticed something as staringly obvious as that, wouldn't you? ;_;

Depends when, where and how they developed :rolleyes:

Reply 11

psychic_satori

AT82

The medical profession still has a lot of problems diagnosing liver maladies. When my dad was in his 20s, he was having some pains in his liver, went to be checked out, and they told him he had liver cancer. They ran the whole gamut of tests, and told him he had maybe a year to live. He went to a few other liver specialists, and it turns out he just has this rare liver disorder that causes him to have fluctuating bilirubin levels, but isn't actually life threatening.