Lauren has been dealing with ulcerative colitis (UC) since 5th grade. It is a chronic condition were the immune system causes issues in the colon. It is, for the most part, controlled with medicine. In May of this year, Lauren became jaundice an...d after some tests, we found out that she had PSC. It is also an immune system issue that affects the liver and most people that have it also have UC. At that time, they thought that the PSC had caused a blockage in the bile duct that goes to her liver. They had to put a stint in to open the bile duct and when doing so, they took a tissue sample of the blockage. Long story short, we found out that it was a tumor and it was bile duct cancer. Lauren had major surgery (a Whipple procedure) to remove the tumor. All margins around the tumor were clear and a few of the lymph nodes they removed during surgery showed signs of the disease. So after recovering from the surgery she began chemotherapy to hopefully ensure the cancer was gone. In the middle of chemotherapy (about two weeks ago) the doctors did a CT scan and found that the cancer had come back. Because of this, it is considered “aggressive”. We have amazing doctors at the University of Michigan and we are currently just beginning to figure out a plan of attack. We are considering treatment, clinical trials, second opinions, etc., but aren’t sure at this very moment what direction we will be going. A lot of you have heard that Lauren is currently in the hospital. This is due to getting run down and having some issues with her UC, but she is getting excellent care and already feeling a lot better.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 22:31:47 +0000
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