bruce halvorson

Dad's cancer journey all started in March. When he started experiencing sharp pain in his stomach. We thought it was acid re flux acting up April he started to vomiting and having chills so we thought it was the flu that was going around. After a week of vomiting my paramedic instincts kicked in. I knew there was something else wrong with all his symptoms pointing to gallbladder disease. Dad went in to the ER in Princeton on 5/3/16 after two scans and a ultrasound the doctors thought the same thing gallbladder disease after running more test and lab work the doctors came in to the room and said that he had a blood clot in the vain that supply's blood to the liver and that there was a mass on his liver and they didn't know if it was a tumor or a cyst. It was recommend that Dad be transferred to the U of M that night. Dad was transported by ambulance to the U where they started heparin a blood thinner to thin out the blood and dissolve the clot. The next morning the doctors did a MRI and that showed what we all feared it was the big C. There was a lot of questions about how much time and how far along everything was. Misinformation from a med student at the hospital had us all freaked out and mad but, after speaking with oncologists and being assured that this is something that was caught early enough all that was left was the questions of how to treat this, where did it come from and how far had it spread. Dad was assigned to Dr Hussein in Wyoming with him we found out what type of cancer it was and how we can treat it the doctor said it is Cholangiocarcinoma which is not 100% curable but, it is 100% treatable the doctor said many of his patients when caught in time they can shrink if not get rid of the cancer but, it will come back in time in another spot and that they will have to treat it at that time. Dad had a portacath , or port, placed on 5/31/16 and started chemo treatment on 6/2/16 he has had 2 cycles now. We also found out on 6/8/16 that he has hepatitis C the doctors are unsure if it is dormant or still active. He will be seeing a hepatologist later this week to find out. The oncologist wants to make sure that the chemo he is currently on will not effect anything if they add a medication for the hepatitis as well. With is autoimmune system already compromised we cant be too careful.