Elmofongo: When I read where exactly is his cancer I felt like I had a pain in my lower belly that I think is my liver area.
Damn probably the greatest video game reviewer and advocate of PC gaming is going to leave us for all eternity in a few years.
hedwards: That could be any number of things that aren't significant. I suppose it could also be something significant, so no harm in asking a doctor.
I've got pain in that area that comes and goes. For me, it's probably the gallbladder, it's mostly a problem when I'm eating too many carbs in my diet and not eating enough fat. It goes away when I stop eating sugary crap.
I'm sure there's other possibilities, but the likelihood of having liver cancer is rather low. That is, unless you're an alcoholic or have been doing things that are hard on the liver. In TB's case, those spots are probably just cancer cells that broke off from the tumor they were treating. Which is an unfortunate problem with treating cancer, sometimes that happens at which point it becomes extremely hard to treat.
Sachys: The liver is one of the most resilient parts of your body - it can fully regenerate from less than 25% of its whole - yet having a secondary cancer there means it has spread throughout the body and it is only a matter of time before cancers crop up elsewhere. Secondarily, the treatment required to firstly weaken the cancer enough to make operation a viable thing damage the very areas that will be required to work efficiently after a replacement op.
Thirdly, he'll be on reduced NHS treatment thanks to our govt.
Source: prior experience. Might have squiffed it a bit, but kinda "off" now as same thing happened to my dad.
hedwards: That's technically true, but a lot of people misunderstand it. The liver doesn't truly regenerate. It performs a form of regeneration, but if it's damaged too severely or you lose parts of it, those won't grow back.
I always wondered why they didn't take a piece and regrow it, and that's why. It's because damaged pieces can frequently heal, but scarred or missing pieces are gone forever.
Or at least at this time, perhaps a medical advance will change that.
MaximumBunny: I don't get why a liver transplant isn't an option if someone could explain that. "Spots on liver" , "Unremovable spots" - but liver is removable. :o
hedwards: Because he didn't have liver cancer to start. That means that the cancer has spread from the original location. If it were just the liver, his odds would be a lot better. Getting a liver is rather tough due to the generally poor quality of livers in general. Between infections and obesity, it's tough to get transplant-worthy livers.
Anybody that cares about him or people in general should seriously consider signing up to donate and keeping themselves in reasonable shape. Obesity, drugs and excessive medication are killers as far as the liver goes.
In his case, a liver transplant isn't going to make a difference, but for others it could.
It was just gas mind you. But still I felt TB's pain.
