My mum was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma at the end of Oct 2016. She was told early Nov that it was inoperable but after another surgeon looked into her case he decided it was risky but wanted to try and operate as my mum is young (56) and very healthy. 

She had the op in Dec where they removed her bile duct, half her liver, gall bladder and 4 enlarged lymph nodes from her stomach. It was successful and after a lengthy recovery (plus a couple of setbacks (infections) along the way) she has finally had scans and they are happy they got it all. 

Mum is still in pain with her stomach, struggles with her digestion, can't do much before she gets tired and has bad back pain. She is going to have another scan in 3 months and then every 6 months for 5 years.

When I asked the surgeon (who I am extremely grateful to for deciding to go ahead with surgery and it being successful) what the stage was with mum he was very blurry with his words.. He said that this type of cancer has a high recurrence rate but could not determine stage etc. He said if mum walks in in 5 years time, the op will have been a success. That only takes her to 61.. Doesn't sound very long to me..

Is anyone else in the position where they've been told it has been removed but has a high recurrence rate.. How you're supposed to continue as normal.. I'm struggling, if you couldn't guess, me and mum are very close. I'm 30 by the way. Mum said she feels like she has the grim reeper by her side all the time just waiting for her. I can't even imagine how she's feeling. I know it could be worse. 

Anyone going through something similar? Would like to hear from you. Thanks