My 69 year old husband who was fit and active turned yellow within two days. Took him to A&E and he has been in hospital ever since (3 months). I have been searching on the internet repeatedly, for information on life expectancy and for some hope. Yesterday my husband underwent an 8 hour operation for his Cholangiocarcinoma. He insisted he wanted the operation and insisted he wanted (as he put it - the thing completely out). It was touch and go prior to the operation as they sent him home to self isolate for 10 days due to Covid 19 and to build himself up prior to the operation. He could barely walk into the house and went weaker and weaker each day whilst sleeping nearly all day, unable to eat, turning more and more into a skeleton with complete loss of muscle mass. On the 6th day my husband attended for his pre-op and could not do the bycicle test - failed completely. We were informed my husband would be dead within 30 days if he had the operation. On our return home I phoned the Consultant's secretary and demanded to speak with the HPB Consultant. The Consultant phoned back and said she had looked at his bloods and he needed to be returned to the hospital immediately. He had been loosing blood, was anemic and had to have 6 litres of blood and other supplemements including iron. This time they kept him in hospital and, whilst no longer his normal fit self, did improve enough for them to undertake the operation yesterday. I believe they have removed the left bile duct, a large part of his liver and attached his bowel to his liver. Now we have to see if he recovers sufficiently to survive. However, would like to know what the survival rate is and for how long or at least some indication. I am so sorry for the people who have listed comments here previously and I fully understand their worries and despair, especially those with inoperable Cholangiocarcinoma. I don't have answers but believe it is not a common carcinoma and very diffiult to treat so maybe we are lucky my husband could be operated on although I don't know yet. So difficult a decision but my husband was insistent on the operation. Will not know if all the carcinoma has been completely removed until results come back from path lab. Not sure if this post will be seen but maybe I just needed to put something down in writing with tears in my eyes. My husband and I will have been married for 50 years in another three years but don't know if we will see that together. We are not the average people for our age. We are both active, have nearly finished completely gutting and renovating a house for our retirement. My husband was still working. We cycle etc. Yes we do have a drink - goes with life but they said his heart, lungs, kidneys, liver (other than the tumer) arteries etc following so many scans were all in really good shape and other than the tumer he was quite fit - hence they went ahead with the operation. I wish all the people who posted all the best and fully appreciate the frustrations, feelings of loss and that feeling of being unable to do anything about it. Thank you to anyone who does read my post.
