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liver lesion and other lumps

Seabass45
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Hi

I'm here because I'm waiting to hear back after an MDT about an 8½cm liver lesion. Actually the lesion was originally spotted a few years ago when it was a bit smaller and I was getting ready for an unrelated surgery to remove a 14½cm cyst on my ovary. I was discharged in 2023 from the HPB team as the liver lesion was stable, although it was around 4cm at that time.

So fast forward to now, a recent blood result triggered another ultrasound and MRI, and this time the liver lesion is 8½cm and my consultant said they are 'very worried' and it has to be removed.

I feel like i'm in limbo. The surgery is going to happen, but i have no idea about timescales and I have no idea if i'm supposed to be worried or not. I feel guilty that it might be nothing and i'm wasting everyone's time, but then i feel guilty that it might be something and i might not be taking it seriously enough.

I am a single parent to two children, having lost my husband when they were babies, so I feel guilty that i'll need to ask for help from friends for a few weeks after my surgery, and maybe beyond, depending what comes from this. I can't make plans yet, because I don't know what the timings will be but because i will be heavily relying on friends, which i am really uncomfortable about (but so grateful to have friends who are willing to help out).

On top of that I have a history of fibroids and my current fibroids are now pretty huge, to the point where i'm being nudged in the direction of  a hysterectomy - something which I never wanted but is even less appetising considering I'll be having a big surgery for the liver thing.

Does anyone with experience of this sort of thing have any sense of how long it tends to take to go from MDT to booking a date for surgery?

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    Hello Seabass45,

    once a surgical decision has been taken it moves on fairly quickly,say 6 weeks but the term depends can come into play linked to your personal circumstances.You will do well to need help for only a few weeks, l suspect this might stretch further if my own experience iany thing to go by.

    l had no problems following surgery, but was not discharged home until 2.5 weeks following the op, laid up in hammock bed and not allowed to move for the first week/

    It is a hard initial proceedure but once you can get through the first few months recovery moves into top gear, but remember that can also be tempered should the need for follow up radio/chemo mop up be required.

    l had 60% removed across two lobes, sounds a lot but bear in mind there is the need to remove healthy tissue to allow for a good margin around the malignant area.

    hope it works out well for you,

    David

  • Offline in reply to gruntifen

    Hi David

    Thank you so much for your reply, I hope that you are doing okay yourself these days

    I really hope I won't be in hospital for too long for the sake of my children! Even if I'm just lying in bed I'd rather be at home with them but I know these things depend on so many different factors.

    My consultant said we're looking at about 60% of my liver to come out, so similar amount to what you had removed.  

    Whilst I can't claim to be someone who doesn't worry about things or who isn't affected by stress, I do usually think of myself as someone who doesn't doesn't dwell on things I have no control over. So, normally I don't overthink my health problems and I just try to do everything in my power to be as healthy as possible within the confines of various health conditions I have going on. 

    But for some reason this one has taken over my brain a bit. It's definitely helpful to be able to read and empathise with other people's stories on the forum, and to receive a response is wonderful and helps bring me back to earth a bit. 

    Things that are less helpful are various relatives asking me if I've updated my will lately and if I've thought about what would happen to the children if they become orphans... (by the way the answer to both of those questions is yes, I have). 

  • Offline in reply to Seabass45

    Hello Seabass,

    of all the structures l would choose to have operated upon, the Liver would be the top choice.It has an amazing ability to heal itself and rebuild its capacity and capability back to where it started, anything or anywhere else within the body would leave behind a varying degree of compromise.

    For me the bowel op was the easiest, but the aftermath ten years on has defined my life, the liver op was a hard seven days, any aftermath only lasted a few months and then absolutely no aftereffects whatsoever.

    Hold on to that knowledge, and hopefully it will make your journey just a little less stressfree and back home with your childrenin a few short weeks,

    David

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