Chris

Diagnosed in 2014

In January of 2014 I got hurt playing soccer.  I immediately felt like something wasn’t right, but was not in significant pain.  As I was driving home from the facility, I started to feel nauseated.  I called in sick to work the next day and, since the pain was bearable, tried to sleep it off.  The next day the pain got worse throughout the day.  That evening I was unable to do anything but lie flat on the floor, so I woke my roommate up late at night to take me to the hospital.  I had an X-ray done, then almost immediately a CT.  The doctor told me after the CT “We don’t deal with this; we are going to send you to Boston.”  After an ambulance ride to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, I was admitted early on a Saturday morning.  Other than what seemed to be endless tests and bloodwork, I was given very little information about what was going on.  Monday morning I was visited by Dr. Thomas Clancy, who is one of the medical directors for BWH and Dana Farber for surgical oncology.  He explained to me that I had a tumor in my liver that was most likely benign, but had a small chance of being cancer.  He told me regardless of what it was; it needed to come out and promptly scheduled me for resection surgery.  I had surgery to remove the 14cm mass that Thursday (one week after the abdominal soccer injury).  I spent 7 days in the hospital post resection and then returned home.  I had an appointment with Dr. Clancy 2 weeks after surgery at which he informed me that I had Fibrolamellar.   I was also referred me to a medical oncologist and I was set up to see both of them every three months for follow up scans.

A new tumor slowly grew on the surgical line from my initial surgery.  It actually could be seen on my first post-op scan in March 2014, but was thought to be scar tissue.  Each scan this new mass grew by just a millimeter or two, until November, when my doctors decided it would be best to do a biopsy to confirm what it was.  The biopsy was positive and I was schedule for surgery again.  At the beginning of February 2015, I underwent a second resection and had this 2.5 cm tumor removed.  I am continuing to have MRI’s every three months, which have been good since the second resection.  I have had clear scans since February 2015.