Mission Statement

The purpose of this blog is to improve the quality of life of cancer survivors. This blog hopes to accomplish this goal by publicizing new research on quality of life for cancer survivors and identify programs and strategies that may help cancer survivors accomplish their goals.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Johns Hopkins on Gallbladder and Bile Duct cancer

The discrepancies in the quality of the different cancer specific Johns Hopkins sites is kind of bizarre. Anyway...

The Johns Hopkins gallbladder and bile duct caner specific website has all the standard info about statistics, symptoms, diagnoses, etc.One thing I didn't know is that jaundice, a yellowing of the skin and white part of the eyes, is a symptom of these cancers. The only treatment they discuss is surgery. The absence of chemo or radiation on their page suggests that surgical removal must be usually quite successful, with low rates of recurrence.

In their tabs, they have a coping page, which links to things like who to look for for advice, as well as some pages on nutrition and physical activity.  In the nutrition section, they give mostly general guidelines. One thing they mention is that after treatment, weight loss and wasting can be a problem. If that's true, then the Prescription to Taste cookbook I reviewed may be very helpful. Their physical activity link provides little information, with the focus seeming to be helping appetite, digestion, and bowel function. That's basically going to be lower intensity aerobic exercise, and I'd especially recommend recumbent biking, as it will take the pressure off the core muscles and really help to warm up and relax the body. After basic recovery from surgery, you'd want to do pelvic floor exercises, like you would see in a post-natal program (kegel exercises, etc).

One good thing about the site was that their discussion board has been recently used, so that still seems to be an active forum for connecting with others and getting your questions answered.

Unfortunately, under their links page, most of the links don't take you to a specific site--they'll take you into the host site but then its says the specific page can't be found, so that wasn't terribly helpful.

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