Eric has been diagnosed and treated for a rare form of cancer- Carcinoid Cancer. The saga below chronicles his journey from the day when his enlarged liver was identified at ultrasound when investigating for a possible gall stone. It turned out to be one heck of a gall stone!
If you want to send a message to Eric you can send an email to this email address
Photos from the Procedure - not for the squeamish! These are graphic and contain pictures of the actual surgery 
This is Eric when we were in Bali, 3 months before being diagnosed with Carcinoid Cancer and it's accompanying syndrome. He was experiencingwhat we now know were several carcinoid flushes daily as well as debilitating diarrhoea. His blood pressure was rising steadily and getting to be of great concern. With a distended abdomen, we thought that Eric was just living too much of the good life.
Below are photos from Eric's first surgery on 25 June 2004. Eric was under anaesthetic for 8 hours and 50 minutes.
Eric underwent a right lobectomy of the liver, a small intesitne resection and a lymphadectomy/removal of tumours form the root of the mesentery. Despite a thorough search the medical team were not able to identify the primary cancer.
Looking for the primary the surgeons, Mr Chandratna and Rao search the mesentery and small intestine (jejunum) and find this small lesion - yellow spot - which was suspicious. The mesenterary in the region also has several affected lymph nodes as well as tumour masses.
This is the 50 cm of small intestine and accompanying mesentery after removal.
You can see how the mesentary helps keep the intestines in place while providing the superstructure for the blood supply for the area.
A number of mesenteric lymph nodes and a small mass had also been removed from the root of the mesentery.
Ta Da! This is the 4+ kg of liver mass that was removed from Eric's liver. This is a photo of the right lobe of the liver which was substantially consumed and replaced by tumou.
You can see the raw area to the back of the picture where the mass was cut away from the left lobe.
Eric lost over 5 litres of blood during the procedure - we joked that it was all hiding in the liver mass!
Eric, some 14 hours post op with Clinical Nurse Specialist Marvelous Monica and Leonie's sister, Robyn in the Intensive Care Unit.
The respirator/breathing tube had been removed 30 minutes previously and with an epidural in place Eric is pain free and coherent!
Blood pressure and gases were still all over the place as was expected given the blood loss and extent of the surgery.
Eric spent 5 nights in the ICU and was discharged to the ward on Night 6.
Eric and his Alien- Living with Carcinoid Cancer and Syndrome
If you don't suspect it ...you can't detect it!
As you are aware from the above, Eric has been diagnosed with Carcinoid Cancer. This is a rare cancer, accounting for 1 in 200 cancers diagnosed (only 0.5% of all cancers). A carcinoid tumor. is one that excretes excessive hormones into the body. They can release a veritable cocktail of hormones but the most common is Serotonin. Thankfully the liver usually filters out these hormones and their effect is not shown on the body.
About 10% of patients with carcinoid tumours go on to suffer a constellation of symptoms called "carcinoid syndrome"
Carcinoid syndrome is usually caused when the primary cacinoid tumour
metastases to the liver. When this happens, the hormones are not filtered out and neutralised by the liver but are excreted into the body to have their wicked way. Symptons of carcinoid syndrome can include:
- Flushing of the face, upper arms and chest
- Often a change in blood pressure- usually downward but increases are not uncommon
- Explosive (the best word to discribe it) diarrhea- can be chronic
- Breathlessness
- Asthma like wheezing
- Tricuspid and pulmonary heart valve damage eventually resulting in in congestive heart failure. Early signs can be lower leg odema (fluid retention).
- Telangiectasia- little red spots on upper chest and arms- can look like dilated/broken capiliaries or in Eric's case like small red freckles. This sign usually is a result of ongoing flushing.
- Enlarged liver (hepatomegaly) from tumour bulk
Note that symptoms vary from person to person. Some people only every get the flushing and occaisional diarrhea -which often gives rise to some sort of misdiagnosis of menopausal symptoms and probably Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
The rarity of the incidence of carcinoid mailgnancy often means that the cancer goes undetected for many years. The symptoms are often misdiagnosed . There is a slogan amongst carcinoid patients which rallies us to educate our physicians and medicos "If you dont suspect it ...you can't detect it!" We need to ensure that carcinoid becomes a known disease and one that comes to mind in front line doctors so at least the cancer is supected and ruled out after testing. Too many of our number are misdiagnosed and hence the disease takes it toll on the body until care becomes palliative and not curative.
If you would like to know more about Carcinoid Cancer please go to our Carcinoid page for links, further information, support groups and a plethora of information sources.