Monday, June 28, 2010

28 June - Not What We Expected

Sarah's doing fine after the ERCP procedure, but it didn't go quite as we expected... The bad news is that the doc was not able to replace her stent but the good news is that he clearly saw bile exiting her bile duct so the stent is working fine. Apparently sometimes a patient's stomach and upper intestine can be twisted and prevent access with an endoscope designed for stent work. He tried for an hour and it just wasn't going to happen today. We can definitely try again, but it sounds like the stent is actually designed to last for up to 6 months. Now that we consider it, this stent is on the wide side and the doc was happy he was able to get it inserted 3 months ago - so if it is not plugged, we're better off leaving it in for now!
So since IV antibiotics have actually improved her liver function over the weekend (her bilirubin is already down to 0.8 again) I think we'll focus on treating a potential infection and try to get her liver numbers down low enough to allow chemo again. We plan to talk to Sarah's oncologist tomorrow and discuss how long she needs to stay in the hospital and what the plan for treatment is.
Sarah bounced back quickly after the procedure and is feeling pretty good now.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sorry for the roller coaster ride you and Sarah have been on. Glad to hear that she is feeling better and hopefully the infection can be treated quickly. Hang in there and just take it one day at a time. I am sure you are familiar with that! Sending hugs to you both...
Anne Peters