30 Nov - Stent Replacement Went Well

Sarah had her bile duct stent replaced today and it went well. Her bilirubin was at 7.1 before the procedure (normal is below 1 and must be below 3 to get chemo). The doc said the old stent was definitely 100% clogged and he was able to put a new permanent metal stent in that should not clog and is about 3 times as wide. Sarah came through it fine although she's dealing with some post-anesthesia nausea tonight. Over the next few days her yellow coloring should fade away and by next week we hope her bilirubin will be back in range so she can restart her chemo treatments. On the not-so-good side, the doc did notice that the upper ducts were much smaller than earlier this year, presumably because of outside pressure from liver tumors, which are also are putting pressure on her stomach and small intestine. Looks like Sarah's liver mets have progressed, which we knew might be the case since she's only been able to get chemo on and off due to a string of other issues - C.Diff. neuropathy, colds/infections, etc. We plan to discuss this with her oncologist and ask what our best options are for chemo treatment. At least for now we are fairly confident that her critical bile duct issue is resolved and she can feel better soon as we head into the Christmas season.

29 Nov - Another Bile Duct Stent

Sarah is scheduled to get her bile duct stent replaced tomorrow (Tues). Her bilirubin was 7.5 last Friday which is already sky-high and it probably went up over the weekend. Despite the high number and her yellow eyes and skin, she's managing ok and the plan is to have the procedure tomorrow be outpatient. The doc says Sarah should get a metal stent this time vs. a temporary plastic one since the permanent kind should not clog up like the past ones have. Sarah was relieved that we could get this scheduled right away on Tuesday.

27 Nov - Thanksgiving

We enjoyed our Thanksgiving meal with visitors Elizabeth, Thomas, Kerry and our niece Jane. Here we are, ready to dig in!

Today on Friday, I went to treatment with Sarah. She didn't get chemo again because now it looks like her bile duct stent may be plugged again. We started noticing day before yesterday that her eyes were getting yellow and it is much more noticeable today, plus her skin is getting a yellow tint. It's likely that we'll have to take Sarah in for a bile duct stent replacement some time in the coming week, but hopefully it will be an outpatient procedure. She's feeling tired but decent overall, and she was really happy to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving at home and enjoy the meal!

21 Nov Update

First some pics from Ben's birthday last week. One with Sarah and Ben and another of Ben blowing out the candles on his cake.

We've had an eventful week. Ben's been playing with his birthday presents, especially the Sony PSP game console he bought himself with some of the gift money he received. He also bought himself a "Rip Stick" caster board (a kind of skateboard) and has quickly gotten the hang of using it - can't keep him inside; he's really determined to master it. Sam got some new things as well after we realized he still had some gift cards back from his birthday - I took him out shopping and he got to pick some things for himself as well!

An update on Sarah - she didn't get chemo again this past week, which we were not happy about. Her white blood cell counts were very high and she was clearly fighting off some bug, so the doc gave her antibiotics and said we have to take another week off. If she's doing better, we're expecting that she can get another chemo treatment this Friday right after Thanksgiving. Overall, Sarah's not feeling too good this week. The neuropathy is making it challenging for her to stay steady on her feet. She's stumbled and fallen twice in the past two weeks. It's still ok if she takes her time walking and is careful - I know Sarah would rather do that than go back to using the wheelchair right now. We were excited to hear that a new drug called Eribulan has been approved for breast cancer treatment, but it also has neuropathy as a side effect. Sarah's profile fits the new drug's treatment focus, so there's a good chance she'll try that when it is time to move off the Abraxane.

13 Nov - Ben's Birthday

First a quick update on Sarah - she didn't get chemo this week since she and her onc agreed that she needed a week off to let her body recover a bit. Neuropathy seems to be getting a little worse. But her blood test results are coming back good and holding fairly steady.

So Ben's birthday was today and he had a great time. He got some birthday wishes via phone and was also able to have a part this afternoon at the movie theater (we saw the new movie "Megamind"). And he reached his goal of buying a new Sony PSP game device - with the help of his monetary birthday gifts, we've already ordered one and now he can't wait to get it! :) I'll get some pictures of the birthday uploaded but I'm having a little camera trouble that I need to resolve first.

5 Nov - Chemo Day

Sarah got another 80% abraxane treatment today. Her blood test results were again fairly good so we're hoping that the chemo is helping her. Sarah's doc said we should get scans after 6 treatments have been completed - so 2 more. But if her tumor markers continue to go down, he's thinking there really isn't a need to do a scan yet - although we want to know how things look in her liver, it makes sense since the results of the scan would be unlikely to change her treatment if markers are dropping.

We've got a busy weekend coming up with some activities for the boys and taking down the Halloween decorations... :) And we'll lay low some of the time, too. Since it's the fourth week in a row, it looks like the chemo is hitting Sarah a little harder this week - she got very tired after treatment today and crashed early tonight.

4 Nov - 3-Day Walk For The Cure

Sarah's friend Nicole is doing the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk For The Cure in Dallas. She's got a picture of her and Sarah at the 3-Day walk last year posted on her donation page at http://www.the3day.org/goto/Nicole.Smith - and please consider supporting the cause while you're there! The walk is this weekend but donations are also accepted for a period after the race.

Sarah should be getting another 80% chemo treatment tomorrow. She's feeling about the same as she did last week and we're hoping that the chemo treatments are doing some good in shrinking her liver tumors. We won't know for sure until Sarah gets another CAT scan, which we need to talk to her doc about.