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Bruce….Waiting for three months for stent replacement seems to make perfect sense. This way possible infections or blockages will be avoided. I was under the impression that the stent was to be replaced immediately. I am glad to hear that this is not the case.
Best wishes,
MarionHi Bruce,
Thanks for letting us know how your mum is doing with her plastic stent and I am happy to hear you say she is feeling okay and is responding to the stent. Hopefully she will continue to feel better each day. And living life as it comes along sounds like a great idea to me!
My best wishes to you and your mum,
Gavin
Sounds like a plan, Bruce. No one can predict “times” for any of this. Enjoy each day making new memories and lets hope she keeps up the good fight and continues to feel good. Your doctor sound like a good man and has compassion which is so important. And you my dear are a Great Son!
Hi Marion,
It looks like they will wait until the end of July to replace the stent. The doctor said it should be good for three months or so and this will give them a chance to see how mom comes along.
Hi Isisman,
You and your husband are having a pretty rough time of it and I’m sorry to hear that. My mom is pretty easy to care for so far. She feels okay and has for the moment responded well to the plastic stent. She agreed pretty easily with putting the new metal one in. She can be a bit feisty at times, so we’ll see as the procedure approaches.
The doctor was reluctant to say how far along she is or how long she has. He said we’ll replace the stent with one good for a year or two and live life as it comes along.
Thanks again for everyone’s kind response.
Bruce
Well, did you get the stent replaced? I feel that since your mom seems to have memory loss, they probably felt if they replace it now, they don’t have to argue with her later when she may really not know what is going on. Either way, my husband is young, 51 with all this going on , and after treatments and being sick and on so many Rxs, you get tired of it and just want to stop it all. His wishes will be supported by me no matter what. I don’t believe people should live for others, you should live for yourself or you won’t be completely happy. I will always be ok, if he leaves me. He has lost 80 lbs and can’t keep in calories. He went through treatment and is deemed in good shape and just has to get labs and scans every 3 months, but he looks like a skeleton, lacks, sleep, keeping food down, and still in pain. What a nightmare this is.
Bruce…..your Mom’s eyes will take some time to clear up. I would be interested to know as to why the stent needs to be replaced so quickly as the current, plastic, stent is draining the bile adequately. Just wondering.
Good luck tomorrow.
Best wishes,
MarionI would like to thank Marion, Lainy, Gavin and Jan for their kind replies.
In answer to the question, they just put the stent in last week but once the biopsy came back the doctor said it would be better to put the metal one in since it would last a year or so. The plastic stent is currently working, although mom is still showing jaundice in the eyes. I mean to ask the specialist about that tomorrow.
Thanks again for the kind welcome. I’ll probably be here regularly. Take care.
Hi Bruce,
Sorry you have to be here, but it is a great place for info. My dad was 87 when diagnosed. He never had stent or duct issues so my question would be how much of a procedure is a stent change? My father had what was a minor surgery for a biopsy (laparoscopic entry) and he had a very hard time getting over it. It was supposed to be out patient and he had to spend the night and was sent home with a urinary catheter. Our bodies don’t bounce back at 80 like they do at 20 or even 40 or 50. He didn’t want treatment either and in hindsight, I wished I had not encouraged him to do the biopsy as the results did not really matter to him. I understand your situation is different.
Is there any drawback to waiting until the stent she has isn’t functioning as it should? It may be that her health and outlook at that time would help to determine a course of action.
I sympathize with your situation. It is very hard to accept that your parent does not want treatment. It is the first step in acknowledging the inevitable. I think that may have been the hardest time for me. Above all, respect your mother’s wishes, it will be what gets your through some of the times to come.Take care,
Jan
Hi Bruce,
Welcome to the site although I am sorry that you have to be here. And I am sorry to hear of your mums diagnosis. My dad was only 64 when he was diagnosed and his CC was deemed inoperable from dx. And he had the metal stent inserted also. From what you say about your mums age and health, if I was in your shoes then I would go for the metal stent over the plastic one. Of course, this is just my opnion and others may disagree with this.
Please keep coming back here as you will get a load of support and help from us all here. We know what you are going through right now and we can help.
My best wishes to you and your mum,
Gavin
Hello Bruce and welcome to our wonderful Family. At 83 and having Dementia then DX with CC, I don’t think I would want anything either. But the stent will make her more comfortable. I know my mom is 94 and has dementia and does not feel pain anymore! She fell and hit her head and had a golf ball size knot at the top of her forehead and said it didn’t hurt. We were amazed. Not sure about everyone else but when my husband had his stents put in he was under “twilight sleep”. I know you will get some more answers here as to whether you should keep the regular stent or go with the metal. Good luck to you and we hope for your mother to be very comfortable.
Hello Bruce and welcome to our site. I appreciate your kindness and concern for your Mom by considering her age and mental state and how to handle her illness..
This is what I know about plastic stents. They are necessary to drain the bile and they will clog at one point. Plastic stents generally need to be replaced every 60 to 90 days. This is a general rule as some people were able to do well for a bit longer. Either way, you will be looking at a replacement. My question is the following: Is the current stent to be replaced due to inefficiency of drainage of the bile? If so, then this would be a good time to change to metal. Metal stents last significantly longer although, they can also plug up. When this occurs a second metal stent can be inserted or, the present stent can be unplugged with a roter rooter type procedure.
Although, this disease can be quite aggressive by nature it is however, considered to be slow growing. Only time will tell as to how your Mom will do. I believe that it is of utmost importance that you familiarize yourself with this cancer. Knowledge is empowering and it helps us make informed decisions. This site will be of enormous benefit to you as it addresses almost every aspects of this cancer including, early onset and continuous progression. The search function also will lead you to previous discussions and threads posted by our members.
Again, I am happy that you have found us. Please, continue to put out your questions. You will receive tons of support from the great people on this site.
Best wishes,
MarionGood afternoon,
My mother is 83 and has been diagnosed with cancer in the bile duct. The first and only symptom was jaundice, they inserted a plastic stent and did a biopsy that came back positive. She’s back in the care home and doing okay.
We will be meeting with the doctor that did the biopsy on Wednesday. My mom’s memory is gone so she can’t even remember just spending a week in hospital let alone the diagnosis. She has made it clear that she doesn’t want anything extraordinary done. In fact, she doesn’t want anything done at all.
She is not a candidate for surgery and they said that chemotherapy will kill her but they do want to replace the plastic stent with a metal one. This does not strike me as an extraordinary procedure but so far mom wants no part of it. The doctors will more than likely do what I tell them to do regardless of mom’s wishes.
I’m wondering what your thoughts are on this. I have the replacement scheduled for June 24 and can always cancel or change the appointment. But based on some of what I’ve read, I guess I wonder how much it matters at this point.
My inclination is to go ahead with it since it sounds like the benefits far outweigh an hour or two of discomfort.
I guess I’m also curious how long she’s got. The statistics are pretty grim but it would be nice to see her through another Christmas. I guess the doctor will have some idea. Just rambling a bit.
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