A question from my sister

Hi Julia,

Thanks for the update on Susan, and I’m glad to hear that her GP has referred her to the onc and that she has an app next Monday instead of in November.

My dad also had a metal stent and back in April of last year, he was having problems that sound pretty much the same as Susan is having right now. He had the yellowing of the eyes back, urine had changed colour and he was in a bit of pain and was also sleeping an awful lot. He got an emergency app with a GP and he contacted the hospital but they didn’t admit him. He saw his specialist very soon after that, had blood tests and a CT scan and the results came back good, no spreading or blockage of the stent that could be seen. And the jaundice cleared up just as suddenly as it had came on, so we also put that down to a sludgy stent that had sort of just unsludged itself.

As Marion has said, stents can be cleaned out or second smaller stents inserted into them. I think it might be Andie’s dad that had that done quite recently if I recall correctly.

Please let us know how Susan gets on on Monday and I will keep my fingers crossed for some good news.

Best wishes to you both,

Gavin

Julia….I recall your sister being fitted with a metal stent. Although, plastic stents are much more prone to clogging in a much shorter time span metal stents also accumulate sludge. Some members reported of a “cleaning” of the metal stent with a rotor rooter type procedure whereas, others spoke of a second metal stent inserted in to the existing stent. There also has been mention of a plastic stent inserted in to the metal stent. Stents serve a great purpose however, as most things they are not unproblematic. Metal stents however, have a much better shelf-life (so to speak) than the plastic version. I would push for an earlier appointment. Your sister will feel tons better.
Best wishes,
Marion