Confused
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My dad just had his plastic stent changed and so far so good. He had chills and a low grade fever yesterday. We were concerned it was an infection so we called the doctor and home health care will draw some blood today to see if it is an infection. He is feeling a bit better today. He may have overdone it the day before as he went for a drive on his own with stops at two stores! This disease will give bouts of chills and fever, but we know stents are forgein to the body and can cause infection.
I read somewhere on this site water with lemon can thin bile.
Thanks Marion, I just want to get off the rollercaoster now though!
Dad has had his external drain put back on. His bile levels haven’t changed so they are hoping putting the drain back on will help. They said it’s probably due to infection.
Has this happened to anyone else and if so did they managed to cap the drain off again?
They said Dads bile is very thick. Does anyone know of any way we could make it thinner?
They have also told Dad to eat salted food due to his thick bile, not sure why?
Our main concern is staring chemo, if this continues he will never be able to start it
Andie….this disease loves to throw curveballs. Just when we think for things to go according to plan, things will change again. It is a roller coaster ride. Hang in there. I am sending all my good wishes for his bilirubin head downward. And, fast…
Best wishes,
MarionI hate stents!!!!!
Dads temperature has gone back up and so has his bilirubin levels. When I visited him today he looked very clammy but said he felt ok. He phoned tonight to say that he has got an infection and they have given him a high dose antibiotic. His blood test showed his bilirubin had gone up but they are hoping it’s due to inflammation caused by the stenting and also once the antibiotics start to work they hope his bilirubin levels will fall. They are taking his blood again in the morning. If they haven’t come down Dad said they will open up his external drain again but if it shows it’s going down he may be able to come home. I’d rather he stay in until they know it is falling continously.
Nothing seems to be going to plan, his bilirubin is higher than ever and at this rate it won’t fall enough to start chemo at the ens of the month. i feel like crying.
Hi Andie,
Glad to hear that your dad’s temp has gone down and hopefully he will be home very soon. Going back to your dads stent, perhaps the doctors did it that way because they could and that if it clogged again in the future then they would put the plastic one into the combined metal ones to unclog it? Just thinking out loud again here. Hopefully though it will behave itself this time!
Best wishes,
Gavin
Thatt is good news, Andie and a long time in coming. Fingers crossed forthisstent to behave! So glad your dad is homeward bound!!
Thanks all,
Gavin, I understand what you are saying and that sounds just like what they have done. I was just a bit surprised as was expecting a plastic tube to have been inserted has I have never read of this being done.
Dad had a bit of a temp last night but it’s ok now. He seemed fine in himself just wants to get home.
Fingers crossed this stent behaves!
Andie….I am also glad to hear that your Dad finally has been tended to. May the bilirubin continue to drop and allow him to go home.
Best wishes,
MarionHi Andie,
Glad to hear that they got your dads stent cleaned out and that he is feeling fine. Hopefully as you say he will get home tomorrow. Perhaps his doctors put another metal stent in instead of a plastic one due to the fact that they have only put part of the new stent inside the old one, and that would mean would it not that they have in effect lengthened the overall size of the area that is stented if some of the new stent is outside the old one? I don’t know if that is the case or not, just thinking out loud as it were. But if they have in effect lengthened the stent then wouldn’t that make the bile flow better as the doctors said today?
Glad to hear that the external drain has been capped, and fingers crossed that this stent works as it should!
Best wishes,
Gavin
I’m so pleased they’ve got him unblocked & cleaned out, Andie. My sister hasn’t had any problems with hers so far (fingers firmly crossed for the future, too) so I don’t know anything about the process but when she initially had a plastic stent inserted, the d***ed thing migrated up the ducts & now they can’t find it!! Maybe that’s another reason they go for the metal mesh ones if surgery isn’t currently viable?
Yay, congratulations! So glad he’s feeling better, and capping off the external drain bag is a real step forward. I hope they’ll do that with mine… someday…
Wishing you the best of luck!
Kristin
Dad has had his stent unblocked, he feels fine and aslong as the bilirubin keeps falling he may be out tomorrow.
The Doctor said the tumour had not grown and it was simply “blocked with sludge etc”. What I don’t understand is that I thought that they would have cleaned out the metal stent and put a plastic one inside. Instead they have cleaned it out and put another metal stent in (part of it sits inside his old stent). They said this should help the bile flow better. I know my Dads CC is extrahepatic and is by the “Y” part of the duct.
Dad said the temporary external drain bag was full of thick bile at first and the nurse had problems empting it. It has been capped off now. Fingers crossed the stent will work on it’s own.
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