Is a stent placement the beginning of the end?
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Maria, stents are needed when bile is backed up. It certainly does not mean the end, just ask Margaret!! My Teddy had stents for 4 years. It is merely to help the bile flow
and of course Mom will become much more comfortable. Thanks for the update and I hope she is feeling much, much better quickly!Hi,
If patient has jaundice,stent or stents are needed to help the bile flow from the liver and out of the body. It is a relatively simple procedure and therefore you should not be worry too much.
When the bile start to flow normally,after a couple weeks you will see the jaundice subside and then at that time try to get the RFA done as soon as possible before the bilirubin go back up again.If the stents are plastic ,they may be needed to replace every 2-3 month for keeping the bile flows normally;that means your best TIME FRAME for RFA is the earlier part of the exchange of the stents when the bilirubin level is low.Patients can have stents and chemotherapy at the same time;some restrictions may apply to radiotherapy but not all the radiological treatment.
Gavin from UK has more experience in stents and PDT and I am sure he will talk to you soon.
It is better for patient and their caregiver for the patient to have stents rather than the external drainage of the bile. It is messy,and high in infection recurrences.
God bless.My mother had a sceduled RFA to burn the three nodes in her liver (mets from CC), which never took place, as a week before her appointment she was found with about 1,5 litre of fluid in her lungs and an apparent lung met. She was supposed to continue with her treatment after that (Gem and Cisplatin) but got jaundice and is now hospitalised for this.
She has had inflamations in her operated area (she had a successful resection in July 2010) for about 3 months now and it seems that the bile duct is now completely dysfunctional. She says the doctors have not decided yet on how to procede but she overheard them talking about stent placement – unfortunately, I can’t be with her, as I live in the UK and she is in Greece.
She has had a stent placement when first diagnosed in February 2010, before finding a surgeon to operate her and remove the stent. We were told back then that the stent means practically giving up and doesn’t give you more than 6 months.
I know that the situation was already bad but I was still hoping that the chemo could control the cancer. The stent sounds like a dreadful prospect. I’ve read posts about external drainage and I was wondering what the difference is. Also does a stent mean that the patient can no longer have chemo?
I know I should probably ask my mum’s doctors too, but I find it so much easier to understand by reading other people’s experience. Also, being so far away make things so much harder.
I was at the hospital a couple of weeks ago with my mum and overheard a patient saying in pain “these chemos have destroyed my life”! I couldn’t help but smile at this paradox but also think of all the painful paradoxes of this awful disease: hope is what keeps you going but also sometimes holds you back from dealing with death; doctors are your heroes but also the people whose sight makes you sick. No one can really understant these things, unless they have experienced this hell.
I have the utmost respect for all patients and carers, my thoughts and prayers to all of you,
maria
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