Metal stents blocked
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Varun,
How is your mom doing? I hope she is much better.
I had another blood test last week and this week I had another CT scan.
The doctor is suppose to call me tomorrow and let me know what she thinks of the results and if she will start chemo now or wait another month. I have an appointment the 3rd of May with Dr. Demanes from UCLA who does brachytherapy. He will let me know at that time if he thinks it would be a treatment for me or what he can suggest. I am thinking of asking the doctor if I have to have chemo, what she thinks of Xeloda. I may have misspelled it, but it is an oral chemo. Did your mom ever have it?
Best wishes,
TheresaTheresa,
Thanks! Mum is feeling much better now. She’s had permanent metal stents all the time (mesh expandable type), she’s never had any other type of stents, and it did last for 18 months (jan 2008 was the first stenting, the second was in july 2009). The approx time they say for the stents is 8-10 months, but it all depends upon the growth of the tumor and other factors (biliary sludge, granulation tissue, strictures, etc), so you can never say!
Mum had a CA-19-9 blood test almost 2-3 yrs back (3 months after diagnosis), and it was totally normal and within range. My doc says those kind of tumor marker tests for cc are not reliable, so they can’t be used for any kind of diagnosis for cc, they are very high in some people and absolutely normal in others (like my mum).
Best wishes to you!
Varun
Varun,
I hope your mom is feeling much better after being home. Thank you for the information about brachytherapy that your Mom had. I am waiting for an appointment with the doctor that does this procedure to see if I might be able to have it. I don’t know what kind of stent your mom has been getting but I didn’t think the metal stents lasted 18 months. Maybe, she had a different kind. I was told that the mesh wall stent {metal} that I have should last 8 to 10 months. I have had it 9 months and I hope it will last much longer. How high is your mom’s cancer count CA-19-9 blood test?
Best wishes to you and your mom.
TheresaHi Theresa,
My mum did have brachytherapy after the second stenting, as far as the usefulness of it is concerned, I really don’t know for sure. The stent got blocked again after just 9 months after the brachytherapy, whereas the initial stent lasted for 18 months when she had chemo (gemox). We expected it to last much longer, but maybe it did help and the stent would have gotten blocked even sooner if not for that, I have no idea!
They say that brachytherapy is targeted therapy and it really helps since it provides a high dose of radiation in that area killing everything there, I’m not sure if it helped my mom, but maybe it did.
There’s no harm in giving it a try, because she didn’t have any side effects or anything at all. Also, brachytherapy is possible in only some cases when they can reach the place of the tumor, so if they can reach and provide it, you should go for it!
Let me know if you wanna know anything else.
Varun
Varun,
So glad that your mom is home and I hope she is doing better each day.
You said that she has had brachytherapy. This is an option that I have asked if I could have. Did it help your mom and how did she feel after the treatment?
Best wishes ,
TheresaHi Varun,
Glad to hear that your mum is now back home again after re-stenting and I hope that this stent stays clog free for as long as possible.
My best wishes to you and your mum,
Gavin
varun…..from what we have seen, on this board, stents clog frequently for some of the reasons you had mentioned. Generally, it is accompanied by a fever. I am glad that your Mom is feeling better and is back home.
Best wishes,
MarionHi Ashley,
Thanks for your response. My mum is back home today after a re-stenting was done again (3rd time) and her fever is off and she’s feeling fine. So i’m sort of relieved, and I have no idea about PSC, i just googled it, and the symptons were very similar, but the doc never mentioned PSC ever. So i’m really confused about that, and a differential diagnosis is impossible because biopsy from the original tumor is a very risky and difficult thing because it’s so embedded inside and is not mass-forming (at least, this is what our doc told us) so we dont have any tumor samples to distinguish cc from PSC. So i have no idea what to do now? But then, the stent getting blocked repeatedly has to be because of cc right? can it be anything else?
Hope the stent will remain unblocked for a long time! thanks for your time and support!
Varun
Hi Verun,
It sounds like your mother may also have the disease PSC? it is known for dilated bile ducts and cholanitis ( sp) or the inflamation of the ducts. PSC patients are more suceptable to cholangiocarcinoma. So maybe her symptoms relate to PSC and not the progression of the cancer. have your docs ever mentioned PSC?I agree that docs would not suggest cyber knife if the disease had terribly progressed. Keep up hope and stay strong.
AshleyHi Verun, so sorry about your Mum. We just never know how much time anyone has. The important thing is her comfort and that it sounds like the doctors are good and willing to try alternative treatments . Infections and clogged stents are part of the territory, the fact that her counts are normal is important. I really don’t believe they would be talking cyber knife if they felt she didn’t have a chance. I truly hope the cyber knife is put in to play, my husband had it and it is a miracle. As for external stents he had those too. Anything is good if it helps and we learn to go with the flow. Stay strong and try to take it a day at a time. Once the doctors give you answers and have a new game plan you will feel much better, honestly.
Hi everyone,
My mum starting getting fever, and wasnt going down, so we did an MRCP scan which showed diffused biliary duct dilatation on both lobes of the liver. Her metal stents are blocked supposedly due to progression of disease (although there are other reasons like granulation tissue, bile sludge,etc).. she’s already had stenting procedure done twice (2nd stent was placed inside the 1st stent after it was blocked). So docs are trying to put a third stent inside, till then they’ve put catheters to drain the bile. She hasn’t had any fever since the time they started draining the bile.
Mum’s starting to lose weight, (she”s lost abt 5-6 kgs) and her stools are white, n this happened last before her bypass surgery (connecting liver and intestine) when her bilirubin levels were 14. This time her bilirubin is just 2.5, and other enzymes are not so high, then why is she getting all these symptons again? There’s no itching, which she had before.
We are looking at cyberknife treatment now (PDT for cc isn’t available in India, so thats the last option), she already had brachytherapy and chemo (gemox).. wht shud i expect next? suppose the stents get blocked again, she’ll only be left with external drains. Is the end near? I feel so terrible, so lost, and so hurt, her cancer is only locally advanced and no other lesions or mets anywhere.. is this it?
Varun
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