newly diagnosed with cc
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Vincent…so glad to hear that your Mom is feeling better now that the external drainage in in place. I assume for Feb. 9th to be the day for another scan. Please, keep us posted. I bet that your are happy to have your finals behind you?
Sending tons of good wishes your way,
MarionHello,
sorry for updating late but I just finished my final. Anyway, mom had her chemo combo of oxaliplatin, 5-fu-, and leucovorin. She also had the external drainage to remove her bilirubin on Thursday. She was in pain that day but feeling much better now. She has been scheduled to come back on Feb 9th.Hi Caroline, my husband had Cyber knife AFTER a Whipple surgery to remove tumor from bile duct valve. The cancer returned where the duodenum used to be and that is where the CK was used. Where is your Aunt’s tumor? If CK can be used it is miraculous.
Hi- My aunt has a tumor in the bilary duck and has to have the outside stents
I have some questions
1. have anyone had SRBT (cyber knife) to sprink the blockage in the bilary duct?2. anyone getting treatment in Portland Oregon with Dr. Martin Fuss
3. has anyone had success in eliminating the outside stent and there tumor skrinking
Thanks Caroline
Vincent – Hopefully, I’m too late in responding and your mom’s BR levels have come down, but from what I was told at the Mayo Clinic it’s often common for BR levels to jump after a stent placement – especially if the test was run that day or the the day after. My BR levels were fine before getting a stent for my gall bladder and then after it’s placement, they jumped to over 3.0. It took a few days for them to come back down as the gall bladder drained and things got back to normal.
Please let us know the outcome. I’m interested to see if the levels drop naturally.
-JohnThanks for the info Mary. I think they’ll drain the bilirubin out first b4 starting chemo. The dr. knows that it has to be under certain level to start it. Anyway, I’ll have my brother to ask the dr. El Khoeri then. I guess the only way to tell now is to do a scan to see if the metal stent slipped out.
Hi Vincent,
That is bery puzzling because her bili should be coming down. That exact thing happened to my husband last Oct. He went in to have a stent put in (plastic) and his bili was 3.4. Four days later he was extremely ill and admitted to the hospital with his bili at 9+. The stent had slipped out of place and was actually blocking the ducts. I would definitely question your Dr about that.I don’t know any thing about metal stents. We’ve always dealt with plastic and will continue to do so. I hope they clear up whatever is going wrong because your Mom could get pretty sick if they don’t.I’m actually surprised they are going ahead with chemo. I believe most people on here have had to wait for the bili to come down before they are given chemo.It seems like that would put a lot of stress on her body. I’m sorry you are having ro deal with all of this. It must be very hard for you and your Mom. It gets hard for me to deal with sometimes and I’m 52 so I can’t imagine what you are going through, but your are a wonderful son! Take care and best wishes for your Mom. Hopefully things will clear up soon!
MaryHi Vincent. Sorry to hear your mom’s BR count is rising. Not sure the stent helps the BR as I thought the BR was a sign the cancer is there. The stent is more for relief of bile build up. Maybe someone can give you a better answer but I also wanted to say it must be so hard to concentrate on tests with everything you are going through, but you sound like the kind of man who will not only get it done, you will come out on top. Good luck to you and to your mom, especially!
Bad news, today mom went to see Dr. El-khoeri again and had her lab drawn and her bilirubin went up to 7.4 now. I’m worried because I was expecting her bilirubin level to go down after getting the metal stent. The thing that frustrated me more was her bilirubin was 3.1 the day before that. I don’t know what happened. Dr. El Khoeri will have mom to start chemo on Tue with the 5 FU and oxiplatin (my brother told me). They’ll try to drain some of her bilirubin out prior to that. Tomorrow they’ll make a “pic placement” for her. According to my brother, a pic placement is a line where they’ll transfuse the chemo.
Too bad for me that final is coming next Thurs and class is very busy at this point so I can’t really go with mom to the hospital. Maybe I can go with her next week when we have 1 day off to prepare for the final.Great to hear, Vincent. Tomorrow, after your Mom has rested, she will feel better, yet. Waiting to hear from you after the visit with Dr. Elkhoeri.
Take care.
MarionHello,
Mom got her stent done today and yeah, one of the old stent was shifted a bit but i guess everything is ok now. I wasn’t with mom at the clinic. My bro took her and the doctor didnt tell him much. I guess we’ll find out from dr. Elkhoeri what the GI dr told him.
She was a lil weak when she got home but resting now. I was so nervous today after my class though. I had a flashback from wat happened last time so i was scared till mom got home ok.vincent….Many of your questions will be answered tomorrow, after the completion of the ERCP. By perusing other postings on this board you will notice the frequency of clogged and infected stents. The metal stents are larger and less problematic if, as I have been told, a resection is not contemplated, in the future. Metal stents are larger in diameter therefore, they have a tendency not to clog as frequently and if they do, a
Hello,
Mom finally get an appointment for ERCP (metal stent) tomorrow at 12 pm with Dr. Krieger (referred by dr. ElKhoeuri). She’s currently in USC hospital to treating with antibiotic. They’re just afraid there might be an infection with the old stent that caused her the fever. She had mild fever past few days but went away after taking tylenol.
So the bilirubin was 4.7 on Thursday as I posted a couple days ago. The ultra sound that was done on the same day showed that her bile duct actually dilated (when it should be shrinking). However, the ultra sound could only picked up one stent but not the other (2 stents were inserted back then) and they were suspecting it might be out of its place. Also, after getting 2 units of blood last MOnday, her blood level was 11.2 but it dropped to 9.1 last nite and 8.5 this morning. They’ll do a stool test find out why it dropped so fast. They’ll be giving her 2 units of blood again later.
Those are the bad news. However, her bilirubin went down to 3.7 last nite and 3.1 this morning. The doctors couldn’t tell why it dropped. I told them mom was on chinese herbal for about a week so I hope it’s actually working. The doctors said they were hoping so too since mom wasn’t on any medication at all to treat that. I’m very curious about these things happened (bile duct dilated and bilirubin went down). I’m praying that it’s the herbs that did the work
They’ll see if they could get a GI doctor to do the ERCP for her at USC so we don’t have to take her to dr. Krieger (in Santa Monica). The reason why they dont’ have a GI doctor to do ERCP at USC now is because the doctor that did it b4 just move to Illinois and now they’re trying to hire a permanent doctor instead of having staff from other places to come to USC and do the work.
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