sharon
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My husband has two biliary drains. They have been in since the beginning of May. One had to be replaced three times–and now is finally working as it should. The first time, I couldn’t flush the drain, the saline solution would come right back out, the second and third time it was leaking. A bigger drain was put in, and it has been working well since. His second drain had to be replaced two weeks ago, because it was leaking. Right now things seem to be working OK. We are keeping our fingers crossed.
We were apprehensive at first, but this is now our new normal. We have found that there are times the drains are not draining well, sometimes one drains, and the other doesn’t. Not quite sure why this happens–but eventually it all evens out.
Good luck with the procedure. I know in my husband’s case it is the only thing keeping his bilirubin numbers down.
Thanks for all the responses. I appears we will probably get one of the drains replaced this week. We are lucky, my husband has no sign of infection, the drain is still working, but it leaks. My biggest concern is the potential problems having to his skin. I have been using tagaderm to cover the drain, but I fear that changing it every day will eventually cause problems with his skin. Hopefully, with a little tweaking, we will get this drain operating as it should. It took three tries with his other drain. Thanks for all the help and support. Just when we get a new “normal”, something else seems to pop up. I feel so inadequate, as I really do not know how to deal with many of these issues. But we are learning………..
Xeloda is the only chemo my husband has had. After a successful resection in March, he had Xeloda in conjunction with radiation, followed by Xeloda alone. When he was offered the Xeloda post radiation, the oncologist told us that there was no evidence that Xeloda would help, but they would offer. He did the chemo, and just got his post chemo scan results-at this time, there is no active cancer. January 26 will be the one year anniversary of his diagnosis–stage 4.
My husband had surgery in March 2014. Following surgery, he had radiation with Xeloda. After 5 weeks of radiation, he had a little break, and then Xeloda alone. He tolerated it pretty well, although toward the end of his treatment he developed hand/foot syndrome–his hands and feet were very sensitive, skin on his fingers wanted to split, and bottom of his feet experienced peeling. He frequently lotioned his hands and feet with a good quality lotion–this helped immensely. Other than sensitive hands/feet, he didn’t really experience any other side effects. He just finished his last round in mid-December.
Thank you both Peter and Joyce for the helpful information.
I am reading everyones story and gathering as much info as I can. I will have a better idea of how my mother is doing when I visit her in a week. She tells me she is feeling good, but has lost 4 pounds in the last 2 weeks. Is this normal when you start chemo (Gemzar) Does anyone have any diet suggestions?
Thank you again
Sharon
