Sorry, folks, for the delayed posting here. It was a busy weekend. We last left our intrepid patient when she was in the hospital for an infection of unknown origin. Well, she felt pretty good on Saturday afternoon after eating, but she had some roast beef (which was delicious, I have to say), but somewhat greasy and heavy. So, that didn't sit too well with her and she was up all night with a lot of pain in her belly.
Again, to make a long story short, the doctors all came in on Sunday and declared her infection to be gone. Her fever was gone, her white blood cell count was good, etc. Also, her bilirubin levels were normal, indicating that the stent is working just fine. But, she was in pretty bad shape, nutritionally. Remember, she really hadn't eaten well for about a month. Her phosphates and potassium were low, as well as some other things that we all need but don't think much about. The doctors feel that her pain is just an upset stomach that's being introduced to food all of a sudden. So they had her stay in the hospital one more day to keep her hydrated and get her nutrition back in order, then sent her home on Monday with orders to keep eating bland food for a while and slowly build her diet back up. She's also drinking Ensure to get some extra calories. Finally, they gave her some antacids-- Nexium, etc.-- and some more antibiotics to make sure the infection stays gone.
Right now, she's home and eating. She is still rather weak and feeling beaten up after spending so much time in the hospital with the IVs and what-not. Another tidbit: Marye has terrible veins, so every time the have to stick her to give her fluids or take blood, it's a battle for the IV nurse. She would make a terrible heroin junkie, unless she were to smoke it.
Anyway, aside from some acid reflux and a lot of fatigue, she's doing pretty well. We have an appointment with her oncologist on Thursday, so we'll get the treatment plan then. One thing we discussed with her GP was that since she's still pretty weak, it might be better to start radiation instead of chemotherapy right away. That way she'll get some treatment to attack the tumor without the side effects of chemo. It's easy to forget that we're still just treating the symptoms of a severely blocked bile duct, and haven't even addressed the cancer, yet. So, that's a discussion we'll have on Thursday.
Hope everyone is doing well and I'll have an update NLT this Friday.
-Chris
