The saga of the irritated stent continues. After getting another CT scan last night, the doctors see that the gall bladder is inflamed. Also, Marye has some infection in her blood, and her bilirubin level is elevated, so they're going to do another ERCP to replace the stent. She's currently on IV antibiotics, so the infection should remain under control, but it's another procedure that she's going to have to get through, with all of the complications that go along with it, i.e. pancreatitis.
Dr. Riley said that her pathologist looked at the last two CT scans and he also believes it's not breast cancer, so the core biopsy is next on the list to get a good diagnosis. Then we can talk about treatment. I'm afraid, though, at the rate things are going, that is still at least a week away. The good news is that the tumor doesn't seem to have grown since the first CT scan in early August, and when they do finally get around to the chemo, it will track down and kill any errant cancer cells that are floating around.
Speaking of that, I asked Dr. Riley about the possibility of doing radiation until Marye is strong enough to start chemo. She said that it's really not the best option, since the lymph nodes around the liver are also active, so even though it's still localized, it's not small enough for radiation to be effective. Chemo is the way to go on this.
I'll post again after she has the ERCP to replace the stent. Hopefully that will be today. Tomorrow at the latest.
-Chris
