MRI

Hey Folks,
There were some big developments last week, and I'm sorry I haven't posted lately, but it's been pretty busy here.  So, we went to Brown Cancer Center on Wednesday for Marye's scheduled chemo treatment, but we had to talk to the oncologist about the activities from the previous week.  Marye still had quite a bit of pain in her side, i.e. the oxycodone was not working.  Even though she was taking every four hours.  But, prior to her chemo, she took the usual steroids, and actually had some relief from the pain.

So after kicking it around with Dr. Riley, she decided to get an MRI of Marye's liver before she would give her a chemo treatment.  She doesn't know what is causing the pain, but the fact that the steroids relieved it led her to believe that it's some kind of inflammation.  Also, with the new lesions showing up on the last two CT scans, she wants to get a better handle on what the cancer is doing.  The plan is to see the MRI, then decide if it's time to change chemo drugs.

She also gave her a new pain medication that's not a narcotic, but a strong analgesic, and put her on a low-dose steroid.  Well, Marye is feeling much better due to all of this.  The steroids are giving her a good boost of energy, without the side-effects that steroids can cause, and the pain is there, but not too bad.  Anyway, she's much happier now, and actually drove her own car for the first time in 4 1/2 months.  They did the MRI on Friday, so we don't have the report yet, but we're scheduled to go back on Thursday to find out and get the chemo.  Again, the oncologist will make a decision on whether to change the chemotherapy when she sees the MRI report.

So, until then, it should be fairly quiet.  Hope everyone is having a nice holiday season, and you'll hear from me on Thursday or Friday of this week.

-Chris

Undermedicated

Well, after two days in the hospital and several tests, the doctors couldn't find one thing wrong with Marye.  Aside from the cancer in her liver, they said she looks as healthy as anyone.  There is no infection, her gall bladder looked ok, the stent was in the right spot, etc.  But she still had a fair amount of pain in her side.

So, they figured the pain could be from the tumor doing something in the liver, or even just irritation from the ERCP.  Anyway, we started talking about pain management, and it came out that she really hasn't taken enough pain meds to give them a chance to work.  She's been taking an oxycodone every night and it hasn't really helped.  But according to the docs, you really need to take it more often so it stays on board and can build up in her system.  So that's what she's doing.  Taking an oxy about every four hours or so, and she seems to feel a little better already.  This will be the plan until Wednesday when she sees her oncologist and maybe we can get to the bottom of the pain issue.

It seems a little wasteful that she spent two nights in the hospital, but really, we're glad that she got checked out.  She has a high tolerance for pain in general, and this is a new development.  So, if she's complaining of pain, I take it seriously.  But everything looks ok and she is pretty healthy, considering.

I'll post again after her chemo treatment on Wednesday.

-Chris

New trouble

So, there's some new stuff going on that we didn't anticipate.  After Marye's ERCP last week to replace the stent, she's had a pretty severe sharp pain in her side that she really couldn't explain.  She at first thought that it might have been some irritation from the procedure, but it didn't go away, and in fact, it continually got a little worse as time went by.  It was also much different than the pancreatitis she had after previous procedures, in that it didn't make her nauseas and it wasn't affected by her eating anything.

We called the doctor on Monday and they sent her to the hospital for some xrays and blood work, but nothing looked wrong.  There's no infection, the stent looks good, all the blood work is normal.  So yesterday, she got admitted to Norton's to try to figure it out.  There are only a few things that can cause pain in the abdomen like this, including pancreatitis and cholecystitis, an inflammation of the gall bladder, but again, the symptoms aren't matching.  Also, the tumor is continuing to shrink, so it doesn't seem to be anything to do with that.

She had an ultrasound today as well as a HIDA scan, which tracks the bile as it moves from the liver to the small intestine.  Apparently, it seems like the gall bladder may not be working properly, but we're still waiting for the doctor to give us his report and plan of action.  It seems like they're leaning towards removing the gall bladder, but we don't know, yet.  I'll post again when we find out what's going to happen.

This is a fast-breaking news story.  Check back often for updates.

-Chris