After all the trouble of the cancer center and the Gastrointestinal office getting through to each other, I was afraid the procedure wouldn't get done. So yesterday morning I called the Gastro office my self.
She told me she left two or three messages at the cancer center needing more info and they never responded, so she said give me 1 to 1 1/12 hours and I will see what I can do. She called back an hour and a half later and said to go to the hospital and the Doctor will do the procedure!
So the doctor comes to talk to me before the procedure, he was really a very nice and down to earth person. He went over everything that he thought would or could happen in detail, spending about a half hour with me before the procedure. He tells me he only had my last two ERCP reports and the abdominal MRI that was done in December. But from reviewing them he told me he did not think I would need the Endoscopic Ultra Sound that the Vanderbilt specialist called for. If you remember from an earlier blog, she said the blockage didn't seem to come from the liver but from below the bile duct. He said I don't understand why the other GI in December put the stint in that he did, and then had to remove it because it didn't work. He told me, what I would like to do if you agree is put a permanent stint in which would be a little larger than the bile duct itself , and that the bile duct would become a part of it growing between the mesh, making it a permanent part. But there could still be a chance of clogging, but the least chance by using that type of stint, and that if needed it would not interfere with being cleaned out if it became necessary. And he said depending on what he found he may put in more than one stint.
So off I go to the surgery room. The anesthesiologist was also so kind and reassuring, kept telling me he would be there the whole time. So there I am in the surgery room and the next thing I know, Goodnight, lights out. I was gone! When I woke up in recovery he came over and spent at least another half hour going over all he did and diagramming it for me. So this is what he found. First off he told me he was going to use a camera small enough to get up into where the bile duct branches off to the other ducts, which the other GI said he did, but couldn't really see anything because of the mucus. Well what he found was one of the tumors in the liver was the culprit in causing the mucus in one of the smaller ducts, yes it was from the liver, so much for the specialist at Vanderbilt. He put a stint in where the leakage was to keep that open and then another not far from that. So altogether he put in three stints. He cleaned it all out really good and took plenty of pics of it all! He was going to call the Oncologist to have me referred to a Radiation Oncologist to see if it would be possible to do localized radiation on that tumor. He said it wouldn't have any affect on life expectancy, but would help alleviate the problem and bring more comfort to me. So know I have to wait to here about that. He also said there was some puss in there also, so he put me on two antibiotics that are high doses twice a day for five days. Now my question is, this was all done as an outpatient procedure, so why all the other times did I have to spent 5 days in the hospital at $300.00 a day co-pays? Hum! So happy I found this guy and my new Primary Care Doctor. I told him my Oncologist said it wasn't the cancer making me tired, and he had no idea why I was so fatigued. The New GI looked at me like I was crazy and said, why would he say that? Of course it's the cancer along with the bile duct and everything else going on, just as the primary care told me! He asked me if I was still eating and I said yes, it might sound weird, but I cannot or have no desire to eat a lot of things I was eating, and he said that it wasn't weird, it is one of the signs of the cancer. So far a blessing! Very knowledgeable, and patient, taking his time to make sure I understood everything.
I asked him if he came across this type of problem often. He said it was common, but he had never seen one with such thick mucus and as bad as mine was. I laughed to myself thinking, well it took over a month to get any action! He said my bile duct was swollen about as big around as his thumb. The normal size is 4.1 mm. where as mine was about 15 mm!
Okay, consider yourself updated! thanks for checking on me, stay tuned, more drama to follow, lol! Blessings to you all, thanks so much, Mike P.
P.S. My friend in Louisiana who gave me the courtesy checkup and was responsible for the cancer being discovered, Judi, set up this Gofundme to help us out with medical bills if anyone would like to donate, by all means, but if you cannot afford to, do not do it or feel you have to, a prayer and a share would mean just as much. Prayers go a long way!
