Another day of rest...

So, although the surgery is over, my body is still adjusting. The name of the procedure they did was ERCP, not sure what any of these initials mean, but the procedure was in the Endoscopy Center at KUMED so I figure I know what the "E"stands for. I have been really sore today and yesterday because they went into my throat in order to access the bile duct. So not only did they have a breathing tube in my throat for me, but they put the tubing through my throat, into my stomach, my small intestines, etc to get access to the blocked bile duct in the liver. Then they did some testing to ensure they knew where the blockage was. After that, they began to put the stent through my body to keep the bile duct open coming from my liver.

So, what does this all mean? Essentially, the chemotherapy turned some of my cancer into scar tissue while some of it disappeared. There is still some cancer on the liver that we need to deal with and I am not sure if we will be doing more chemo or using maintenance meds to do this. The only location that I have known tumors in my body is the liver and this chemo has been working really well on all of it. The jury is still out on whether I will resume chemotherapy. I assume if my bilirubin count is still high then we will refrain from making that decision until it is back in normal range. To give you an idea of how I have felt, I probably not felt good in a week-and-a-half. Because of this blockage, every time I have eaten anything, I have been so uncomfortable. My skin turned yellowish and so did the whites of my eyes. My digestive process nearly shut down so thank God for these modern procedures that can turn things around. I am a walking experiment of science and I owe my life to modern medicines and treatments.

Since Monday, my skin is less yellow, but the whites are my eyes still have a tinge of yellow to them. I am digesting food better, thankfully! There is nothing worse than being hungry and not being able to digest food. This last weekend was the worst with me not even wanting to eat at all. However, Michael kept pushing me to eat because I had no energy. I really wanted to fast and if I had been by myself, I might have done it. But it wouldn't have done me any good. I would have had to just sleep all day.

I think the gastrointestinal surgeon wanted to put a larger stent into me so I may have to wait a week or two and do this procedure again. I am not sure what my oncologist will think of all of this. I will see him tomorrow for a maintenance treatment and he will either weigh in his final decision on chemotherapy or wait. My thinking is he will wait until I have the more permanent stent put in to make that decision. For those of you who aren't used to oncologists, they are the most cautious of doctors...often weighing in a multitude of opinions before actually making a decision.

Regardless, they deemed me stable for now and I am thankful. I know I can do more chemotherapy if they want me to...and if my doctor wants me to do it, then I will. No questions asked. However, I do wonder when I will have freedom from this disease. I do wonder when having made all the "right" decisions...all the "hard" decisions will pay off? My goal from the very beginning was to make good decisions so this disease wouldn't be chasing me down, yet I still seem to be racing with it. I wasn't supposed to get this disease and even when I did, my doctors told me I was stage I or stage II. Thank God, I am paranoid and got a second opinion because I was stage IV! And, knowing that from the beginning has made all the difference in my prognosis.

So, once again, my friends I am going to encourage you all to take charge of your health. It may seem like I am in a pickle of a situation, but I didn't do anything wrong to get here and I have been in relentless pursuit of good health for as long as I can remember. And it is because of these things that we have had good treatments, such as this chemo, in our arsenal of weapons. We have choices and they are amazing choices.

I know my life will get back to normal where my energy will resume and I can get on the bike. I just have to be patient for now and wait on my healing from this minor complication AND the verdict on my chemo. I guess each of us only have the day we are currently in so I will try not to wait to begin life when I know more. I will do what I can right now so if that means rest, then I will be the best "rester" possible.

Blessings,
Lolo