Liver Biopsy Discouraging

Today (Thursday) they will put a stent in my bile duct which at the moment is blocked by the tumour pressing against it.  Then bile and other digestive fluids can flow from the liver to the small intestine the way they are supposed to and I'll be able to digest foods better and I won't feel nauseous.  That is good news and I am glad they are doing it.

They got the result of my liver biopsy yesterday afternoon and it is not good.  The cancer has spread from the pancreas to the liver and is now deemed inoperable.  They also consider it too far gone for chemo or therapy radiation to cure.  They do hope that they can at least shrink the tumour enough so that it will stop pressing on my spine and combined with other pain relief make me feel much better at least for a while.  I will see the chemo specialist Friday.  Until then I won't know how much or how often I will have chemo.  Anne and I have been hugging more than usual.  I suppose there is the faint hope that the therapies will shrink the cancer enough that surgery becomes an option again but I think that is a faint hope.  Faint hopes are better than no hope.

Some good news is that I can get the chemotherapy in Belleville instead of Kingston.  This cuts the travel to less than half.

Another bit of bad news is that they cannot predict how long I will live.  My surgeon says to count in months rather than years.  Somehow I don't think he means 360 months when he says that.  When I suggested twenty-four months, he took that as good a guess as any but wouldn't confirm it.  So even that guess might be optimistic.  I will get a better idea when I talk to the chemo doctor, likely tomorrow.

Thank you all for your caring emails and phone calls - they do help.  This is a little scary but it will be OK.