I think I got the message out today that I'm not really going to recover from this. However, I do plan to get healthier than I am and enjoy whatever time I have left. One hope for improvement is to put a stent in my bile duct which we hope will get rid of nausea and indigestion. They wheeled me down for that this morning. Between the morphine and whatever anaesthetic they gave me down there, I don't remember much except some strange stuff was in my mouth and the room swayed a lot.
They put a camera tube down my throat and used x-rays to guide a smaller piece of tubing (i.e. the stent) down through my esophagus and stomach and into the small intestine. They tried to stick the stent up through the bile duct towards the liver. However the pressure of the tumour on the bile duct was so strong that the tube could not be forced through the duct and eventually they gave up and pulled it all out. So no points for the good guys today.
They want to try again, hopefully tomorrow, using a more surgical method in which they will cut a hole for the stent so that it will go in for sure.
This may also delay my consultation with the chemotherapy specialist and my return home unless they can do more than one of those in a day. I did have a visit from a palliative care team. I know that term sounds depressing but they do seem to have several ideas to make my life more comfortable.
Anne was here waiting when I came back from the stent attempt. Marilyn Keene (from Westben) drove her today. Barb Kirkham (retired from CDHS) and Cheryl Stevenson were also here.
I forgot to mention that Terry Kirkland dropped by yesterday for a couple of hours. Terry is another teacher retired from CDHS.
I was adventurous enough to eat a slice of pizza. I may regret it in the long run but it was good and so far has stayed down. Supper seems to be staying down too.
Many thanks for all your visits, emails and other expressions of concern.
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