Signs of Improvement

Prayer works. Yesterday Michelle had her 5th ERCP since the beginning of this journey, and the plan was to replace the plastic stents installed on January 5 with larger metal stents to reduce the chance of blockage. However, when they removed the old stents and took a look at the condition of her bile ducts, they were surprised to find the blockages much improved. So much improved, in fact, that they decided to place new plastic stents and hold off on the permanent metal ones for now. They want to see her again in 8 weeks to refresh these stents and re-evaluate her condition. This is really good news because it seems to indicate that the chemo is working. And, we believe, it also means all the prayers are working.

At the same time, Michelle's day-to-day physical condition has been not so hot. Due to the chemo, her blood counts (both red and white cells) are low and getting lower. Her hemoglobin, which is a measurement of the oxygen carrying capacity of her blood, has started dropping again after being relatively stable since early December. On Thursday she completed her 7th of 14 radiation treatments, and the impact on her energy levels is significant. She is close to exhaustion all the time, and we have to be diligent with pain and nausea medications to keep those side effects under control. We're really glad we have the pulse oximeter on hand to check her oxygen saturation level, because it has a tendency to drop when she gets too fatigued. She slept with the O2 turned on three times this week.

The port installed on Monday is working as advertised. She was very dehydrated on Thursday morning (blood pressure 80/60) so we took her in for hydration and they left the port "tapped" (needle in place) for Friday's procedures. They were able to use the port for all her IV needs yesterday. No more pokes!