Jan 30th - Feb 7th - Pain & Drain's

1/30/12 - Sunday

Michael (my brother) and family visited around 3pm as Kathy & I were leaving. Mom was waiting to hear if they were going to do her surgery the next day.

1/31/12 - Monday

9am - I was there when mom went into surgery to have a drain put in the bile duct on the left side of her liver. Dr said they will install the stent in a few days after the drain has removed as much bile as possible.

Mom came back to her room in a lot of pain around the drain exit site on her right side. 

8pm - oncologist stopped by, Dr Norikanda, to check on mom. She explained that they have now classified mom's cancer as Cholangiocarcinoma. At this time it does not appear to have metastasized.

2/3/12 - Friday

1pm - they installed her portacath and on her right side. She has fever again since coming back from surgery.Doc wants her on 10 consecutive days of antibiotics starting from 1/30/12 before they will consider her going home.

2/7/12 - Tuesday

My morning started at 6:30 when I had to get ready for my day surgery on my sinus'. Surgery was at 8:30am and Joanna had me back at home around 11am. I called mom on the way home and she said they have her schedule for surgery around noon. I rested until mom called and said she was on her way downstairs to surgery. Joanna and I got back in the car and made it to the hospital before mom went into surgery at 1pm.

They removed the drain tube and inserted a stent in her left bile duct. The Dr said he had a time getting it in there because of the tumor. They used the portacath for both blood and IV with success.  Joanna and I waited in mom's room for her to get out of surgery. She was in some pretty bad pain.  Jo was a trooper running me around and hanging with me at the hospital with mom. Thanks Jo!

January 26th & 27th - Going to the Hospital

1/26/12 - Thursday 

Dr Isa calls Mom and says he wants to direct admit to the hospital at 5pm. 

Mom and Dad go to the hospital around 4:30 and gets her checked in.

They put mom on NPO after 12 midnight because of the tests that they have

ordered.
 
1/27/12 - Friday

Test day! 
1am - lower GI
1pm - pelvic sonogram
2pm upper GI endoscope 
5pm abdominal MRI
At 6:30, Mom is finally eating... Boy, is she ever happy, even if it is 

fish. LOL

January 25th

1/25/12 - Wednesday 

Oncologist appointment - Dr. Muhammad Isa
Dr. Isa was very nice, but also concerned when he examined mom. 

In less than 24 hours, she went totally jaundice. She literally 

looked like a yellow smurf. He explained that if he had to put 

a time limit on what he thought she would have, he said that 

left untreated she had 3-6 months. The doctor wanted to do blood 

labs to check her liver function. If her liver function has 

decreased significantly she will be hospitalized. He said that

he would be calling her once he got the blood test results.

Mom had a chest CT and bloodwork before we left. 
 

Jan 6th through Jan 19 - The Beginning

1/6 - Friday

Mom goes to ER with abdominal pain. They do a CT scan and tell her there 

is a spot on her liver and they want to schedule a Biopsy. They schedule 

the biopsy for the following Tuesday 1/11/12.
 
1/11/12 - Tuesday

Mom & I go to JPS for the biopsy of her liver. She has a hard time awaking

from the anesthesia and a lot of pain. It takes us 4 hours from when we got 

there till we left. Biopsy staff tells her that she needs to get an 

appointment with Oncology. They try calling while she's there, but you

leave a message and they call you back.

 
1/13/12 - Thursday 

Mom has appt with Neurologist, previously scheduled to check up on her 

Myasthenia Gravis, which has been in remission for 20 years. Neurologist 

pulls her ER info from the previous week and mom learns that when the 

ER told her it was a "spot" it was really a tumor. Mom tells the 

Neurologist that she doesn't like her medical issues to be sugar coated, 

to just give it to her straight up. Mom tells the neurologist 

that she's been trying to contact oncology and has left messages but 

hasn't gotten a call back. The Neurologist faxes a referral to Oncology & 

her an appointment with a liver specialist for 1/19. The neurologist tells 

her that her biopsy results should be ready on Monday and that her primary 

doctor will tell her the results.
 
1/16/12 -  Monday

Mom has an appointment with her regular physician that morning. Her dr is 

shocked when mom tells her whats been going on since their last visit. 

Her doctor had to check mom's record twice but finally receives her biopsy

results. Test results classify her cancer and Adenocarcinoma. While mom 

is waiting her turn for blood lab appointment the Neurologist calls to 

make sure that she got her results. 
 
1/18/12 - Wednesday 

Oncology calls to say they've received the paperwork from the Neurologist. 

Mom tells them of the biopsy results. They put her at top of list for appt. 
 
1/19/12 - Thursday 

Mom & I go to the liver specialist appointment. Dr says he won't be too 

involved because this is not true liver cancer. He Does share with us the 

actual pathology report that explains that the size of the tumor is large, 

it's 2"x2.5"x3"

Oncology calls when we are leaving the liver specialists office to set appt 

for 1/25 at 1:30.