Well, I thought there wouldn't be much to report, as I was really just expecting a few hours for the chemo and then going home, but I ended up spending more than 8 hours at the hospital today.
I got the epirubicin injection, which went fine, but because I have had all this pain on my right side, it was arranged for me to get some more blood work done to check my bilirubin levels, which have actually come down (I am surprised by that), and then to go to interventional radiology to have my biliary drain checked out.
So down in interventional radiology they injected a marker into my capped-off external bile drain and saw (on the lcd screen which I could see nicely showing up my sad damaged biliary tree) that my internal drain had blocked off - it was no longer flowing through the right drain down towards my bowels. So since the doctor was there anyway, and I was on the table ready to go we decided to just go for a tube change right then to replace the internal stent (still a size-10 I believe) and also the external drain.
The procedure was short, but unfortunately brutally painful. I didn't have any prep of extra painkillers (although I am on a light dose for the tumour in general), and no sedative or anything, so I was sweating and gritting my teeth. But I made it through the other side obviously, and most importantly, he got it done, and also managed to do it without knocking out the left drain (which was a significant risk apparently). So, I am very glad we did it, and I hope that it will eventually relieve all the pain from the side I have been having. At least for as long as it continues to work.
I now have to flush it twice daily with saline which is presumably something I should have been doing these last 3 weeks since getting it internalized in Vancouver. When I left Vancouver it was capped off without the valves that I have now, so I guess they were just hoping it wouldn't get blocked during the 5 weeks before the suggested scheduled tube change. Since I just did the tube change, I am not now due to change it again for 3 months... well, unless something else goes wrogn.
Anyway, on the chemo -> nausea front, I feel good so far, I am hungry and eating, but taking stemetil (prochlorperazine) just in case anyway. I am optimistic that I can avoid puking this week.
