Monday's updates

To update you on today, keep in mind I'm still waiting a few phone calls so this may not be the last update. We saw Dr John Mann today who works down at Louisville Encology to discuss a clinical trial that I may qualify for. They do in fact have one starting next week and it sounds like a good trial that a number of centers across the US are doing right now. It's on a small number of patients and in very early trial stages but they feel I'd be a good candidate. These clinical trials are important because we need to hope to find something that can greater help me. The regular chemo treatment would "buy" me some time but probably won't give me what I'm looking for. With all that being said, I HAVE to get my bilyrubin level down before I can qualify for any trial and unfornately we just found it is still at 10 which is high. I wasn't surprised though because I don't really feel better than last week. Basicially I'm not getting a good flow through where my pancreas and liver are. The stint we placed in the bile duct last week hasn't really worked and it should have by now. Dr Mann has referred me to a different GI surgeon to probably redo the stint and hopefully get it done this time (not get'er done). I can't wait to get this relief, pain meds are fine but it's down right annoying. We are waiting on a phone call because there's a good chance I'll be headed in to see this new doctor tomorrow to have this outpatient procedure done again. It's the ERCP thing where they stick a camera thingie down my throat all the way the down to this important intersection of everything and place a stint in there keeping the passage ways entirely opened. My main focus is getting this thing taken care of. If that still doesn't work, we'll still have a few more things to try but they start to get a little more evasive (like sticking tubes in my liver to suck stuff out). We've got a referral into MD Anderson down in Houston and are awaiting a phone call back from them. This still looks like this is what we are leaning towards but that's a lot to say without actually speaking to someone there yet. We'll fill you in once we know what is going on tomorrow. I'm glad this trial is available that I mentioned above includes Louisville but we have to tell them whether we are in by next Monday so timelines aren't fun. Again, just pray that we and my doctors receive the wisdom to make some good decisions.
Craig