As a quick update on the emergency visit to the Peter Lougheed Centre yesterday - I was released for the night for good behaviour.
My white blood cell count was 6 which means there was no infection. The bilirubin was normal which means the bile duct is operating just fine. My fever never came back during my six hour visit. And I learned that the fever could be attributed to pancreatic inflammation - all good news to be honest. No cholangitis, no infection.
Which means the high Lipase and Amalase Is most likely the result of something happening in the pancreatic duct. The very same duct that is obscured by the tumour that we have been so focused on.
As I have mentioned in the past this area has been a problem for the surgeons to get to, but with the high pancreas numbers and untenable pain they feel they have to go in today and do what they can.
Today I’m heading back to the Peter Lougheed for surgery at noon. I’m not going to lie, I’m nervous. And I rarely get nervous.
I look forward to waking up after the surgery (I suspect 3-4 hours) with great results, no pain, and a statement by the surgeon that the tumour really looks like it’s taken a beating recently!
And it would be really cool if he was baffled by all the unicorn sprinkles....
PS for those you that haven’t read about this procedure in past blogs here is a simple visual for you. Essentially you can think of it as an Inspector Gadget tool complete with camera, pincers etc that goes all the way down your throat, through your stomach to the duodenum all so you can mess with the pancreas.
