Photo: Ewan Nicholson
Ok that was a misleading headline, but when I went into yesterday’s meeting it was a question on the table. It’s a natural progression of the disease and I have had ringing in my ears for a month now so my brain was saying oh oh.
The good news is that this is not a way that brain cancer would show up. It’s most likely just tinnitus. So lucky me.
The bad news from the meeting with the oncologist is that the pancreatic tumour has now grown into the duodenum and is causing a blockage. This blockage is most likely the reason I’ve had two infections and a hospital stay in the last month. My Lipase is back up above 600 so there is something going on.
The scary part has always been that this area is what could be my eventual demise. The interesting part is that we always seem to find a way to patch me up, redirect some hoses, put on some duct tape and Jimmy a solution.
The last time I was in a dire situation was the internal bleeding due to the oozy tumour. (Oozy tumour). At that time we did what the Intervention Radiologist called a bit of a Lewis and Clark procedure. He had used the technique on the brain and other areas but never the long road to the duodenum. This was going to be new but was my only solution. And it was a success.
Painful but successful is a path I can buy into anytime.
I say all this with hopes that my call with Dr M the GI doc finds another solution to keep a pathway open in the duodenum. I’m visualizing spot welding another stent.
Let’s see if I can Jimmy this one too. Stand by.