The Liver Stent for Bile Backup

The Liver Stent

As mentioned before, the tumor was wrapped around Mathew’s bile duct and had invaded the liver. The stent was to relieve the backup and allow the bile to either drain outside of his body or into his small intestines.

There are different ways the stent can be put in depending on the situation so I won’t get into a big explanation of what it is and how it works right now.

At this point, these are some of the things we knew, were focusing on, and dealing with each day:

• they had narrowed the type of cancer to a small blue round cell cancer.
• the tumor is fixed and non-moving.
• Damen Reed from the Sarcoma clinic was the oncologist.
• Mathew’s leg pain kept increasing.
• constant fear of a blood clot.
• edema in legs, genitals, and fluid in his lungs.
• his body was full of toxins.
• Mathew was stressed and filled with anxiety.
• extreme pain in his legs, knees, spasms in his back, difficulty sleeping.
• at times his body was very hot.
• there was mention of “palliative chemo.” I’m glad that at the time, I didn’t realize the implications of that suggestion.
• we were meeting all the different members of what was becoming Mathew’s team, which consisted of different types of doctors, the Chaplain, social workers, youth group and more.

After the stent was in place, Mathew complained it was very painful. Not surface pain at the incision but deep pain. 

This picture was taken shortly after it was in place. You can see how distended his belly is, that is fluid build up and the tumor.

The yellowish tube you see, is the drainage from the stent, going into an external bag. You can also see the pic line on Mathew's arm which was done at the Zephyrhills Hospital. It will eventually be replaced with a port. 

Different types of visitors are good for the soul.

Mathew’s friend Brooke came and stayed with him and his brother-in-law Dan but eventually long visits would still need one of Mathew’s main caregivers (myself, Diane and Arpie) to be on hand, because of the nuances of any changes in condition.