Six of One, Half Dozen of Another...

It's been several weeks since my last update but it feels like forever. I suppose it's been a mixed bag of events. On one hand not a whole lot has happened and on another quite a bit has been going on for Krissy. And now here we are in the ER again, so I guess this is as good a time as any to tell you all what is going on.

A few quick highlights before I dive right in. We visited a fancy pants oncologist at the University of Colorado and had our hopes dashed, and were told that the Oasis treatments weren't working at all. Not exactly Hope, Love and Faith huh? Since then we've found a new oncologist here in the Springs at Rocky Mountain Cancer Center that actually supports Kris in her fight and has been a great help to us so far. She's also seeing a naturopath and acupuncturist in Denver that have been very positive forces as well. Our kids have had birthdays, I just hit my 10 year anniversary at work and there's a volcano in Iceland that I can't pronounce but looks pretty awesome in pictures, I suggest you Google it. Ok, that pretty much catches you up on the small stuff!

To start off, since Krissy's last trip to Oasis she's had a few minor complications that I can best describe as setbacks to her treatment plan and have now ballooned into serious issues. During her last trip to Mexico, she was at the very onset of developing ascites, or build up of fluid in her abdomen. The doctors there weren't sure if it was inflammation from the tumors or actual fluid, so it was a watch and wait situation until a few weeks later it was obvious it was fluid. Since ascites will continue to build up until it's drained or processed by the body, it causes some serious discomfort. Basically, Kris felt like she was pregnant again. So last month she had a procedure to drain it where they pulled just over two liters from her body.

Just after this we had new CT scans done and the results were good and semi-bad. The good, very good in fact, is that her tumors have only shown slight growth since her initial scans from last October. This is amazing news for what was supposed to be a fast growing, aggressive cancer. The downside is that this marginal growth has blocked her bile duct and has given her a nice orange tint. The jaundice has caused her liver functions to elevate and this isn't a good thing, so they need to stent her bile duct open and get those juices flowing again. Here's where we have run into complications.

This takes us back to the ascites. After the initial draining she felt better for about a week until the fluid came back. There was even more fluid build up this time and she was very uncomfortable, so her doctors decided to place a catheter in her abdominal wall so she could drain herself, in the hopes of making the stent surgery easier.

Did I mention we've had a few complications? So in a normal person, a stent can be placed in the bile duct during an endoscopy, they just go down into your stomach and slide the stent in. However, our girl Krissy has had the equivalent of gastric bypass surgery so the pathway from the stomach straight to the bile duct has been cut off. In order to access it now they'll have to go in through her side with a needle, just above the liver, and insert the stent into the bile duct this way. It's trickier, and involves leaving a drain tube in her side until it heals. Unfortunately, her ascites is holding this procedure up, as the constant filling/draining of her abdomen can cause the stent to leak and lead to some serious infections and pain. During all of this mess, Kris has felt like crap and has dropped to about 80 pounds. Complicated, right?

This convoluted mess leads us to the ER tonight. She's been self draining the fluid and last week pulled three liters out. I'm amazed that any person, especially someone as small as Krissy, can be carrying around that much excess fluid. I can't imagine what that feels like for her. Well, just after draining she started to experience some excruciating pain in her stomach that radiated all the way up to her shoulders. After a few reluctant pain killers, she was able to sleep. We called the doctors and they wanted to see what was going on, so we spent last Thursday at Memorial while they observed a drain and determined that when the fluid level in her abdomen gets low the catheter is suctioning up against her intestines and causing all that horrible pain. They gave her some new guidelines to follow while draining and sent us on our merry way. Tonight she drained off two more liters, trying to go slowly as they recommended, and she felt fine until about ten minutes after she was done. Then the pain kicked back in, even worse this time, and was so intense painkillers weren't getting through. She could barely breathe, so with Krissy's folks at the house I called 911. This is probably the scariest situation we've faced yet.

And here we are, Kris and I, in the ER waiting to be admitted to the hospital. I have some frustrations with the doctors as I sit here and play Dr. Google, but I'll have to write those up in another post. For tonight, all I ask is that they give my baby some relief and help us sort this situation out so she can get back to kicking ass. Keep the prayers and good vibes coming our way, every bit you send is hugely appreciated.