Elizabeth is recovering nicely

Elizabeth had her procedure done today. While everything did not go as expected, she is feeling much much much better now that some of the bile has been drained.

Originally, it was planned that Elizabeth would have the cholangiogram (injecting the liver ducts with dye, and watching it on x-ray to find the blockage problem), and then have the stent(s) placed where the cholangiogram indicated it was necessary immediately following. After Elizabeth spiked a rather high fever of 40.4C (that's about 104F) at the hospital waiting for the procedure, it was then decided that we were possibly looking at infected bile fluid. Putting a stent in while infection is present is not good. Once the radiologist was able to drain some of the fluid out, and it looked like infection to him, he decided to put in drains to help open the ducts and be able to drain the infection out. As Elizabeth's antibiotics help the infection clear, and her body starts to heal, she will become a candidate for the stent(s) to be placed. For now, she will have her two bile duct drainage tubes in place (complete with little collection baggies outside her body). It is anticipated that it will be about two weeks before she is ready for the stents.

The good news is that, unlike chest drainage tubes, patients can go home with these drains. Yay! We are hoping that tonight goes well and that she will be able to go home tomorrow on IV antibiotics.

Elizabeth is feeling so much better now that the drains are in. I can only imagine how painful the infected fluid must have been if being poked with large needles and tubes threaded through your body is less painful! Her temperature has gone down, and though she is on some pain medication (she was already on pain meds before the procedure, but even the vicodin wasn't helping), she is in a much better mood and seems more like herself.

Elizabeth's AFP levels are up to 94,900. The AFP level measured on Tuesday at 9900 was a mistake (we thought they lost a zero in there...), but would have been really nice if it were true. About 2 1/2 weeks ago they were at 72,000, so going up is no surprise since Elizabeth has had to be off of chemo since November 15. For a moment, though, I did want to believe that we were seeing a miracle and I so wanted the AFPs to come back today in that 9900 range. I can't say that I'm disappointed, persay, because I expected it to be a lab error, but I was sad. It really did feel good, though, to feel a little crazy outrageous hope. The whole mixup showed me that it's okay to hope for the improbable (virtually impossible), which is something I've been so reluctant to do. Even if it doesn't turn out, we're still here, still hoping, and still fighting.