Finally..

So after a full week of brian being sick and in pain and three er visits I finally have him relaxed and pain free and he slept good last night!  

Im hoping that it stays this way! 

No complications

All tests look good. So we are not sure why the pain is worse. Brian thinks its gas. He has thought that all along but the doc wanted to make sure it wasnt something else..  Now, to figure how to pass it consistantly.  Ugh. Nothing seems to work..

Update:
 I think that having a procedure done and chemo in the same week may have been too much for him.  The chemo affected him worse this week than it ever has.  He was throwing up Monday and Tuesday.  We called the oncologist and Brian is officially on break from chemo.  We will be going back to the
U of M in November to get new scans and blood work and find out when he will start chemo again.

Complications

Brian’s pain has been worse since the procedure.  He has been in the er 3 times over the last week. He has an appt tomorrow for a new ct scan. Hopefully we can figure out what the issue is.  

Post Procedure & Beginning cycle 6

The next couple of days after the procedure were rough and Brian ended up in the er Saturday night, but last night he slept good and he doesn't have any pain this morning!
He is in a pretty good mood but is not thrilled about starting his 6th cycle of chemo today.  Although we are both thrilled for the break that is coming so soon!

Surgery went well

Its 10:00am and he is in recovery now. Everything went really good. They replaced the stent and it was plugged. They also deadened the nerves around the tumor. A pretty successful morning. In another hour I will be taking him home and he will probably sleep the rest of the day. 

Changing the stent

This Friday the 21st Brian will be going in to have his stent changed out.  We are waiting for the go ahead from his oncologist, if we get it, they will also perform-

Celiac Plexus Neurolysis

Reasons to perform the procedure:

The celiac plexus is a group of nerves that supply organs in the abdomen.  A celiac plexus neurolysis may be performed if you are experiencing severe chronic abdominal pain from cancer or persistent pain associated with chronic pancreatitis that is not relieved by medications or other conservative measures. It is expected that the neurolysis will provide long-term relief of your pain.

Brian is set to start his 6th cycle of chemo the following Monday the 24th.  We are waiting to hear back about that too because he is having some "sensations" in his fingers and toes so they may have him either start his break sooner or take away the Abraxane and only do the Gemzar Chemo for his 6th cycle.  

End cycle 5 & new scan

Yesterday was the end of the 5th cycle of chemotherapy. Today we are in Ann Arbor, we just finished up and are getting ready to head home. The main tumor in the pancreas is stable which they say means it's size hasn't changed. The mass in his liver is quite a bit smaller. His CA 19–9 level is at 200. The new plan is to finish his sixth cycle of chemotherapy and then take a two month break then take a new scan and restart chemotherapy. 

We asked the oncologist some tough questions today. He informed us that even if the CA 19–9 number hits below 100 Brian will still not be eligible for surgery because of the way pancreatic cancer spreads.  He may be eligible for radiation in the future. And if the chemotherapy stops working he will be able to get into a trial. Those are our options for the future when and if chemo stops working.

Mini checkup

We had a mini checkup with one of Brian Brookmans oncologists and we found out that his ca 19-9 number has gone down from over 10,000 to 265. The numbers getting smaller indicates that the tumer is getting smaller. A normal person has a ca19-9 of 37. They want it under 100 to even consider surgery. We will have more information later next week.