Thursday--ERCP and PTC

I had told Christi I would come early in the morning for the shift change with the nurses. But I overslept and texted her I would be late. Erin had spent the night and taken the shifts with the kids for me which was a big help. She was there for us all day on Thursday too. We knew from the nurses that Christi was scheduled for a morning ERCP. Dr. Batista had come and spoken with her and Jim the night before but had warned them that he didn't think it would really work. He said he would check on the pancreatic stent to see if it was still in place, and that it was probably worth a try. I guess the ERCP is a little less invasive than the PTC. "Percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography, or PTC, is a way of examining the bile duct system in the liver. This procedure is done under local anesthesia by a radiologist. During the exam, a thin needle is inserted through the skin (percutaneous) and through the liver (transhepatic) into a bile duct. Then dye is injected, and the bile duct system is outlined on x-rays (cholangiography). When one or more bile ducts narrows or has a blockage, bile may back up and cause problems such as jaundice, a yellowing of the skin. Or, a leak in a bile duct may allow bile to flow into the abdominal cavity. PTC allows your doctor to see on the x-rays if the ducts are partially or completely blocked. If necessary, a thin, flexible tube (catheter) may be inserted to allow the bile to drain into a collection bag outside the body, or into the small intestine. This procedure is called biliary drainage."

This is the procedure that Christi would have if the ERCP did not work. She left at 10:30 for her second ERCP with Dr. Batista. I went down with her while they prepped her and spoke with Dr. Batista before the procedure. He wasn't very hopeful it would work, but felt we should try. Afterwards, she had a slightly easier time coming out of the anesthesia but the male nurse who was helping her was very rough. I didn't really understand the dynamics at the time, but Christi later told me he had tried to take the pants off she was wearing to stay warm and yanked them past her incision wounds which hurt terribly. She yelled at him right before the anesthesia was given and told him to just tell her what he was going to do. His name was Virgil and the other nurse, a very nice lady was responsible for sending him to get lunch so that she could finish Christi up. We were pretty grateful for that. She was back in the room at 12:oo which is when we took the picture above.

We waited all afternoon with the hopes that the PTC could be performed. We were getting pretty desperate as Christi was wasting away with no food or water and in much pain. Jim came home and we traded places. He finally texted me that she was taken down around 5:30 p.m. for the PTC and that Dr. Harker was squeezing her in at the end of a long day. We were just so grateful since we had high hopes this might solve the problem. Jim didn't go down with Christi so in looking back I'm not sure how much of the information we learned was totally accurate but it turned out she wasn't able to remove any stones from the duct but placed a drainage tube with an external bag. We were happy they could at least do that since it meant she would be able to eat and drink again. I stayed that night in the hospital with her and sent Jim home to get some sleep. A lot of pain so Christi was on morphine at regular intervals. She wasn't very hungry because she was nauseous.