Update March 5th

I was going to wait until Monday, March 7th, to post another update because that is when they test for his tumor count again; however, this past week was not so good so I decided to post today. 

Sunday night, after the tornado winds came through, Gary started having severe stomach pains about midnight.  At 5:00 am Monday, he woke me up and said he was going to the emergency room because he couldn't stand the pain anymore ( I had no idea he was in pain until he woke me up).  He would not wait on me to get ready.  When I got there he had already been given some pain medication and was feeling better.  After a couple of hours, we brought him home and I went back to work.  At noon, he called me and said the pain was coming back, so I went and picked him up and took him to Dr Leo, his cancer doctor in Bolivar. They gave him some treatments (I don't remember what they gave him) and after a few hours he was feeling better and I took him home.  He felt better Tuesday and even went to our granddaughter's ballgame, visited with several friends and joked all evening with them. 

Wednesday evening he started feeling the pain again, so back to the emergency room we went.  He looked jaundice.  The tests they ran showed his bile not getting where it was supposed to, so in a consultation with Dr Leo, the decision was made to go back to Cox South in Springfield and have his stint in his bile duct replaced.  They kept him at CMH until a room could be opened up at Cox.  Thursday afternoon, they transported him to Cox.  Friday morning, Dr Ramsey replaced the plastic stint with a permanent stint.  Gary was released about 6:00 Friday evening and back home.

Dr Ramsey said that this is fairly common and that it was not anything that Gary did or ate to cause the stint to become blocked.  The permanent stint could possibly become clogged also, but it shouldn't happen sooner than a year or so.  Gary has to follow a low fat and low cholesterol diet for now. 

This morning, Saturday, Gary is tired and in a little pain, but it is tolerable. 

I will post another update Monday after we get his tumor count.

Jannis