We do have a diagnosis

And its not good.

Mary has cholangiocarcinoma and is likely Klatskin's tumor. The treatment is major surgery and that is scheduled for May 11. I am using our home page for summary and overview information so by starting your visits on http://www.lamey-hughes.com/ you can read the overview of how we got here and Mary's condition. You can also read about the plan for treatment and issues. There are links to easily take you from our home page to this blog.
Overall, Mary is feeling very good now. She went to our regular Sunday breakfast with friends (in addition to Reenie, we saw Barnes, Terry, Ingrid and Mary R), went shopping yesterday (hit three stores), and although she gets tired easily, is clearly on the mend. And we need her as strong as possible for the next surgery.
Removing the gall bladder accomplished two things. One, it stopped the horrible pain Mary was having. Two, it provided an opportunity to do a real pathology analysis of Mary's internal workings and got us an early diagnosis for this particular cancer. Normally, a patient doesn't realize they have this problem because there is no early pain (like Mary had). Instead, they simply turn jaundiced one day and by then its too late. In Mary's case, the Klatskin's tumor blocked the cystic duct that connects to the gall bladder. That blockage created both the jaundice and the horrible pain that Mary was having. Those two items together caused us to find this problem much, much earlier than is normal for this type of cancer.

We are not surprised by this diagnosis. The first doctor at Good Samaritan, after performing ERCP#1 and getting the results from CT Scan #1 told us this was the presumptive diagnosis on March 31. Moving to Stanford was the action of getting a 2nd opinion. And, now we know for sure.

We are going to have a 'normal' two weeks and then Mary goes for surgery on Monday May 11. Reenie leaves this Wednesday and returns the 19th, about when Mary should be exiting the hospital.

Pat