August 17

Hello all Matt here again,

Some updates - my dad is doing well. Yesterday he was not looking good at all to the point that the medical team asked for immediate family to be called in just in case the worst should happen. Thankfully, however, he responded nicely to medical treatment, and is now stable.

In brief, my dad has 3 issues he's dealing with.

1. Bowel obstruction. He now has been passing gas and having bowel movements. He has had the tube from his nose to his stomach removed with minimal nausea. These are good signs. His appetite has not yet improved and he is still having pain so we're not entirely out of the woods but things are trending in the right direction.

2. Bowel infection. C difficile (particular bug) to be specific.  This is actually good news believe it or not.  Since he has this infection that we previously didn't know about it is quite possible that this was a major player in causing his obstruction - When your bowels are infected it can sometimes cause them to be irritated and sluggish (it is much more common to get diarrhea, so it's atypical and not something the team initially thinks of).  Additionally, it is also a major reason he deteriorated so rapidly the other day. He is being treated with antibiotics and we're optimistic this will clear up.

3. Yet another stent blockage.  Basically, the tube keeping the drain open to remove bile from the liver got blocked again - maybe because of his cancer, maybe because he just has thick sludgy bile for no reason in particular.  He had another procedure today (ercp) and they cleaned out the tube and inserted a new bigger one.  Hopefully that will remain open and drain off the bile. If it doesn't it's problematic as the liver doesn't like it when it gets all backed up with nowhere for the bile to go.  Moreover, when the bile is just sitting there stagnant not moving anywhere bugs grow wild and it has a tendency to cause a nasty infection.  Thus, if my dad's liver studies don't improve in the next few days that basically means the stent isn't draining. In that scenario my dad would then need a new tube inserted from outside through his belly and into the bile ducts to drain it off.  (right now the tube is inserted from the inside through his intestine up inside the duct). Because the stent was all clogged up today he is also on different antibiotics to treat this potential infection.

We're optimistic things will continue to improve in the coming days.  My dad was tuckered out today from the meds they gave him for the procedure but his pain seems to be well controlled. He remains in good spirits and has no quit in him. We will continue to update as his condition changes and more information becomes available. As always, we appreciate all the love and support.