Things going well January 13, 2015

Shian-Ren had her procedure last Thursday at SBU hospital and stayed overnight for observation, which is routine. The procedure was a chemoembolization (there will not be a biopsy), in which a catheter is inserted into the groin area and snaked up to a blood vessel in the liver. Then the liver is imaged as the catheter is gradually brought through the vasculature to the vessel that leads to the tumor (which is a ~1 cm nodule). The radiologist had trouble keeping the vessel (about 1 mm in width) open, because as soon as the catheter touched the branch of interest, it spasmed (closed up). He treated with nitroglycerine to open it. This took time. Shian-Ren was in the procedure (not on general anesthesa, just tranquilizer) for over five hours (original plan was 2). But she got through it and feels fine. We had her home by 1PM on Friday and we had good weekend. We have the follow up with the oncologist today (and if blood counts are good we’ll start the 2nd infusion of the post-surgical chemo regime, which is expected to go through March). We’ll see the GI surgeon on Friday and there is an order to image the liver in February. We may also still need a full body Pet scan. She is feeling fine.