A change of plans. Tim got a call from Kaiser late Thursday afternoon -- the day before he was to start his latest chemo treatment. Kaiser realized that Tim needed to have labs done before he could start on chemo. So, on Thursday evening, we rushed off to the lab. The results didn't come in until after 11 p.m. The tests showed that Tim's bilirubin and liver enzymes had dramatically increased. This seemed to confirm that Tim’s bile duct stent was now blocked. When they originally put in the stent 2 ½ years ago, they said the stent would remain open only for a year or so. Given these results, on Friday the cancer treatment team all agreed that the stent needed to be cleaned out or replaced before starting chemo. They offered to send Tim to have the procedure done now by the on-call team in the Emergency Room to fix the problem. But, Tim agreed to wait until Monday to have the regular surgical team work the stent.

Tomorrow, we head off to Kaiser to have them work on Tim's stent. We're hoping this really helps him feel better as he's been feeling increasingly sick (nausea, abdominal pain, jaundice). Then, when Tim starts feeling better, he'll resume chemo.

Corn lily (Veratrum californicum var. californicum). Grant Lakes, Yosemite.