I continue to lose weight but we are making some progress in other ways. I had an abdominal ultrasound of the major arteries of the abdomen yesterday and we have some useful information off of that. They determined that my celiac artery was pinched off by 2/3. The celiac artery feeds the stomach and could lead to a sleepy or paralytic stomach.
They also were unable to locate the superior mesenteric artery which feeds both the stomach and most of the intestines. If this is pinched off, then the stomach will be severely impinged and this would lead to significant problems eating. Also, it would lead to abdominal cramps and a dying off of the intestines. This has happened before but they addressed it in 2012 without losing any of my intestines.
So, we are going to get a MRI Angiogram which will give a definitive 3d picture of the abdominal arteries and let us know exactly what is going on with them. If we have significant pinching off, we can address them in the short term with stents and then can begin investigating surgery to clean off the tumors.
Additionally, we are going to start TPN again. Probably on Monday, we will get a PICC line installed in my right arm again and then I will be hospitalized the next day to start TPN in the hospital before going back home the following day to continue TPN here. TPN will provide me a significant amount of nutrition, stopping my plummeting weight (down to 144 pounds on my 6'3" frame).
It is not a lot but it is a small amount of forward progress.
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