I am having a bad case of deja vu, writing this update from NYU’s ER. It’s been about six months since we’ve been here, but we had to came back tonight for suspected pancreatitis. 

Pancreatitis is a potential complication from a routine procedure Andrew had yesterday to replace the stent in his biliary duct. The first one was placed during his first hospitalization in June, and they’re typically swapped out every 6-9 months.

We got home from the hospital around 5:30pm, and within an hour or two, Andrew started feeling nauseated and had severe pain in his neck and back. He was adamant that he didn’t want to call the doctor and that it was likely a reflux attack because he’d forgotten to take his medicine before the procedure. I convinced him to let me contact the on-call GI doctor around 9pm, who recommended we come to the doctor due to Andrew’s back pain being a possible sign of referred pain from the pancreas. In hindsight, he says it feels like the same referred pain he was having from his pancreas in the spring before the cancer diagnosis.

So far he’s had an EKG, X-ray, a number of lab tests, and a CT scan. Most of the labs have come back normal or within his typical ranges. The CT showed “slight growth” of all liver tumors. This does not make sense to us, given his last scan with great results was 10 days ago, but it is obviously distressing. 

We are waiting to speak with a doctor in the ER and will call his oncologist in the morning. From what I can tell—without a doctor explaining further—there’s no evidence of pancreatitis. We’re now waiting to be admitted to the hospital for further observation, but we don’t have a timeline or more details yet. 

It feels very sad and too familiar to be back in the hospital, wondering how bad the latest bad news might be. Please pray the CT results are somehow wrong or there’s another explanation besides cancer growth. I know it’s dangerous to interpret your own results and draw conclusions without speaking to a doctor, but it’s difficult not to fill in the blanks on your own.