Biopsies and Confusion

I know it's been ages since I last posted, but we're still woefully in the dark about what the fuck is going on in my body. Thus far, my doctors "think" they've got a handle on what physically happened to cause my symptoms, but we still don't know what the node/mass/thing in question is.

Going back to the beginning to form a coherent timeline:

• Christmas eve I inject my first Lupron dose into the right side of my belly. An internal lymph node? mass? thing? between my liver and pancreas, or on my pancreas? starts to swell immediately and put pressure on the branch of the common bile duct right by my liver. The "thing" is basically right under where I injected.

• Christmas day I take my second dose of Lupron on the right again, the "thing" swells further and presses down completely on the duct, effectively closing it

• If you've ever had a gallstone or gallbladder attack, you'll know how painful they are. Because my duct was being pushed shut, I basically experienced a gallbladder attack without the usual stones for almost two weeks. After about 12 days, the "thing/node/mass/alien" shrinks a little and the duct becomes partially unblocked so I stop feeling like I'm dying.

• At this point, the bile has been backed up into my liver for several weeks and the liver cells are being damaged. I start peeing orange and itching horribly all over which is super fun. My billirubin goes up to 4 but I somehow don't turn yellow - this perplexes the doctors.  

• Two ultrasounds, a CT, an MRI and a PET scan later doctors determine that this "thing/lymph node/mass/alien" is the culprit and want to put in a shunt to open the bile duct that is being squashed shut.  They start suggesting the "thing" might be a cancerous lymph node because it flares on the PET scan, although  infection and inflammation will also demonstrate the same uptake of florescence. The argument for this theory is thin, it's basically that they think it's lymphoma because they can't think of anything else it could be.

To tackle this "thing", the doctors devise a three procedure plan, each of which requires me to go under general anesthesia, have a tube, scope and various other instruments down my throat and which have the usual risks of surgery including an increased risk of pancreatitis. To prevent further liver damage, they want to put in a shunt asap in the first procedure. While they'd normally combine the shunt placement with a biopsy, the Kaiser near me is still establishing permits for their GI clinic so the biopsy has to be done at a separate hospital. Thus, the second surgery is scheduled to biopsy the "thing", followed up by an eventual third procedure remove the shunt.

This plan is set in motion and all seems full steam ahead until they run my labs the day before the first surgery. Somehow, on their own, my elevated liver numbers have dropped way down. My bilirubin is only a little elevated, around 1.4 when it should be under 1 which is a huge improvement from 4.0.  It appears the "thing/mass/lymph node/alien" has shrunk some on its own and the duct is opening a little more. Given that my liver is no longer being actively damaged, we decide to cancel the first procedure and go straight to the second to biopsy the node. I start to feel normal again, less tired and am actually able to eat real food again. This brings us to today. 

Today was biopsy day and as far as I can tell, the procedure went very smoothly. I got to the hospital, had vitals and info taken, changed into my gown, and met with the anesthesiologist. There was a slight hiccup because I'm allergic to latex and the balloon they use on their endoscope has to be latex, but we tried to head off any issues with a massive dose of Benadryl before the procedure. I really hate IV Benadryl, it burns like a mofo when it's injected and always makes me feel incredibly loopy, but it's definitely better than swelling up and itching.

While I was hoping against hope that the "thing" would have shrunk down to nothing at this point, and the doctor agreed that given my improvement it might just not be there anymore, "the thing" was still present in all it's questionable glory. It appears to be on?/near?/in?/adjacent to? my pancreas and is still 2.5-3cm. The doctor decides here to refer to it officially as "the mass" because he's no longer sure it's a lymph node or lymphoma at all. If I was a 70 year old male, he might suspect pancreatic cancer, but even then you'd see some deterioration of the pancreas and mine appears to be in otherwise perfect health. He takes several biopsy samples of it, using a needle passed through my stomach and into the "mass" and I wake up in recovery with a slightly sore throat, but otherwise good health.

Just to confirm the improvement in my liver function, the doctor ordered another round of labs. I had them drawn right after my procedure and as expected, my liver function is back to normal. This is wonderful news, really great evidence that points to healing and recovery. I just wish it could eclipse the gaping "could this be cancer" sun that's in the process of blinding me. Since there's nothing else I can really do at this point, now comes the waiting game where we wait and wait and wait for the biopsy results to come back. Most of the tests, including those testing for pancreatic cancer, should take about a week but the tests for lymphoma will take up to two weeks. I really hope this isn't cancer. I was thinking it might potentially be a cyst, but at this point I just want the mass cut out. Even with an ultrasound right next to the damn thing in my stomach, the doctors are still completely stumped.