Happy New Year!

Over the past 48 hours, the doctors and I have come up with a near term game plan to make the best of the situation and put us in a position to get past this inconvenient Chyle Leak and continue our march towards victory.  The joyful news is that last night (12/30) I came home from the hospital, gave Heather and Phillip a bunch of big hugs (Jack and Charlotte are out of town) and slept in my own bed!  Monday (12/29) evening, Dr. Pat Ross’ team at the James did an incredible job of arranging for me to be discharged from the hospital and have nursing care at home and I couldn’t be happier!

My treatment for the Chyle Leak remains the same which is simply that I’m continuing on a Nutritional IV (TPN) and no food by mouth (NPO). If at the conclusion of the extended period of NPO the leak has not healed on its own, I will undergo a Thoracic Duct Embolization (TDE). TDE is performed by an interventional radiologist and is similar to a heart catheterization only in this case it involves the lymphatic system not the cardiovascular system and it carries very little risk. The radiologist injects a liquid into the lymphatic channel which illuminates the leak on a fluoroscopic CT. The Radiologist, using a filament, then navigates a very small coil into the location of the leak to seal it off. We are tentatively scheduled to have the TDE on 1/5/15, but we are all focused on the leak healing naturally and avoiding the procedure on Monday.  That would certainly make it a Happy New Year