DEBORAH James says she is looking for a “magic medicine miracle” after her liver stent stopped working.
Trending In The News columnist says she is in need of “desperate out of the box thinking” for the latest stumbling block in her battle against stage 4 bowel cancer, which she was diagnosed with in 2016.
Forty-year-old Deborah’s liver started to fail in the summer because a rapidly growing tumour close to wrapped itself around her bile duct.
After suffering jaundice and urine the colour of Coke, doctors decided to operate for the 13th time to put a stent into Deborah’s liver.
But the mum-of-two, who has survived cancer against all odds, said the stent is no longer working to drain the liver, and doctors are unable to replace it.
What was supposed to be a straight forward op this week turned into the discovery that Deborah’s bile duct has become “even more annoyingly complex”.
Deborah, from London, wrote on Instagram on Thursday night: “Despite feeling actuslly [sic] the best I have done in a while, we could see this was beginning to stop working (as they often do), but unfortunately what was supposed to be a quick replacement operation turned into a nightmare.
“Mainly due to cancer changes in that area, meaning it’s no longer straight forward to just get my plumbing working!!
“So I now have no stent, and desperately need some out of the box quick thinking!
“At about 4pm today I really thought all hope was lost, But luckily a few chats later with my oncologist, and just talking through what pathways we can try is all I need.
“I’m now at the mercy of hopefully some super “magic medicine miracle” – but then I always have been, and any chance is a chance right?
“Plan B bile stent operation wasn’t an option either, so I’m now back to the Marsden asap to look at Plan C! Or D or Z if there is one!!”
Deborah said on her Instagram stories today that options were being considered and any treatment was unlikely to start until the New Year.
The notoriously optimistic mum and former deputy head teacher said she was “not sure what her next steps look like” – but that she took “one step at a time”.
It comes five years after Deborah was first told she had advanced and inoperable bowel cancer after a year of ill health.
She said: “If there’s one thing I’ve learnt over 5 years – its that somehow you can keep walking, even when it’s scary, but you must always keep the faith….”
Deborah has miraculously lived beyond what medics thought was possible, after they told her the chances of living five years or more were just eight per cent.
This year alone, Deborah’s cancer journey has seen her hospitalised with sepsis twice and having nuclear chemo, which wiped her of energy.
She has been in and out of hospital in recent months with a persistent colitis infection, causing digestive issues and weight loss.
But the cancer campaigner also celebrated the milestone of her fortieth birthday in October, which she never imagined she would reach.
In her latest column for the Sun, Thing’s Cancer Made Me Say, she wrote: “The longer you live with incurable cancer the more exhausted you get. I try my best to live life to the full, but this disease has a way of throwing life into chaos without warning.
“After being bed-bound for weeks, I have lost so much weight and muscle mass. I don’t really like looking at myself in the mirror.
“Chemo and my cancer treatment are on the back burner too, because I have been too unwell for my body to cope.
“That fuels a new level of anxiety, living in limbo waiting to see if I am strong enough to start treatment again, hoping my cancer isn’t growing in the meantime.
“In an ideal world, I would park chemo until the New Year and enjoy my first Christmas for five years with no treatment making me feel sick.
“But the sooner I can get the drugs back into me, the better my chance of seeing next Christmas, and dare I hope, the one after that.”
