Seeking advice and suggestion

Hi,

i have been reading emails on this group for some time now.

My father was diagnosed with gall bladder cancer around 15th June 2010. He was admitted to the hospital on jaundice (total biluribin was initially 18). From the biopsy report and PET scan reports, doctors suggested stage 4 gall bladder cancer. He is around 68 now.

Doctors suggested that the cancerous cells around the tumor had spread a bit (not much) into the liver. There are gallstones too. Doctors suggest it is a bit risky to do the operation to remove the tumour since the cancerous cells may spread. So, they suggested putting in a stent to drain the bile out. We got it done. But after a week of that, the jaundice did not come down. Doctors said there was blockage on the stent pipe. This time they suggested putting in 2 pipes to drain the bile out. That was also done. Even then when we went for Liver function tests a week later, the biluribin is still hovering around 12. Now they have put an external pipe to drain the bile out. We are really pained. Only God knows what wrong our family had done to anyone on earth to give us so much pain !

My family shall be thankful if someone can share some information around the following

1) how long does the jaundice usually take to come down ? And why is this jaundice blocking the stent pipes repeatedly ? I mean what makes it so thick ? And is this normal - has anyone gone through such a thing earlier and what was the path chosen ?

2) after following 2 suggestions from the doctor and both not giving good results, we are really devastated. We do not see any other option than doing an operation to take out the tumor and the stones for the jaundice to reduce. But the doctors have put us in a fix saying the operation is risky - the cnacerous cells may spread. What is our best option? The chemotheraphy cannot start until the jaundice reduces. The jaundice does not reduce because the stent pipes get blocked. And doctors do not want to do the surgery to remove the tumour and the gall stones because they say it is risky.

Please suggest some help.