Back into the trenches

This next week is a double whammy, with the ERCP tomorrow, regular oncologist meeting plus chemo (I hope, assuming that my WBC is high enough) on Thursday, and appointment with the orthopedic dr. on Friday for yet more tweaking of the brace. We might as well take a pup tent and sleeping bags and camp out in the lobby of the hospital. However, I'ver had a wonderful two weeks away from it all.
After googling, discussing with three doctors, and flipping a coin just to see what it would say, we decided on the metal stent. Googling has a slight preference for the metal stent, as do two out of three doctors, and all the coin flip showed me was that I still can't do it right. Skills I need to work on.
The main disadvantage of the metal stent is that it tends to grow into the tissue and therefore can't be replaced; but on the other hand it lasts longer, though how long is the big question. I gather that if it gets clogged they can still insert a smaller one to keep the channel clear.
And I really don't want to go through this every three months.
Book recommendation, not just for those who have family or friends going through cancer, but for everyone: Anticancer: A New Way of Life, by David Servan-Schreiber, is written by an MD/PhD who has survived two bouts of brain cancer. He goes through the research on complementary strategies: dietary, mind-body,social, and exercise, and shows how you can use them for general health, to lessen the chances of cancer, and to support the standard treatments if you have it. Much of the research is recent (within the past few years), and it includes European as well as American studies. Although, as usual, I went through it saying, "But I've done this stuff for years," it validated everything that I'm doing now to keep myself as well as possible for as long as possible.