I think I can safely say that today was the second longest day of my life (with the day of Dave's surgery taking a hands-down first place). We had an appointment at the surgeon's office at 10:30 this morning and I just got home (after midnight). The appointment was mainly just to check in, hopefully get one of his drains removed, and to get a chest x-ray to see how his lung capacity was looking. At some point last night, his pain starting increasing and was becoming more difficult to manage. By the time we got to the surgeon's office he could barely walk and I had to take him in a wheelchair for his chest x-ray. The surgeon was totally perplexed, and as we sat in his office Dave's condition was visibly and quickly deteriorating. They said his stomach looked distended, his oxygen level was too low, he started vomiting, and he was in obvious pain. While it wasn't pleasant, I was glad the surgeon could see firsthand Dave's condition. He decided to have him admitted to the hospital right away.
The next 12 hours are kind of a blur of tests and more tests. Lots of blood draws, fluid samples from each of his drains, a urine sample, another chest x-ray, and then a CT scan of his chest, abdomen, and pelvis. They finally determined that there was a lot of fluid building up near his kidneys, although the source and nature of the fluid is still unclear. His white blood cell count is also elevated, so he's fighting an infection of some kind which may or may not be related to the fluid.
They paged the intervention radiologist to come right away to drain the fluid, so instead of losing one of the drains today, he gained another (right between two of his ribs-ouch!). They drained almost a 1/2 liter of fluid and will leave the drain in to continue to clean out the area. We may not know for a few days exactly what the source of leak was and whether that was the source of the infection. Either way, it looks like he's back at Swedish for another 5 or 6 days.
It feels like a major setback after he'd been doing so well the last couple of days, however I know it's where he needs to be right now.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Oh Shannon.
I'm so sorry. I'm glad he's in the hospital, where they can take care of him, but I know it must be awful having him go back there.
Again, make sure you take care of yourself during this time, because you know you'll need your strength once he's home again.
It will get better. All my thoughts are with you and David today.
Hey you guys...hang in there. We know Dave will be back home soon! I just checked out Tara Clark's website...she wrote a really nice entry about you guys in her blog. She does really great work. Well...keep your heads up. We'll be thinking about you.
Love,
John and Jess
Shannon and Dave:
I am truly sorry to hear about the setback. Try to remember that this is just a complication of the cure, it is not the cancer. That always helped put in in perspective for me. My experience was very similar and it turned out the fluid was lymphatic. It took a little time, but it healed itself. It will get better and Dave will be home soon. All the best to you both.
Paul
Hey guys,
I'm so sorry! Dave will be home soon! He is so strong, I know he will heal quickly! Best wishes to the whole family! I love you, and remember God is always with you!
Post a Comment