Saturday, March 19, 2011

#28 It's Been a Long Week

Well mom has been in the hospital since last Sunday (almost a week).  She has about a foot of her intestines removed this time due to a twisting.  Because it was twisted for so long, a section of her intestines actually died and was on it's way to become septic.  She's been on a cocktail of all types of drugs and meds.  However as of today she is only receiving one thing thru her IV and that is a nourishment solution.  She had to have a tube thru her nose that was draining the bile from her stomach, however two days ago at midnight she became barbaric and pulled the tube out of her nose while she was half asleep.  The doctors were going to put it back in, but her nurses convinced him not to. 
Her intestines are starting to wake up, make gurgling sounds, and function the way they are suppose to.  Once that started to happen, she was permitted a liquid diet, but as of this morning she is on a full normal diet.  But that does not mean she is allowed to just start eating though.  This morning she had 1 egg white, 2 bites of rice cereal, and about 4 bites of yogurt.
Because of all the meds she has developed Diabetes.  We are told this is just temporary, fingers crossed.
They are thinking of sending her home tomorrow, but we all feel (and so does she) that it might be too soon. 

Sunday, March 13, 2011

#27 O Crap (or lack there of)

Ok so mom was admitted into the hospital last night and upon results, found out she had an impacted bowel.  At 2312 she was wheeled into emergency surgery to correct the problem.  I was babysitting so I could not be here before she went into surgery, but I got to the hospital a little bit after midnight.  I wanted to keep my dad company.  At around 0300 the doctor came out to talk to us.  The first words out of his mouth were "She is very very sick"  which scared the hell out of dad and I.  Usually this doctor follows up with some positive affirmations, but however this time he did not.  She had 2 twists in her small intestines, which caused an entrapment of bowel and fiberous foods, which was backing up.  This is what was causing her the intense stomach cramps.  The doctor told us she had waited too long to come to the hospital, and as a result part of her intestines died.  During Surgery they completely removes 2 feet of intestine and sewed her back up.
     I am sitting in her room as we speak.  I have been sick for the past week so I have been wearing a mask.  She is laying in her hospital bed.  She has a tube down her nose to remove the bile from her stomach.  She also has a catheter.  She is restricted from eating, and she really shouldnt be drinking as much as she is, but she keeps making me go get her more ice.  As she drinks it, it just comes right back up the tube.  She can't get the tube out until it stops draining.  She doesn't seem to grasp the concept that she should stop drinking.
   She is feeling much much better than she was, but she's very very weak, and keeps dozing in and out. The surgery was quite invasive, and she has a HUGE incision that is about 14 inches long.  They used her previous scare from her hysterectomy in June 1974.
    Why did this happen?  Well in 2006 she has surgery for Colon Cancer in which they removed 18 inch inches of her small intestine.   They said this does not directly cause a kinkage of the bowel, but it could have helped caused it.  
  Doctors say she will probably be here for 5 days at least.  We are very lucky we caught this (even though a bit late), the outcome would have been much worse if she had waited any longer.
   I will keep you updated.