Back Again

Where has the time gone?  It's cliche, but it's true -- time does fly.  And the older I get, the more quickly it flaps it's wings.

I did actually have some blog entries for 2010, but they've disappeared. On my Dashboard, it says I last posted in June, 2010, but those post are nowhere to be found.

So where have I been?  On a roller coaster for the most part.  My husband's layoff woes continued throughout 2009 and into 2010.  Just when he was about to get back to full-time work at full-pay, it all came crashing down.

It started out a typical weekend with my husband spending time on his hobby,  1/8 scale live steam and diesel trains.  It was November and the last run weekend for the year, so he stayed down at the track extra late even though he was scheduled to go on an all-day train ride with two of my half-brothers on Sunday afternoon.  He came home about 11:00 p.m. on Saturday and he seemed fine -- took a shower, grabbed a late-night snack and prepared to wind down so he could get to sleep.  He was supposed to be up early on Sunday morning.  After he had his snack, he began to complain that his back was hurting.  This wasn't unusual as he's had back problems for several years the result of a fall over 20 years ago.  He took an Aleve and muscle relaxant and went to bed. By Sunday morning, he woke me up and said, "You need to take me to the hospital. Something's wrong...I've never experienced pain like this."  By his description, I felt reasonably sure it was a gall bladder attack (my gall bladder was removed in 2008).  I got dressed and we headed to the emergency room.  I was correct, he had gall bladder disease, but his had triggered pancreatitis, an extremely painful condition.  They pancreas was significantly inflamed, so they wanted to put him on a clear liquid diet for a few days to give the pancreas time to "calm down" and then do surgery to remove the gall bladder.  He was hospitalized, but after three days on the clear liquids he hadn't improved.  They decided to go ahead with the surgery, thinking that removal of the diseased gall bladder would get the pancreatic inflammation under control.

The first indication that things weren't going to go well began in the recovery room.  After the surgery, my husband couldn't breathe on his own and was placed on a ventilator.  Fortunately, over the course of the next 24 hours his lung function improved and he no longer needed artificial assistance to breathe, thankfully.  The surgery itself hadn't gone quite as smoothly as they had hoped and there was a leak in the bile duct that required a stent placement.  Two different surgeons made two unsuccessful attempts at placing the stent. Doctors decided to wait a few days to see if the leak stopped on its own. It didn't and the pancreatitis triggered a domino-effect of health deterioration.  Before a week was up, doctors were telling me that he only had about a 30% chance of surviving.  "His age is in his favor, but..." is a phrase I heard over and over. Internal organ systems began shutting down -- first the renal system, which failed completely within hours, and then the gastrointestinal system causing paralysis of the stomach and intestines.  He developed infections they couldn't diagnose, so they were treating him with powerful last-resort antibiotics.  He began dialysis and was relocated to a large medical center where a team of doctors who are experts in doing ERCP successfully placed a stent in the leaking bile duct.

In the interest of attempting to shorten this post, below is a list of his health problems and where he is currently.

      Gall Stones - Resolved through surgery
      Pancreatitis - Ongoing
      Bile Duct Leak (post gallbladder surgery) - Resolved
      Renal Failure - Occurred in November, December and February. Currently improving, thank God.
      Infection - Ongoing, as of this writing, he's being treated for his third hospital-acquired infection.
      SIRS (Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome) - Ongoing (a cousin of sepsis)
      Diabetes - Intermittent.  He was not diabetic prior to this.
      Paralytic Ileus - Ongoing
      Gastroparesis - Ongoing
      Pancreatic Pseudocysts - Surgically removed in April.
      Bowel Obstruction - Ongoing (due to inflammation)
      Pancreatic Necrosis -Surgical removal in April.
      Hypertension/Hypotension - Intermittent
      Metabolic Acidosis - Currently resolved.
      Anemia (Low Hemoglobin): Ongoing, despite numerous blood transfusions.

He receives nutrition via a gastrojejunal (or GJ) feeding tube.  His formula goes directly into the small intestine in order to bypass the stomach. He is on continuous feed 24/7.  He is also being fed through his PICC line. This is something new, just added within the last week.

His surgical incision (16" across the abdomen) is doing well.  The surgeon closed only the layers of muscle, leaving the rest of the incision open.  This, as you can imagine, looked horrible and was/is very painful.  They are using VAC therapy to assist with healing.

It's been a long, difficult journey for our family and it's not over.  The doctors and surgeon assure us that he will get well, be able to work and enjoy life again.  So we wait, we hope, and we pray.  And prayers are answered (not always as quickly as we would like, but they are answered). :)  We have been, and continue to be, blessed by the faithfulness of friends and acquaintances in numerous ways and we are so very grateful. When the chips are down, you do find out who your friends are. It is truly amazing, always a blessing, and often surprising.