I went to the hospital again last week because my stitches pulled out. As these things go, this visit wasn’t too bad. After the CAT scan they just repositioned my drain tubes,  sewed me back together and sent me home. Aside from my normal allergic reactions to the contrast dye things went pretty smoothly. In many ways the worst part of this procedure is the IV needles. I’ve become so thin only one arm has enough meat for the IVs. As a result my poor arm has become badly abused. After every hospital visit my arm is bruised for weeks.

Of, course, it doesn’t help that  my veins have become so hardened by the frequent IV antibiotic programs  I need that I require an IV specialist to do the insertion (and sometimes it even requires surgery to get the IV in especially if it requires the use of a PIC line). Once the IV is inserted things seem easier since they can then pump me full of happy juice for the rest of the day. Unfortunately this also has the detrimental side effects of making me sick for a couple of days before I can recover. I’ve made so many trips to the hospital that I’ve become tolerant to the drugs they are using and they really have to pump a lot into me for the drugs to be effective.  But first I have to endure the pain as my veins now tend to spasm and worst of all the IVs “blow out” frequently and they have to try and insert them again. Sometimes even the specialists have to make three or four attempts before they get a good blood flow.

Oh well, such is life. At least I’m no longer septic nor do I have to remain in the hospital. We got some semi-good news as the CAT scan had some feeble indications that the offending organ is dying off but then I’ve had these indications before and have always had a relapse so we’ll just wait and see. I wish that they could just surgically remove it but the surgeon tells us that is too dangerous especially after my bout with ascites (FYI: my ascites resulted excessive amounts of fluid filling my body cavity and my lungs. By excessive I mean liters or quarts of fluid! I was shocked the first day after they stuck the drain tubes into my lung area to find out that more than 6 liters had drained out in only a few hours. Some weeks later the tubes were removed and to make things right they put talcum into the cavity to rough things up so it would heal. That was a somewhat painful experience. Just one of many painful experiences I’d like to forget.).

The surgery itself was relatively easy. After my CAT scan I went to the “IR” room where I’m laid out on a table with a big x-ray type machine that hovers over my abdomen. Then I’m hooked up to all sorts of devices and “painted” with this bluish/greenish antiseptic. They then inject me with more dye and continually take pictures of my insides while they work on me. I’ve been through this procedure maybe 50 or a 100 times. The nurses that were just pregnant when we first had this procedure now have healthy 3 and 4 year old children. If I need a drain tube replacement or they have to do additional surgery then I’m pumped full of happy juice and honestly don’t remember much else of the procedure. This time things weren’t so bad and I was awake while they sewed me back together.

I wish I could say that the after effects of the procedure were minimal but such is not the case. Recently I’ve developed an allergy to the contrast dye and that takes several days and some pre-medication to combat (I had maybe 70 or 80 procedures done before I developed the allergy). Usually afterwards my drain fluid is very bloody for a day or two but this time the blood persisted for quite awhile. Of course the drain fluid intermittently gets somewhat bloody anyway as the pancreatic digestive juices eat away my insides and happen to eat through a small vein somewhere but this was a little unusual.

I’m running out of steam so I won’t finish this  update just now. Just say that I’m working through them. I’m getting a new AFO for my foot so hopefully that will ease that pain and allow me to do some more therapy. Fortunately I have a good hospital bed and wheel chair but I’m still pretty much confined to the indoors. All in all things (except financially) don’t look so bad.

Before I quit writing this update I want to put in a plug for a real trooper – Grandma Oddball! With her help and my family’s support I’ve gotten through this ordeal so far.

Thanks for caring!

Tags: medical update

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