November 2005 Archives

Since I've been recuperating, I thought I'd make a new website for my dad.  Just a simple place-holder until he gets more content.  Check it out at http://www.patrickjamesadams.com/

Today we had to do the hardest thing ever.  We had to put Alice down.  It was very emotional, and we got to do it at the house, and I know it was the right thing to do-- but the sadness is like a weight on my chest.  After Jakki and I had a good cry, we started looking at pictures of her that I have taken over the years.  Here's a few:

We miss you Alice Bea!

After a few more pokes from the radiology guys, I was released from the hospital on Saturday.  Mom & Dad were up so we were busy all weekend doing all manner of things.  I feel pretty good, but I'm not back to full strength by any stretch of the imagination.  I've been cooking a little, watching far too much TV, and messing about on the computers.  Many thanks to everyone for their well-wishes and prayers while I was in the hospital-- with any luck, that phase of my life is now over.

  We've got some exciting news!  Dr. Holbrook just paid a visit and said the CT today showed two small pockets of fluid just under Kelly's incisions, which is not unusual.  The plan is to do an ultrasound guided aspiration, a procedure that requires just some local anestetic.  After that, he will be able to go home!  One drain came out this morning, and the second one was just pulled out.  Now the only thing left is the IV! 

  When Kelly gets home tomorrow, things will look a little different around the house.  In the living room I did some rearranging and took out the coffee table to make more room.  In the hallway I pulled up the carpet due to naughty Alice's accidents.  The hardwood needs to be refinished, but it is still a change for the better. 

  We're just waiting for tomorrow to get here!  The cats will be so glad to see Kelly!
 

I had a Chemistry test today, and I think I did very well!  I got a look at the key after the test, and there was only one problem I answered wrong (that I could remember). 

Kelly is doing well this morning; we've taken a couple of walks, and played a few games of Mancala.  His white blood cell count is in the 20,000's, but Dr. Holbrook isn't worried, and says that's not unusual after a spleen is taken out.  

I'm just hoping the CT goes well tomorrow, and he can come home this weekend! 

 

Today has been pretty good, although the surgeon got to torture me a bit this morning.  He partially pulled out the drain he placed during surgery in order to wring some more drainage from it.  It's called cracking the drain, and it hurts like a hot poker in the side!  I munched a few more pills and awaited Mom's arrival.

Breakfast was an almost-normal eggs, toast, OJ and cream of wheat.  We took a walk around the floor and I'm feeling pretty good.  Pat and Tim from work stopped by to wish me well.  Life's kinda boring on the tenth floor today.

The surgeon wants to do one more CT scan on Friday to make sure there are no new fluid pockets and then I will be going home drain and staple free some time this weekend.   The fluid that came out of the pocket yesterday didn't have a significant amount of amylase which is good news as it means that my digestive juices are staying where they should.  It didn't appear to be full of infectious stuff, but they are going to culture it anyway.  They also found a lot of WBC's which is evidence of a past infection that I've gotten over.  So I'm still on the antibiotics for the time being.  In fact, the nurse just hooked up a fresh bag of imipenem/cilastatin mix.  And some students just came in and gave me a round of immunizations against pneumonia and meningitis since I no longer have a spleen.

Mom's planning to leave in a few and come back this weekend, so I should wrap this entry up.  Things are looking up! 

Yesterday, shortly after my posting, I was ordered a CT scan to try to explain my latest temp spike and jump in WBC count.  So I cheerily drank yet another gallon of nasty oral contrast and got run through the scanner.  Later that day, my surgeon called to tell me that they found yet another collection of fluid above the prior bad site.  So today I had yet another drain installed.  This time the entrance is high up on my abdomen, just below my rib on my left front.  It was not a joy to get put in.  Initially they tried to get it in from the back or side, but the bottom part of my lung was in the way.

So the front door was the best approach.  At first I could watch, which was probably not such a good thing.  The sensation was like being staked like a vampire with a plastic tube and then rolled into the CT ring for a scan to see where it ended up.  This went on for five or six times.  Finally what looked like the A string of a guitar painted blue was run down the hole to serve as a guide to the tube's final resting place.  At this point they covered my eyes.  Next the tube itself was run down the hole following the wire and the pigtail end was engaged.  This was the most uncomfortable of all.

This type of drain has a string inside the lumen (fancy word for tube) that connects to the very tip, when pulled taut, causes the end to curl up.  This string is then locked off on a stud outside the wound.  Kind of neat, and it helps hold it in place.

So that was this morning's entertainment.  Mom came up last night and she's here reading magazines, Jakki came by, but she's got lots of studying to catch up on from last week.  Emelie will be coming by this evening after getting her Nov. bus pass down town.  In good news, my doc put forward Friday as the projected day for me to go home, as well as answering a few other of our concerns.  The main event will come tomorrow when we actually figure out what's in the section they drained.  If it has amylase (a digestive enzyme), that could be bad because it might mean that what's left of my pancreas is backing up into my abdomen again, or something else is leaking.  If it cultures for an infection, then we can try to treat it with anti-biotics and hopefully it will go away.  If it's just post-surgical bleeding or fluid, then just drying it up will help.  Personally, I'm just hoping for the latter.

--  Until tomorrow...