Well they did the bone marrow biopsy today and Dad seemed to make it through it ok. They did sedate him for it and it seemed to take a while for that to wear off. His stomach is getting larger and harder which are not good signs. They did an x-ray of his abdomen and found that there was still an obstruction and that there appeared to be calcification. There were no bowel sounds today either.
Counting today, it has been 7 days since Dad has been able to eat anything other then 3 cups of broth and a bowl of Jello which have been sprinkled in from time to time. They are discussing nutrition options because Dad has dropped ALLOT of weight and his muscles seem to be atrophying quickly from none use. Since there is no bowel activity the only option is TPN which is feeding through his IV. This is good because it gets Dad some nourishment but bad because it still doesn't address his bowel issue. Once a bowel has gone to sleep it takes a while to wake it back up and get it moving again and it seems that the longer it is a sleep the harder it is to awaken.
I am starting to get worried that they are not focusing on the bowel enough since that was the symptom that brought him into the hospital in the first place. Hopefully they will start taking a more active diagnostic approach other then, "lets wait and see" since we have waited 2 weeks and have only seen it get worse.
Finally Dad's mental state is in and out. I think some of that has to do with nutrition, but there have got to be some other factors. Initially he was sedated so that explained why he was loopy, but the loopiness doesn't seem to be improving. This is another area I would like to get some more answers to and find out if this is another symptom of something else or if is just a side effect of some of the drugs. He still has good periods where he is with it so that is good. He is also very agitated when he rest so his sleep is not very refreshing.
Hope that feels you in, we are not out of the woods so please keep Dad is your prayers. Thank you for all of your comments, thought and prayers. This a great man and we sure would like to keep him around a little longer!
The unconscious Perry quote of the day, when the murse (man nurse) came into check his IV, "Do you have a building permit for this place? Well you should."
Posted by Dave
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That's a great unconscious Dad quote.
ReplyDeleteThank you for all the thorough updates--much, much appreciated.
Murse helps us keep a sense of humor--now if he only had a building permit. I'm sorry that he is not out of the woods. Thanks for the great and thorough update. When I was there, massage on his aching muscles provided some relief, using some lotion.
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