Twists

Hubby is back in the hospital. We spent about eight hours Wednesday night/Thursday morning in the emergency room. He finally got to a room around 8:00 a.m. Thanksgiving morning. His Thanksgiving meal consisted of beef broth, jello, and Italian ice.

I'll just go ahead and give you the entire scoop. If you get queasy, stop reading.

Wednesday night Hubby had a couple of violent episodes of projectile vomiting. After the second one we called the transplant number and they said we should come and have him checked. Hubby had blood drawn and an x-ray of his abdomen.

He was diagnosed with ileus. Basically, a portion of the intestine went back to sleep. This is completely typical following most abdominal surgeries, for the intestines to have to wake back up. What was unusual was that his were functioning normally and then a spot of them decided to go back to sleep. He did not have a blockage, but the food he was eating and digesting in his stomach could not pass that point in the intestines.

This morning in his room he was already starting to feel a little better. His stomach was not hard to the touch anymore and the doctor thought it might have resolved itself, which is what it needs to do. The alternatives aren't pretty, or comfortable. He had liquid lunch and dinner with a little solids for dinner too.

Hubby's white count was a little high when they checked his blood, so they'll be making sure it goes down tomorrow before they make a decision on whether he can come home. Hopefully it was just from the intestinal issue. He doesn't have fever or any other symptoms and is hardly taking any pain medication. He's really healing quite well. There has not been anything abnormal or unexpected happen along the way in his healing and recovery process.

He is having a flare-up of his gout though, so maybe that's making his white count high. It's tricky to walk the halls like you're supposed to when you feel like you have shards of glass in the big toe joint!

We had a friend come stay with the kids last night and then she took them to her parents' house today for Thanksgiving (Mr. Churchmember and his family from this story). I ate in the cafeteria while Hubby ate his broth.

As the kids said, "This is a Thanksgiving we'll always remember." We have a lot for which to be thankful!