Derek’s progress was too good to be true. We are back in the hospital. Thursday afternoon we went for a CT scan as scheduled. On the way home, the nurse practitioner on the oncology unit called me on the way home to ask me to turn around and return to the hospital. They wanted to admit him because of something that showed up on the CT scan. Since we were almost home, we stopped there and picked up a few supplies for our hospital stay and drove back. They had a bed waiting for Derek when we walked in – the same one we occupied when we were first admitted one month ago tomorrow.
The radiologist indicated that there were air pockets that showed up in the lining of his large intestine. This condition, called pneumatosis, can be a complication from one of the medications or it can be a sign of infection. In any case, it can be serious if not dealt with. The radiologist resident who first read the scans also saw what he thought was a small blood clot in his lower lung. Later review by the attending radiologist and an oncologist did not show the clot, and he has not had any symptoms of such. So they are not worried about that now, but they wanted to hook him to IV antibiotics immediately for his bowel problem. He has not had any symptoms of pneumatosis (severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever) so hopefully it is not too serious and will resolve itself quickly. We’re praying for a miracle.
They want the bowel to have complete rest, so the hardest part for Derek is that he will not be able to eat or drink anything until the problem is corrected. They are afraid that if he eats, it will irritate the bowel further and could possibly perforate it, which would mean immediate, emergency surgery. If the problem gets worse, they may have to perform surgery to remove that part of the bowel. The ironic part is that the same medication which sometimes causes this condition is also making him ravenously hungry. They will start IV nutrition tonight, but some people have told me it will not likely take away his feelings of hunger but will only provide the nutrition his body needs. His nurse told me tonight he is probably the only one on the unit who feels like eating and the only one who can not eat.
Any time he passed gas today, Derek would tell me that the air bubbles were out now and that he should be able to eat. It’s so hard for him to understand why he cannot eat, and so hard to listen to his cries of hunger and be unable to help. I tried to keep him distracted, but by the end of the day, nothing worked. I don’t know how we will manage several days of this, maybe even a week to 10 days. Please join us in praying for a quick healing of his large intestine.
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