Adventures in Hospitalization, #3
Monday, April 19th, passed uneventfully, and Tuesday, April 20th, so far has done the same. I pretty much stopped using the morphine for pain relief, since it apparently also was slowing down the recovery of my guts. I can still request pain relief specifically, which depends on the speediness of the nurse in delay between request and receipt.
I was given some albuterol treatments overnight to help keep my lungs open.
This morning, I had visits from two of the surgeons. From one, I got the word that the pathologists think that my problem was “ulcerative colitis” rather than Crohn’s. This is good news at this point. The cure for ulcerative colitis is removing the colon. The second surgeon recommends I spend today with the NG tube in place and we evaluate things again Wednesday morning. I agreed that I’d rather get the timing right on moving my system forward.
I’m dropping weight on the IV nutrition. It was explained to me that the TPN is meant to reduce the amount of muscle wasting that occurs. Too much intake on the TPN could place the liver at risk. Because I am on steroids and post-op, my metabolic demands are high.
The colitis diagnosis is relatively better news. A pity it wasn’t diagnosed a lot earlier. We are thinking of you on this side of the planet.
I sure hope it is the colitis, that would be good news. Watch those TPNs, that’s what affected Weylin’s liver. Sounds like you are handling everything well.
Wow! You never do anything half-way, do you? :-P
Which hospital, if you don’t mind my asking.
…oh, and room number, too, please. :)