weekend from hell...
it's 27 minutes til my birthday and starting at about 6:30pm this afternoon is when i finally got to relax a little this weekend. it all began thursday night.....
so, thursday night we're over at our friend brando's having a little bbq when we all start winding down getting ready to head home. kev complains of a stomachache and heads off to the restroom. when he comes back out he's nearly doubled over and has a hand pressed tightly to his abdomen. i ask what's wrong and he replies that he doesn't know, thinks it's really bad gas. he tells me to put my hand on his abdomen and feel, it's completely rock solid, not "oh my god the boy is ripped" solid, but like he's overly full solid. so our friend brando gives him a perrier and tells him that's what his grandfather used to give him to help get rid of gas. well, a half hour or so later, accompanied by some passed gas, and he's feeling okay enough to head home. by the time we get home he's back in excruciating pain and needs to go to the bathroom again. i'm thinking food poisoning, but not from anything we ate at the bbq or i'd be feeling it too, and start grilling him on what he's had throughout the day. not much as it would turn out, just a burrito from taco bell. well, he's still complaining and crying out and doubling over, so i head to the store for some maalox and gas-x. he drinks some of the maalox and says he feels somewhat better. the next morning as i'm getting ready for work, he wakes up, still in pain and crawls for the bathroom because trying to stand hurts too much. i think nothing of it, hand him some gas-x and water, then the maalox bottle, and head for work. liz calls me later at work, about 11:30am, to tell me that she and kev's mom are trying to find him a doctor, he's still in massive pain and that brando's on his way over with pepto and imodium. by about 12:30pm they can't find him a doctor and are running out of ideas, so i ask my boss to go home early and leave. not long after i get home brando shows up and we find a clinic in el cajon that will see him for $30 up front and the rest to be billed (we have no medical insurance). so we pile him into the car and head for the clinic. i fill out all the paperwork and about 5mins later, the nurse calls him back. he's back there all of 2 mins when he walks out and says lets go. i said, "go? go where?" and he says, the emergency room. the nurse had poked and prodded and read over his papers where i'd described his problem and said it sounded like his appendix head to ER. so we ended up at grossmont's ER where they immediately took him back to triage, took urine, took blood, and put us back in the lobby with a bucket until they could open a bed. about a half hour later a bed opens up and he heads back. his nurse back there tells him that at first glance on his lab work it looks like he's got an infection because his white blood cells are elevated but that the doctor wants an abdomenal x-ray to see if there's a blockage. i leave to go out to the car and get my bag-o-entertainment and on my way back hit the cafeteria for some snacks. i get back to his room in the ER and he's gone. they'd already taken him to x-ray. anywho...hours later, the doc comes in says the x-rays were inconclusive and he wants to do a CT scan. so they bring him 900ml of water with barium contrast in it and tells him to drink it as quickly as he can. so, half hour later, 900ml and an exceptionally full kev later it's gone. it then takes them another 2 1/2 - 3 hours to take him back for his scan. within half an hour of his scan being done the tech comes into his room, somewhat frantic and begins questioning kevin about did he drink all the fluid? and takes the bottle back with him. well, about 10mins later, the tech is back, even more frantic and again, asks kev did he drink all the contrast? did he drink anything after the contrast? has he had any other scans or procedures in the last 6 weeks that would've used barium contrast? and kev's like "no" to all of the above and asks "why? what's wrong?" and the tech then tells us that the CT scan showed that his stomach and duodenum are full of liquid that contains no barium contrast and that all the contrast had settled to his colon. there's a blockage somewhere in his system. finally the doctor comes in and starts asking him about his gastric bypass he had 6 years ago. tells us kev needs surgery and goes to find the number to the surgeon that did kev's bypass. comes back to tell us that he's going to be transported via ambulance to sharp memorial to have surgery with dr. melniczek (pronounced melon-check) because dr. wittgrove (the surgeon that did the bypass) wasn't on call this weekend and was at a conference in florida. at this point it's about midnight. i begin making the phone tree. by 12:30am kev's mom's already at sharp memorial and we haven't even heard when the ambulance is coming for him. long story short on this shenanigans, the doctor at grossmont mis-heard dr. melniczek, kev was supposed to go to scripps memorial not sharp memorial. it took them 3 hours to figure that out. the ambulance finally came for him sometime after 3am. we got to scripps memorial at around 4am, spoke with dr. melniczek until about 5am where it was decided that since kev was no longer in acute pain the surgery could be pushed back to sometime after 1pm that afternoon. he needed surgery for an internal hernia, something only post-op bypass patients can get. basically, during the bypass when they're re-routing everything they create possible spaces that don't exist in a normal abdominal cavity. anywho, kev's intestines found one of these such possible spaces and was trying to slip into it. the surgery would go in, pull the intestines out of the space, close the space, and back out. liz and i finally head home at about 5am. i finally crawl into bed about 6am, 23 hours after getting up at 7am friday morning for work. i was awakened at 8am, and then again at 9am, gave up on sleep and started my day. back at the hospital by a quarter to 1pm only to find out that his surgery was directly at 1pm. at 3pm dr. melniczek came out to say the surgery went well, they were able to do it laproscopically and he should be ready to go home the next morning. he was 3 hours in recovery. only because they thought he was having problems breathing when it was just his sleep apnea. anywho, today liz and i are back at the hospital around 10:30am, the doctor finally comes at around noon to finalize his discharge. kev's sleep apnea's so bad that the dr. tells him point blank, he's a walking time bomb set to die at any time. kev's been ordered back to the doctors that did his bypass to begin support group, a proper diet, and excercise. by the end of the year he should be upwards of nearly 100lbs. lighter. he finally got a prescription for a CPAP machine to help his breathing while he sleeps, now all we have to do is order him one.
so there was my lovely weekend...happy birthday to me, my husband has survived, thankfully, and once we begin our new diet with him, will be around for quite some time longer....
so, thursday night we're over at our friend brando's having a little bbq when we all start winding down getting ready to head home. kev complains of a stomachache and heads off to the restroom. when he comes back out he's nearly doubled over and has a hand pressed tightly to his abdomen. i ask what's wrong and he replies that he doesn't know, thinks it's really bad gas. he tells me to put my hand on his abdomen and feel, it's completely rock solid, not "oh my god the boy is ripped" solid, but like he's overly full solid. so our friend brando gives him a perrier and tells him that's what his grandfather used to give him to help get rid of gas. well, a half hour or so later, accompanied by some passed gas, and he's feeling okay enough to head home. by the time we get home he's back in excruciating pain and needs to go to the bathroom again. i'm thinking food poisoning, but not from anything we ate at the bbq or i'd be feeling it too, and start grilling him on what he's had throughout the day. not much as it would turn out, just a burrito from taco bell. well, he's still complaining and crying out and doubling over, so i head to the store for some maalox and gas-x. he drinks some of the maalox and says he feels somewhat better. the next morning as i'm getting ready for work, he wakes up, still in pain and crawls for the bathroom because trying to stand hurts too much. i think nothing of it, hand him some gas-x and water, then the maalox bottle, and head for work. liz calls me later at work, about 11:30am, to tell me that she and kev's mom are trying to find him a doctor, he's still in massive pain and that brando's on his way over with pepto and imodium. by about 12:30pm they can't find him a doctor and are running out of ideas, so i ask my boss to go home early and leave. not long after i get home brando shows up and we find a clinic in el cajon that will see him for $30 up front and the rest to be billed (we have no medical insurance). so we pile him into the car and head for the clinic. i fill out all the paperwork and about 5mins later, the nurse calls him back. he's back there all of 2 mins when he walks out and says lets go. i said, "go? go where?" and he says, the emergency room. the nurse had poked and prodded and read over his papers where i'd described his problem and said it sounded like his appendix head to ER. so we ended up at grossmont's ER where they immediately took him back to triage, took urine, took blood, and put us back in the lobby with a bucket until they could open a bed. about a half hour later a bed opens up and he heads back. his nurse back there tells him that at first glance on his lab work it looks like he's got an infection because his white blood cells are elevated but that the doctor wants an abdomenal x-ray to see if there's a blockage. i leave to go out to the car and get my bag-o-entertainment and on my way back hit the cafeteria for some snacks. i get back to his room in the ER and he's gone. they'd already taken him to x-ray. anywho...hours later, the doc comes in says the x-rays were inconclusive and he wants to do a CT scan. so they bring him 900ml of water with barium contrast in it and tells him to drink it as quickly as he can. so, half hour later, 900ml and an exceptionally full kev later it's gone. it then takes them another 2 1/2 - 3 hours to take him back for his scan. within half an hour of his scan being done the tech comes into his room, somewhat frantic and begins questioning kevin about did he drink all the fluid? and takes the bottle back with him. well, about 10mins later, the tech is back, even more frantic and again, asks kev did he drink all the contrast? did he drink anything after the contrast? has he had any other scans or procedures in the last 6 weeks that would've used barium contrast? and kev's like "no" to all of the above and asks "why? what's wrong?" and the tech then tells us that the CT scan showed that his stomach and duodenum are full of liquid that contains no barium contrast and that all the contrast had settled to his colon. there's a blockage somewhere in his system. finally the doctor comes in and starts asking him about his gastric bypass he had 6 years ago. tells us kev needs surgery and goes to find the number to the surgeon that did kev's bypass. comes back to tell us that he's going to be transported via ambulance to sharp memorial to have surgery with dr. melniczek (pronounced melon-check) because dr. wittgrove (the surgeon that did the bypass) wasn't on call this weekend and was at a conference in florida. at this point it's about midnight. i begin making the phone tree. by 12:30am kev's mom's already at sharp memorial and we haven't even heard when the ambulance is coming for him. long story short on this shenanigans, the doctor at grossmont mis-heard dr. melniczek, kev was supposed to go to scripps memorial not sharp memorial. it took them 3 hours to figure that out. the ambulance finally came for him sometime after 3am. we got to scripps memorial at around 4am, spoke with dr. melniczek until about 5am where it was decided that since kev was no longer in acute pain the surgery could be pushed back to sometime after 1pm that afternoon. he needed surgery for an internal hernia, something only post-op bypass patients can get. basically, during the bypass when they're re-routing everything they create possible spaces that don't exist in a normal abdominal cavity. anywho, kev's intestines found one of these such possible spaces and was trying to slip into it. the surgery would go in, pull the intestines out of the space, close the space, and back out. liz and i finally head home at about 5am. i finally crawl into bed about 6am, 23 hours after getting up at 7am friday morning for work. i was awakened at 8am, and then again at 9am, gave up on sleep and started my day. back at the hospital by a quarter to 1pm only to find out that his surgery was directly at 1pm. at 3pm dr. melniczek came out to say the surgery went well, they were able to do it laproscopically and he should be ready to go home the next morning. he was 3 hours in recovery. only because they thought he was having problems breathing when it was just his sleep apnea. anywho, today liz and i are back at the hospital around 10:30am, the doctor finally comes at around noon to finalize his discharge. kev's sleep apnea's so bad that the dr. tells him point blank, he's a walking time bomb set to die at any time. kev's been ordered back to the doctors that did his bypass to begin support group, a proper diet, and excercise. by the end of the year he should be upwards of nearly 100lbs. lighter. he finally got a prescription for a CPAP machine to help his breathing while he sleeps, now all we have to do is order him one.
so there was my lovely weekend...happy birthday to me, my husband has survived, thankfully, and once we begin our new diet with him, will be around for quite some time longer....