a "complete thought" version

Finally got a chance to sit down and write a real post in full sentences. Most of the other's today came from my cell phone.

Last night Dave started to feel "yucky". Although it seemed like a bowel obstruction from the burping and such, there was very little nausea grossness like there was 18 months ago. But this time he was in HORRID pain. There have been times in the past year that things just worked themselves out in a few hours and all we can do is sit and wait. So I got dishes done, paid bills, and prepared for a possible need to be busy away from home over the next few days.

At about 10 pm I went to get my 18 year old baby sitter so I would have coverage if we needed to leave in the middle of the night. I got home, walked in with her, and Dave came around the corner saying "Lets go." I knew he was in bad shape to be subjecting himself to that misery of 18 months ago again. { the treatment is less fun than the condition }

The ER was busy but the wait was not too bad. [funny side note, as the night went on, just about every patient that came in was in hand cuffs and escorted by police... kind of creepy! The staff was ever so nice to us because we were "normal people"]

They got him in, did lab work to rule out any other causes, and gave him a good stiff IV of Morphine and ran a CT scan. Then we waiting a loooonnnngggg time for the scan to be read. It indicated an obstruction build up was underway. [back story for anyone new to this blog - major surgery, causes scar tissue, scar tissue adheres to stuff - including intestines, and that can cause the "pipes" to back up = bowel obstruction] The doctor decided that since he was not having to deal with the vomiting, they would hold off on running the NG tube (we call it the "nasty-gross" tube.) unless that situation changed. But they did want to keep him for observation.

Today, I was with him from 9 until 2 with both kids in the room.

He was tired and resting. But he was not as bad off as last time. He ended up playing video games on a cell phone, and watching TV with his glasses on, and asking me to bring his book in tomorrow. Clearly, I have seen much worse than his current state! He is not in pain, or taking pain meds. But he is not hungry and I think that is one indication that his body still has some work to do on this subject! He is on IV fluids so that nothing needs to go through his digestive system yet. The general treatment plan on these things is "lets just give that system a break, help you loose weight, and give it time."

By 2:00, Aylin had dropped every toy I had with me, and there was no way I was giving them back after they hit a hospital room floor. If nothing else, all this time in hospitals is turning me into a germ phobe! We had lunch in the cafeteria. It struck me as odd how much Liam was so at ease with the idea of the adventure of trying to find the cafeteria and selecting food from it. I guess he has been eating in hospital cafeterias (off and on) for half his life. Its totally normal to him! At 2 we had all reached the end of our ropes, and we (Aylin, Liam, and myself) headed home. It was right after this that a colo-rectal surgeon doctor stopped in. (darn! missed him!) and said that they would be keeping him until Sunday or Monday.

We had a dear friend and her two mature children come by today and take care of / distract /play with the kids while I grabbed some much needed sleep. (got only about 3 hours of it last night). Tomorrow Liam is heading up the road to play with a boy he goes to school with. And then back to the friends on Sunday. ( I might attempt church...) So Liam is excited to suddenly have people to talk to other than me and is comfortable being shuffled to fun play dates. Aylin will stick with me and get to learn all about the wonders of the cafeteria....