Here We Go.....Again

Thursday morning around 5:00 a.m., I was woken up to my husband telling me to call the doctor. He had been up and in pain for 13 hours with what he thought was acid reflux. We called the doctor, she called back and said we needed to get to the ER. We got to the ER around 6:30, got right in and to a room. The doctor thought he was having issues with his gallbladder. Apparently, Crohn's patients have a greater chance of gallstones. They ordered a sonogram to check. The sonogram showed there were gallstones, but did not think that was the cause of Chris's problems. The tech also noticed that Chris's stomach was very full. Given Chris's history, that is not a good sign. The ER doctor then ordered a CT scan. The CT scan showed an obstruction in the small bowel. Chris's Crohn's doctor decided to admit him and see if they could get the obstruction cleared up. They put a tube in to get everything out of his stomach. Once they did that, they needed to wait to see if the stomach would go back down or if it stayed distended. The only problem was the hospital was completely full. They did not have a room for him. He ended up staying in his room in the ER until 12:30 Friday afternoon. Then, he got moved to the women's hospital at Baylor. Oh, well. Friday morning they did an x-ray and noticed that Chris's stomach was no longer distended so they decided to try to start clear liquids. If he could tolerate clear liquids without getting sick, they would start him on soft foods. He was able to handle the clear liquids, so Friday night for dinner he got soft foods. He has been on soft foods all day today. Now, we need his body to start processing the food and passing it through. That has not happened yet. So, he is still in the hospital. We fear another surgery. He is only 5 1/2 weeks out from the last surgery. The down side is that there is nothing we can do to keep these obstructions from happening. They are caused by adhesions due to scar tissue. The more surgeries he has, the greater chance of getting them. Chris is just going to have to be very careful about what he eats and make sure he chews his food very very well.

We really do appreciate everyone who has been praying for Chris and for our family. Please continue.