A Dwayne update

(Patti writing) Oh my - a very different couple of days for us...

First, we are near Hershey, PA. I realized that although I updated our maps, I hadn't put that information onto the blog yet.  We have been enjoying this area.

Saturday morning, Dwayne got up and took his normal meds at 5am. At 6am, he woke with really bad stomach pains. He tried Pepto Bismol and an antacid that we had on the bus to no avail. At 7am, he woke me. We decided he needed to get treatment - but whether to go to urgent care or ER? I had read an article about this and blogged about it a couple of months ago: http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2016/04/urgent-care-versus-er.html
I remembered that it said that ERs cost more even if they provide the same service as an urgent care place, so I was looking for an urgent care place.

As I was looking at urgent care places via googlemaps on my phone, one of them had a checklist on their particular locations (like whether a particular location could deal with children's illnesses), and that checklist specifically indicated that severe abdominal pain should go to the ER. So, I looked for ERs, and Penn State Hershey came up as about the closest. I felt that a university hospital would probably be good, so we got to their ER a little after 8am.

It turns out that this hospital is the trauma center for the area, so they have an *active* and busy ER department. They were able to take us right back, though, and they started doing tests. One of the tests they did was a CAT scan (you would have thought that Miss Kitty or Tabitha could have taken care of that!). The results from that showed a bowel blockage. I guess it looked pretty serious - they said that sometimes these blockages will resolve on their own, but they were concerned that loss of blood flow to the area of the bowel would cause a portion of it to die and felt a better solution was surgery. They were waiting for a surgeon who was in the midst of a gall bladder removal to look at the results of the scan but went ahead and started preparing Dwayne for surgery.  I don't think either of us had any idea when we got up that our day was going to include surgery!

Part of the "preparation for surgery" included putting in an NG tube to "vacuum" out anything that was in Dwayne's stomach behind the blockage. Ugh - that was awful for me to watch, I can't imagine how bad it was to get it put in. Amazingly, after it had sucked out the Pepto Bismol and water that Dwayne had drunk, he was feeling a lot better. The tube provided anxiety due to feeling it in the back of his throat, so he was standing and walking around the room a little when the surgeon came in to talk to us. He explained that, after looking at the scan, he felt surgery was the right option, though he expressed surprise that Dwayne was standing up and saying that he really was not in much pain - the surgeon thought from the scan that Dwayne would be in bed in great pain. In 20/20 hindsight, I wish I had asked them to do the CAT scan again to see if the blockage had cleared... but I didn't. I did *think* of it at the time (or God's Holy Spirit gave me a nudge), but I didn't speak up. The surgeon also said that several trauma cases had come in so Dwayne's surgery would probably be delayed by a few hours into the evening (this was probably about 3:30-4pm).

We were very surprised when a lady came to take Dwayne to surgery at about 4:30pm, but she said they were ready for him. I went with them until we got to the point where I had to tell him goodbye and I headed to the Surgical waiting room.

They gave me a number to watch for on a monitor in the waiting room. It showed that he had gone into surgery at 16:46.

Dwayne was patient 24764873

After about 2 hours, the young lady (I think she was a resident) who had talked to us while the surgeon was still doing the gall bladder surgery found me in the waiting room and said that the surgery was done, but they were still closing Dwayne up and then bringing him out of anesthesia. She said that they had not found a blockage at all, but had found where it had been (there was stretched tissue "behind" where it had been and narrower tissue in front of it), but they were not required to remove any of his bowel, and there was no tumor. I guess the major concern with this was, since Dwayne has had polyps found when he has had a colonoscopy, that there might have been a tumor that caused the blockage to occur. She said that finding no tumor was extremely good news, but that there was no obvious reason for the blockage to have occurred - leaving the "cause" unknown. She also said that it would be a while for them to finish up as they put abdominal patients deep under (she used a more technical term) and she also said that they essentially need to paralyze him when they are sewing the abdominal muscles back together or otherwise they would never come back together (I didn't ask any questions about that). She said that they would let me know when he was in the recovery area.

About an hour later, the phone in the Surgery waiting area rang and it was the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) telling me that I could come to where Dwayne was. When I got there, he was awake, and seemed to be alert, but a wee bit loopy. I asked him today if he remembered the nurse there and he does not, so I don't think he really was all there. Once he was recovered enough, they discharged him to a room and he got transported to a room in the hospital.

Last night he was not feeling much pain; today he is in a bit more pain.

<<< next paragraph may be TMI - feel free to skip!
He is on IV fluids until he passes gas (indicating his bowels are working again). Then he will be able to eat, but will need to stay in the hospital until he has a bowel movement.

So, as of today, Sunday, we don't know how long he may need to be in the hospital. I'm a bit concerned that even after he gets out of the hospital, he is going to be very sore and limited in activities (like climbing the tall steps into the bus may be a challenge). But, as we wrote a few days ago, we know God is sovereign (http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2016/06/trusting-in-sovereignty-of-god.html), and none of this has taken Him by surprise. Dwayne took advantage of being in a place where there are hurting people and was praying for everyone within earshot while we were in the ER - if he heard someone crying or in pain, he and I joined in prayer for that person. Both of us prayed with the young lady doctor/resident who talked with us while the surgeon was finishing up the gall bladder surgery (and who eventually was the one who came to tell me the results of the surgery). Even in the PACU (recovery room), when he was a bit loopy, there was another person who came in there who had been in a motorcycle accident, and he prayed for that person - I should ask him if he remembers that!

I really think that this experience has made us even closer in our relationship - we realized that he could be taken from me very easily yesterday and talked about what  I would need to do if that occurred. We are cherishing even more that we have additional days together on this earth. Though he is secure in his relationship with Jesus and is ready to die, both of us hoped and prayed for more days together, and we're thankful God heard our prayer.

Hug your loved ones, tell them that you love them and you're glad that you have today with them! Keep Dwayne and me in your prayers. Thank you!