ChefBeckyD
Gold Member
- 20,376
I won't be able to be online much for the next few days, so wanted to explain what has been happening, and ask for your prayers -
Late Sat. Night (early Sun Morn. actually) I got a call from SIL - my mom was throwing up large amounts of blood and was calling 911 for an ambulance. My mom, at the time, was taking care of my 2 young nephews, while my DB & SIL were taking oldest son to Kentucky to stay w/ other GP's for 2 Weeks. Some friends of theirs came and picked up the boys, and I met Mom @ Holland Hospital, to find her in ENORMOUS pain, and extremely sick. They admitted her and started a battery of tests, which went on for the entire day. She could only sit all curled up and hunched over - any time she tried to sit up or lay down, she would get violently ill again. She was on every single nausea med. they had, and also morphine for the pain, but nothing was even touching it! Finally a specialist was able to pinpoint that a hiatal hernia ( that no one knew she had) had caused her stomach to twist into a figure 8, and had pushed her stomach up under her lungs. Her stomach was distended to about 4 times its normal size! The Dr. sent her for a Cat-Scan, and called in a Surgeon......who then came in to tell me & my Aunt (who had come from Lansing to be with me) that this was extremely serious.......and that surgery needed to happen NOW - from the C-scan, it looked like a large portion of her stomach had died from lack of blood flow, and she (the surgeon) was just hoping they would be able to save the esophogus and a small portion of her stomach. Mom was at extremely high risk for Aspiration into her lungs when they would have to intubate her for surgery, and also other problems with her lungs from the infected stomach being pressed up against them......plus several other high rish factors. Best case scenario that she gave us was being able to save the esophogus, and a portion of the stomach.....worst case was ....well, we didn't even want to go there! My DB & SIL had raced back from Kentucky, and made it back just before she went into surgery. We took some time to pray w/ Mom,and then told her we loved her and said good-bye. 4 hrs later (10:30pm!) the surgeon came in to tell us about the miracle! They were able to save the whole stomach! She had about 2 liters of fluid in her stomach though, and her esophagus was paper thin, and a bunch of other stuff (tired right now, and so many details!) She is in ICU now on a ventilator.....has a feeding tube in her small intestine, and drain tube in her stomach and one also in her esophogus. She will be in the hospital for at least 2 weeks. We were able to see her last night, and then they told us we could go home, because they were going to keep her heavily sedated all night. I had gotten about 4 miles from the hospital when I got a call from the nurse saying that my mom had woken up and was very agitated and seemed a bit frightened. I immediately turned around, and went back - and spent the night w/ mom. Her hands are in restraints so she doesn't pull out the ventilator tube, and she doesn't like that....and she still has some pain, but NOTHING like it was before the surgery. She is able to write some questions and she had been talking alot that way (so hard for a big talker not to be able to talk with her mouth OR her hands!)
Please pray for her recovery.....she is still at high risk for Pneumonia......and very weak. Once she is out of the hospital, she will have alot of physical therapy, and her total recovery we were told could take months!
WE are extremely thankful to God for the miracle of her surgery, and how well it went - and for the fact that 4 Surgeons came in on a Sunday night (Including the one who is the "Expert" in W. Mi. in this type of surgery) to do emergency surgery! I'm so thankful that she is doing well and that today I have my Mom!
Haven't really slept in about 36 hours now, and I have a DR's appt I have to keep - will probably try to sleep a few hours after that and then go back up to the hospital. I have a show tomorrow night that I need to do, but was able to reschedule my show for the 14th (a friend is hosting and she was more than willing to work with me!) Pray also that I will be able to keep up my strength, sleep when I can, and keep moving when I have to!
I will update later, but I will be very limited in my time on CS for the next week or so! Love you guys - and thanks for your prayers and support!
Late Sat. Night (early Sun Morn. actually) I got a call from SIL - my mom was throwing up large amounts of blood and was calling 911 for an ambulance. My mom, at the time, was taking care of my 2 young nephews, while my DB & SIL were taking oldest son to Kentucky to stay w/ other GP's for 2 Weeks. Some friends of theirs came and picked up the boys, and I met Mom @ Holland Hospital, to find her in ENORMOUS pain, and extremely sick. They admitted her and started a battery of tests, which went on for the entire day. She could only sit all curled up and hunched over - any time she tried to sit up or lay down, she would get violently ill again. She was on every single nausea med. they had, and also morphine for the pain, but nothing was even touching it! Finally a specialist was able to pinpoint that a hiatal hernia ( that no one knew she had) had caused her stomach to twist into a figure 8, and had pushed her stomach up under her lungs. Her stomach was distended to about 4 times its normal size! The Dr. sent her for a Cat-Scan, and called in a Surgeon......who then came in to tell me & my Aunt (who had come from Lansing to be with me) that this was extremely serious.......and that surgery needed to happen NOW - from the C-scan, it looked like a large portion of her stomach had died from lack of blood flow, and she (the surgeon) was just hoping they would be able to save the esophogus and a small portion of her stomach. Mom was at extremely high risk for Aspiration into her lungs when they would have to intubate her for surgery, and also other problems with her lungs from the infected stomach being pressed up against them......plus several other high rish factors. Best case scenario that she gave us was being able to save the esophogus, and a portion of the stomach.....worst case was ....well, we didn't even want to go there! My DB & SIL had raced back from Kentucky, and made it back just before she went into surgery. We took some time to pray w/ Mom,and then told her we loved her and said good-bye. 4 hrs later (10:30pm!) the surgeon came in to tell us about the miracle! They were able to save the whole stomach! She had about 2 liters of fluid in her stomach though, and her esophagus was paper thin, and a bunch of other stuff (tired right now, and so many details!) She is in ICU now on a ventilator.....has a feeding tube in her small intestine, and drain tube in her stomach and one also in her esophogus. She will be in the hospital for at least 2 weeks. We were able to see her last night, and then they told us we could go home, because they were going to keep her heavily sedated all night. I had gotten about 4 miles from the hospital when I got a call from the nurse saying that my mom had woken up and was very agitated and seemed a bit frightened. I immediately turned around, and went back - and spent the night w/ mom. Her hands are in restraints so she doesn't pull out the ventilator tube, and she doesn't like that....and she still has some pain, but NOTHING like it was before the surgery. She is able to write some questions and she had been talking alot that way (so hard for a big talker not to be able to talk with her mouth OR her hands!)
Please pray for her recovery.....she is still at high risk for Pneumonia......and very weak. Once she is out of the hospital, she will have alot of physical therapy, and her total recovery we were told could take months!
WE are extremely thankful to God for the miracle of her surgery, and how well it went - and for the fact that 4 Surgeons came in on a Sunday night (Including the one who is the "Expert" in W. Mi. in this type of surgery) to do emergency surgery! I'm so thankful that she is doing well and that today I have my Mom!
Haven't really slept in about 36 hours now, and I have a DR's appt I have to keep - will probably try to sleep a few hours after that and then go back up to the hospital. I have a show tomorrow night that I need to do, but was able to reschedule my show for the 14th (a friend is hosting and she was more than willing to work with me!) Pray also that I will be able to keep up my strength, sleep when I can, and keep moving when I have to!
I will update later, but I will be very limited in my time on CS for the next week or so! Love you guys - and thanks for your prayers and support!
