Irv Update - January 2011 #5

Dear F&F;

Sometime last night Irv's heart reverted to a normal sinus rhythm. He couldn't tell it was in a-fib, and he couldn't tell when it came out. I guess a lot of people can tell when their heart is screwing up, but not Irv! He is still on the Cardazyme (sp?) thru an IV line. I don't know how long they will keep him on that. I was wrong about him getting glucose in his IV. He was just getting the boluses. Still his glucose levels were too low, around 60-70 so he is now on glucose IV's.

After an endocardiogram Irv's heart was okay and no clots had formed from the a-fib, so he finally had the surgery about 4:00 pm today. NO cancer was found anywhere!! Yahoo.

His pancreas had a hard/woody feel to a large portion of it. Probably due to the autoimmune process, but not cancer. Dr. K. was so sure there would be some cancer somewhere, so now he, along with everyone else, have no idea why Irv is having so much trouble. It must be autoimmune, but right now no one can say why. I hope and assume that we will finally be referred to OHSU in Portland for some sort of work-up by specialists that aren't available here in Bend, but that is a guess on my part. He will certainly have to be healed from this surgery before that will happen.

From the exterior of the bowel, there was no indication there was a obstruction! Dr. Kowalski could feel and manipulate it, but otherwise it would have been hard to detect if the endoscopy on Jan. 7 hadn't confirmed it was there.

The by-pass was completed successfully. Irv is now seriously nutrition depleted so tomorrow a PICC line will be placed for IV nutrition called TPN. Trans parenteral nutrition, I think is what that means. A dietitian came in today and explained the process. There are about 4-5 steps Irv has to complete before he will be allowed "real" food again. TPN is #1, then when they are sure the stomach and bowels are working clear liquids is #2, then #3 is liquids like Ensure, #4 is bland mushy food, etc.

He will not be allowed to eat anything by mouth for 2-3 days (at least) so it was felt he needed this other type of nutrition now to not only help him get better but to help him heal faster.

It is expected that he will stay in the hospital for 5-7 days. He will remain in the Intermediate Cardiac Unit for at least another day, then probably be moved to a regular room without the continuous heart monitoring. He has to be at least to #3 above, if not #4, and passing stool, before he can come home.

I'm so exhausted that I may sleep for 12 hours tonight! I hope Irv will be able to rest as well. He still has the damn NG tube in his nose and into the stomach, plus a urine catheter as well. Neither of those is making him happy. Too Bad - I say. Deal with it! At least now we have hope he will start getting well! I imagine tomorrow the PICC line will be another annoyance.

Any interesting news and I will pass it along.

Penny