Irv Update - September 2011 #13

Dear F&F; At 0410 AM I got a call from Virginia Mason that Irv wasn't breathing well and they were going to intubate him and put him on a ventilator. Irv adamatly refused. By the time I got there he was doing somewhat better. He wasn't keeping properly medicated for pain as he would fall asleep and not push his button (every 8 minutes he can get a dose) until he was in too much pain to keep sleeping or the alarm would go off because his oxygen level was too low. He was so exhausted after so many days of trying to breath with only one lung plus being in the hospital where it seems sleep is so hard to get with all the interruptions that he did manage to sleep somehow and was causing himself all these problems. He is getting better today, but was only able to take about 15 steps from his room before he was too tired and breathing too hard to continue. He has formed some fluid (plural edema) in the right lung - a not very common complication of the fluid being removed from the space. Isn't he special? I was pretty demanding of the doctors today to tell me what was going on and why. The admission was made by the intervention radiologist that he did puncture the pleura with the placement of the second bile drain tube. But when he said how rigid and resistant Irv's bowel was to get the drain into it I realized that no one had told him that Irv had a bowel blockage in that area. The doctor could push contrast fluid thru the tiny opening, but left to itself the drain couldn't work because it was smashed in the blockage. He also showed me CT pics taken on the 14, the day of the pancreas biopsy, the day after he was discharged, that showed the presence of fluid in the lung space. The GI doctor said he was unaware ("we missed it") that the external drains were leaking copious amts of bile before he was discharged. That would have precipitated another tube check wherre they might have found the blocked drain. Can you say medical malpractice? Don't these specialists talk to each other? I don't know where to turn or how to fix this mess. World Class medical care? I think not. I am exhausted and tried to have a nap, but since in my panic this morning I forgot to take the computer with me to the hospital, and people kept calling me to find out what was going on I finally gave up to write this. Sorry! There are possible long term side effects of the bile invading the pleural space. We still need to have the corrective surgery for the bile duct blockage. Another drain has been placed along with the chest tube yesterday and will continue to drain to the outside until that surgery takes place. No idea when, but Irv and I refuse to have him leave the hospital until it is done. He still doesn't have a diagnosis. Every doctor admits that. Again, I don't know where to go or what to do now for my husband. I hate this feeling. Penny