Full Plate!

It's been a busy couple of days, between Ron and his Mom. Sorry my last e-mail was a little scattered...I was so tired and was literally falling asleep as I tried to get the update out!

Tonight, I'll start with Ron:

He continues to have a rough time with eating so Dr. Arslanlar has now backed him off to clear liquids again and is scheduling his EGD (endoscope down throat) for the first part of next week. Poor guy, felt really lousy Friday morning with gagging, choking and throwing up along with emptying 350 cc out of his g-tube. He's getting to the point where he's afraid to eat. Once he got his stomach empty and rested for a while he felt better. We also had to up his dose of diuretic and now, day 3, it is finally beginning to kick in.

I took him up to HEB Friday evening to visit his Mom. Afterwards, we stopped by the CCU(ICU) to visit with his former nurses. They were so surprised to see him come walking in! It was great to visit with them!

On to Ron's Mom:

Ron's brother, Ken, and his wife, Shar, came down Thursday evening and have been staying with Papa. I arrived at HEB at 8AM Friday morning in hopes of catching her doctor but he had already been there. Her nurse was preparing to give her a blood transfusion because her hemoglobin had dropped from 10.9 when she arrived Thurs to 8.4 Friday morning. Ken and Shar came up and spent the majority of Friday with Mom at the hospital. Sometime during the day Mom had an extremely bright red bloody stool so plans were made to do a colonoscopy Saturday. Shar started the process of getting her to drink the gallon of fluid. Mom was none too happy after about halfway through. They decided to do a bleeding scan to see if they could pinpoint if the bleed was in the upper or lower GI; her's indicated upper so an EGD was scheduled. She was thrilled to not have to finish the fluid.

Saturday morning, I again arrived at 8, determined to catch doctors, this time with great success! I was able to catch both Dr. Shea (GI) and Dr. Karing (primary care). They gave her 2 more units of blood...hemoglobin now down to 7.7. They had also called in a cardiologist to clear her for the EGD because her cardiac enzymes were continuing to increase; indicating she has had a heart attack sometime in the last 24-72 hours. After the GI doc and cardiologist consulted they decided the benefits outweighed the risks of doing the EGD. The most pressing need was to find the bleed and get it stopped. The bleeding causes decrease in overall blood, causing strain on the heart and forcing it to work harder. They feel the bleed and the distress it caused the heart is probably what caused the heart attack.

Ken, Shar, Papa and I waited in the GI lab and were able to talk with both the cardiologist, before, and Dr. Shea, after, the procedure. EGD went well; they did find active bleeding in the very top of her stomach which they cauterized as best they could due to the awkward position and also shot it with epinephrine to get it to clot off; it was still oozing blood but should continue to heal up on it's own over the next 12 hours or so.

Ken left for work; Shar took Papa home to feed him and let him rest and I headed up to Mom's room to be with her when she woke up. Ryan and Stacee arrived shortly after they brought Mom up and were there when they did an echo cardiogram and an EKG in her room; we'll find out results tomorrow. As far as the heart issue goes, she is not a candidate for blood thinners due to the bleeding issue nor will they do anything invasive at this point. She is having no pain or exhibiting any other symptoms but they believe she probably has an underlying heart problem, the bleed just unmasked it.

Even though she was originally diagnosed with pneumonia, it must be very slight. Other than starting her on antibiotics; this has not been an emphasis at all and she has no other symptoms other than the x-ray results...no coughing, fever, etc. She also has a urinary tract infection.

I left around 2:30 and Shar was back up there from 3:30 until after her dinner. I headed home and crashed for about 3 hours...one tired pup!!! I am so thankful the kids are here...they are all extremely helpful with Ron as well as G'ma and Papa!

Please pray:

for Ron has he continues to deal with eating issues & side effects

open heart and mind for G'ma and Papa to the reality of what this means for their future; when I spoke with their family physician he said he has been telling them for years he feels they need to be in assisted living but he can't make them do anything...it's up to the family to force the issue if they don't recognize it on their own...it's either that or hire 24/7 caregivers

as we adjust to my work schedule, Ron's care and many doctor/hospital visits and being able to help with and just spend time with G'ma and Papa

Thank you for your prayer support and encouragement as we deal with these various issues!