Back to the Hospital

My bowel obstruction just won't release and I am quickly going downhill.  The Afinitor is driving my kidneys into failure so I have stopped taking it.  The TPN was driving my liver into failure so we had to remove lipids from the TPN, greatly reducing the caloric content.  Furthermore, I am unable to keep anything down other than sips of water and ice chips.

My weight has plummeted.  This morning, the scale gave me the scary number of 133.2 pounds which is my absolute lowest ever by far.  Some of that is probably dehydration but there is some truth to that number and that is incredibly scary.  I am 6' 3" tall and 133 pounds is the kind of weight you would expect from an unhealthy runway model or a victim of anorexia/bulimia.

So, we have three different critical issues right now and enough is enough.  I am trying to wrap up things around the house today and will be going to the hospital tomorrow to see if I can get stabilized in some fashion.  At the same time, I have a message into my doctors in NOLA to see if they have suggestions as well because it is becoming urgent.

We were hoping to get my strength back over the next few months prior to having a major abdominal surgery but I don't think we will get that chance.  I think we need a surgery fairly soon and my being weak is going to be just another risk factor that we will need to consider.  Right now, I don't see any way to get more calories.

TPN can't go too high with just dextrose and amino acids as that will cause problems with the pancreas and type 2 diabetes.  I can't swallow anything so there is no way to get calories orally.  I am starting to experience some pretty severe abdominal cramps from the obstruction and then I also had the joy of fecal vomiting last night (experienced once before in a previous bowel obstruction).

I am quite miserable right now and we need to find a way out of this.  I dread surgery and the recovery that is likely to be long and difficult.  I fear getting stuck in New Orleans for several weeks before and after surgery.  I worry about my wife and her new job, needing to take time off to take care of me while I am in and post surgery in NOLA.

On top of all of that, we have my daughter graduating from high school and I would love to be back home and at least partially recovered by her graduation in mid May.  We have club soccer starting up for Forrest and are down a driver with Riley in College.  We look at the enormity of everything coming up and it is scary.

Many people have offered help and we may need to rely on them heavily over the next period of time. One other thing (and this is Really a whine), we had a ski-in ski-out condo at Crested Butte and I saw it as my once chance to go skiing, even just a few easy green runs, this season.  Obviously, that is out now too.

Bit of a downer and rambling post here and I apologize for that but that is a reflection of the situation that Stephanie, my family, and I are in at this point in time.