Finally Home

Last week's illness continued to persist and get worse. Finally, on Tuesday morning I went up to the ER in Des Moines. Even after a rough ride, my belly still looked like I was pregnant. Initial x-rays showed a sluggish bowel and possible treatment would be surgery and/or a tube to pump out my stomach.

This wasn't my first experience with this situation, I had it in 2010 while working at CHAMP Camp and again in 2012. Both times involved long stents with an NG tube. However, I was on the vent both of those times. This time, I was concerned about how well I could breathe with my diaphragm pacemaker and half my nose plugged. Therefore, we decided to wait and try other treatment options.

The next few days consisted of a liquid diet and multiple med additions to get everything working. Friday night into Saturday morning is when it really hit hard. As I lay flat in bed, my belly looked like I was ready to give birth. Everything I could feel was in extreme pain. I requested a blood pressure check and found out it was 184/147 (my normal is around 90/50). My doctor thought it was helpful and chose not to treat the pressure, so I waited with every fast and hard heart beat for the subsequent stroke, but it never came.

By morning, it was decided to place the tube. If I had trouble breathing, then it could be removed after a couple hours. The nurse first tried a large tube just like my previous times, but it wouldn't go in. After some supply hunting, she tried a much smaller tube and it went in without any trouble. For the first hour, I was very concentrated on my breathing, but everything went well.

Over the weekend, more than four litters of junk was suctioned out and I finally started to improve. On Monday, the tube was removed and I had a free nose again. The liquid diet of beef broth tasted good in some way. Unfortunately, I don't think anything could have made the strained chicken noodle soup tasty. Tuesday was back to regular food, just slowly, as well as to home.

During this week I missed Thanksgiving, two family Thanksgiving parties, and my birthday. Had I trusted in God's care completely and done the NG tube Tuesday already, I could have likely saved a lot of time and discomfort. When I look at my daily reading schedule and how much I missed, it's a visual reminder as well. Friday night's experience also reinforced what I know that suffering in this world can be extreme, but is nothing compared to what is to come for those who ignore God's saving grace.

Yesterday and today have been a light-headed quad life and I can tell it has been a rough week. My next entry will hopefully continue to show improvement and God's continued grace.