Boy oh boy, things have
certainly changed around here in the last week.
I’m going to try to make this as short as possible, which is going to be
hard, especially since I’m long-winded. :) And
this doesn’t have much to do with Ashlan, but it’s her life too, so we’re going
to document this. Last Tuesday, Dan was
at work and whenever I talked to him all day, he was complaining about how bad
his stomach hurt. We just chalked it up
to a stomach virus. He actually got sick
at work and came home a little early (like 15 min, so not too early). When he walked in the door, he was completely
white and said he felt like he was going to throw up again. He also couldn’t stand up straight, only bent
over. The rest of that night and the
next day were just awful for him. He
kept throwing up, didn’t get any sleep, and pretty much spent the night and the
next day on the floor by the toilet.
Everything he ate came back up within 20 minutes or so. Finally, after 24 hours of this, we took him
to the ER, still just thinking he was just extremely dehydrated from a really
bad strain of the flu.
We got to the ER about
5:30 on Wednesday evening and there was about a five hour wait ahead of
us. Obviously, having no family down
here and a baby, I knew I was going to have to leave Dan alone (regretfully),
and take Ashlan back home at some point so we could sleep and so Caesar would
get his food and medicines. I didn’t
want to, but if you know our daughter, she is a firecracker when she’s upset
and no one in the ER wanted to hear that anyway (and we also found out we
couldn’t have strollers in the ER also, so there goes her just sleeping in her
stroller if I had stayed with him). I
told Dan I’d go home with Ashlan (this was around 8:30pm) and come back and
pick him up whenever he called me after fluids had been administered and he
felt better. Well, I knew something was
up when he texted me in the middle of the night and said they gave him
morphine. Morphine?! For the flu?!
Apparently it was for his stomach pain, and since he was on that
medication, he was so out of it and our communication was very limited. Needless to say, I didn’t get any sleep that
night…and also, Ashlan had had a really bad cough that kept waking her up,
making her lose her breath, and sometimes resulting in her throwing up. She was waking up about every hour or so, so
I really couldn’t get any sleep anyway, not to mention I was extremely, extremely
worried about Dan. Then, a few hours
later, he told me that he had a Naso-Gastrointestinal tube in. I knew that wasn’t normal for the flu so
something else had to be going on.
Well, the “flu” turned
into a bowel obstruction and he’s been in the hospital ever since Wednesday
night. The doctors decided to let his
bowel rest for a few days to see if there was a change in the obstruction. They told us if there was no change that they’d
have to operate and would give Dan until Sunday to try to pass the obstruction
by himself with bowel rest. In the
meantime, he was getting fluids to try to flush it out but obviously couldn’t
eat because he would just throw up again (and he had the tube down his
nose/throat). Unfortunately, there was
no change on Sunday and they had to operate.
Luckily for us, Dan’s dad flew down on Friday to be with him when I
couldn’t be because of Ashlan, and my parents drove down and got here on Monday
so they could take care of Ashlan and I could spend more time with Dan. Ashlan really has been such an angel through
this ordeal!
Anyway, Dan’s surgery was
scheduled for Sunday morning (March 4) at 8am.
The day of the surgery, we came down to the hospital in the early
morning so Dan could see her and me before he went under, so we got to the
hospital around 6:30am. He ended up getting
taken down around 7:15am to be prepped, and then went into surgery around 8:30
or so. During his surgery, I was trying
to keep Ashlan busy and then she started to get fussy, so I put her in her
stroller and walked her around the halls, hoping she’d fall asleep so I could
be there for when Dan woke up (it was supposed to be around a half hour
surgery). She ended up falling asleep
(thankfully), and the surgeon came out around 9:15 and told us that unfortunately
it was not a routine surgery. The
surgeon ended up finding a golf-ball sized mass in his small intestine, which
was pretty much completely blocking it. I
am so glad Dan’s dad was here so I didn’t have to hear those results by
myself. The mass was sent out to be
biopsied but we had to wait a few days for those results. We are currently still waiting on the
results, which are supposed to get in today so we are on pins and needles. Please say a prayer for us!!
Ashlan is finally
starting to feel better, though she still has a cough. She definitely wakes up less at night and is
not losing her breath as much anymore from the coughing. And I should mention I went to the
Pediatrician’s office twice with her last week while Dan’s ordeal was going on
(don’t know how I found time for that!) but she only needed over the counter
medicine. She would cough so hard that
her face would turn red and she’d be gasping for breath, and then sometimes she
would throw up. That was not fun having
to do so much laundry, driving back and forth to the hospital (a 30 min drive)
two times a day so Ashlan could get her nap at home, trying to spend time with
Dan, and taking care of Caesar too. I’m
so glad that my parents came down to take care of Ashlan and that Dan’s dad
came down to spend time with Dan. I don’t
think we could ever repay them for all they’ve done for us these past few days!
Here are some pics that
I took before Dan went into the hospital and some at the hospital. I just pray this ordeal will be over with
soon and he can be home with us.
At the park before Daddy went into the hospital.
Got to bathe in mommy and daddy's tub while daddy was sick that day.
Eating cottage cheese. She was doing good with the spoon so I let her have at it...when I looked at her next, she had stuck her hand in and was using her fingers to scoop out the cottage cheese. :)
With Grandpa visiting Daddy in the hospital.
No comments:
Post a Comment