Update on Patrick

I'm home from another day in hell the hospital. Patrick has asked me a few times to go ahead and let everyone know just what was going on with his surgery and his complication. But I'm having a very hard time doing it.

I asked him, "Wouldn't you rather do that when you can?" But he knows he won't be updating his blog anytime soon.

So here is the Reader's Digest, dumbed down version of what happened. I'm sure he (the very well-educated patient that he is) will explain it much better than this if he ever gets out of the hospital.

Back in September, Patrick had surgery to help resolve the three issues that were keeping him from being able to swallow. He explains it all here.

Although it took him a long time to heal, when I visited him at Thanksgiving, I was amazed at what he was able to eat. I had never seen him eat without using pints and pints of water to force his food down. Things seemed to be going pretty well. Not great. But okay. (He can explain that better.)

But the last few months have been a major backslide. In fact, when I went out to dinner with him on Sunday, he was worse than I've ever seen him.

The thinking was that the "wrap" at the bottom of his esophagus was either too tight, or it had slipped. Personally, I was voting for the slip, because it seemed to have gotten so much worse so quick.

But what do I know. It turns out that he had adhesions. "An adhesion is a band of scar tissue that binds 2 parts of your tissue together." He had so many adhesions that the surgeon couldn't tell the difference between his esophagus and his stomach.

And so he accidentally punctured his stomach. Or as Patrick told me while spaced out on morphine in recovery, "I have a hole in my stomach."

Well, better to get it in the OR then on the street.

He wasn't happy when he woke up in recovery and had a tube in his nose. It is draining his stomach for now. On Friday, they will test to see if his puncture has healed, and then he should get the tube out.

He'll be staying in the hospital until at least Sunday. Funny how that day keeps getting pushed up and up.

For most of today he was running a bit of a fever. He was also very uncomfortable because his 85-year-old roommate-from-hell's wife kept pushing the heat higher and higher. I'm going to let him tell that story.

The very wonderful nurse was able to move him to another room but when I left tonight he was still running the fever. Not exactly great news.

All in all, he's okay. He looks amazingly good considering all he's been through. Let's just cross our fingers that his fever goes down and his tube comes out.

He'd appreciate some visits, especially since I'll be leaving for home tomorrow (Thursday). My husband is going TDY (on a business trip) and I have to get home to take care of the kids. Just a fifteen minutes visit would help make the time go faster for him but not wear him out.

I thought leaving him on Monday night was hard, but leaving for the airport tomorrow is going to suck great big donkey butt. Please keep a good thought for him this week. He deserves to heal quick and be comfortable more than anyone I know.