Back in the Hospital

Things continued to go down-hill for Joe and he ended back in the hospital today.  The good news is they found the problem and have been able to finally get him some relief (thanks for those prayers!)  To make a long story short, the effects from radiation wreaked havoc on his bowels.  They were in a constant spasm, which caused massive diarrhea, which lead to dehydration (hence the hospital visit on Sunday).  The CT scan on Sunday revealed a blockage from former surgery (scar tissue + cancer), but it wasn't blocking enough that things weren't still working.  Then Joe kept getting worse and worse.  Dr. S told us to get to the ER if he started vomiting.  Joe and I were up all night last night.  He was having terrible cramps and then this morning, the vomiting started.  We went straight to the ER where they discovered that his bowel had twisted since Sunday.  It caused a complete blockage, which lead to unbearable pain.  They immediately put in a tube down his nose to his stomach and started draining.  They filled up 1 1/2 containers in 5 minutes.  It was wild in there, but Joe felt instant relief.  Depending on how Joe's body reacts, will determine what is next and how long he will be in the hospital.  If all goes well, Joe's bowels will untwist (they are doing some non-surgical procedures to help that along), they start working, Joe starts drinking/eating on his own and we are home.   If they don't untwist, then they have to operate.  Dr. Ong is the only one that can operate on Joe, so we have to wait and see if/when that happens.  Prayers now needed for no surgery.  It would be such a setback for Joe.  He's been through so much, that the thought of surgery is just frightening to everyone.  Dr. S wants to start chemo on Aug 20th.  Surgery would delay those treatments as well.  Thanks to everyone for your prayers, support, emails, texts, phone messages.  Thanks to all my co-workers and boss for helping me through this as well.  As always, our support team is pulling us through.  XOXO Sherrie