Day 13 in the Hospital

Joe is still in the hospital.  We had a little setback.  They were getting ready to release him and had the TPN delivered to the house with the IV hookups, had the nurses on the way to the house to meet us when we got there, had the wheelchair next to his bed to take him out and he started vomiting.....a lot.  They cancelled everything and put him back in bed.  He's been vomiting every night. They are perplexed because he is having some bowel movements, yet he is throwing up.  It may be because the blockage is too narrow to process everything and he has more (TPN, Fluids and a little food - popsicles, jello) going in his body then he can push out.  It builds up, backs up in the stomach and he vomits every night.  They just performed an endoscopy to try and reach the blockage and open it up with a balloon.  They could not reach the blockage, so it did not work.  The good news is they found NO cancer in his stomach or the part of the small intestine they could reach.  We are waiting for the doctors to review the endoscopy report and decide what do to next.  They may do more tests to try and see what is happening on the outside of his intestines or they may perform a minor surgery.  The surgery would be to insert a stomach tube to pump the excess out of his stomach (instead of using it as a feeding tube).  They said it would be capped on the outside when not in use and when his stomach starts to fill up, we would have a manual pump to attach and pump it out of his stomach.  We all have mixed feelings about that.  Joe is obviously upset about the impact to his quality of life by carrying a pump and container around everywhere, but is willing to do it if that is what it takes to relieve the nightly vomiting episodes.

On a good note, we got Shelli up to NAU so she can get settled and ready for school.  That was Joe's #1 objective and he could not emphasize it enough.  We got the message and Shelli is moved in and ready to start studying.  Joe could not be happier.

Shelli and her roommates Morgan and Caitlin on their balcony

On another good note, we celebrated Amanda's birthday today.  We had a little party in Joe's room and told stories and got to laugh a lot.  It was great.  We also took Joe outside for a walk and even though it's hot here, he just kept saying how good it felt to be outside.  Here is a picture of the birthday girl and Daddy.

Happy Birthday Amanda!