Lisa's thoughts about Love, Life, Lyme, and Liver disease

June 27th  - Heather and I would like to sincerely thank everyone who sent messages and offered prayers during her hospital stay and recovery from surgery.  Your kind words, thoughts, and support truly lifted her spirits and brought comfort during a challenging time.  Heather feels incredibly grateful and blessed to have such thoughtful, caring people in her life. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Heather came home on June 22nd.  The first few days were pretty rough.  Lots of pain and discomfort.  It broke my heart to hear her crying.  She was such a trooper and followed the surgeons instructions to move, walk, and listen to your body.  On the 26th, we spoke with the surgeons office about some of her symptoms and they decided to see her.  He said she was doing well and to expect some tough days, but reassured her that each day would get a bit better.  The bonus was they took her staples out a few days earlier than planned - YAY. ...

  I can just feel the love by looking at this sweet picture of us with Timmy, Joe's younger brother.  Timmy lives in Connecticut and is unable to travel anymore, but whenever he stayed with us, the joy and the love just filled the air.  Timmy and Heather adore each other.  When he visited, we laughed, sang, danced, had cooking parties, took boat rides, but most of all, we had quality time with Timmy.  Timmy loves his family and friends.   I chose this picture because it makes me smile and I know that Heather will be home tomorrow and smiley days like this are guaranteed.  I can't wait to spoil her with her favorite meals and watch her rest in the sun with the dogs.  Heather has started eating a few foods and tolerating them well.  They stopped the IV nutrition today which is fantastic.  The fact that these blog posts are getting smaller and less frequent are a great sign that things are moving forward. Thank you again for following ...

It has been a long few days for Heather.  She continues to heal, but still has significant pain.  In addition, her poor veins keep blowing.  They can no longer use her left arm, and her right arm looks like a pin cushion.  OUCH OUCH OUCH.  Fortunately, they call in a specialist to insert her IVs using doppler scanning to make sure they find/hit the best vein.  Yesterday, they had to reinsert within 4 hours after placing a new IV. For the first time in 12 days, she had a popsicle. Grape to be specific, that is considered clear liquids.  Who knew?   She had choices between cardboard Jello, broths, juices, sodas (she avoided yesterday due to carbonation), and popsicles.  For a few minutes, she had some relief. We are hopeful that today she can try soft foods!!!!   Yesterday, there was a fast-moving thunder and lightning storm that moved through the DC area.  Sadly. her hospital lost power for 3 hours. Yes, you read that correctly. ...

Monday was tough for Heather during the day.  Her arm with the IV and Midline started swelling.  It took a while to get a doppler to examine both arms.  She had clots that were superficial, so they need to remove both IVs and eventually insert two more.  Sadly, during this two-hour period, they were unable to give her pain meds.  They quickly got the new IVs working and relief was on its way. In the morning they clamped her NG tube for 4-hours.  She had a difficult time with pain, but the good news was when it was unclamped, there wasn't a large amount of fluid removed.  The surgical team visited her and they said it could maybe be removed later Monday evening. Now for the GREAT news.  They removed the NG tube around 6pm.  This is fantastic.  She can have a small sip of water and a few ice chips every hour or two.  She is tolerating the removal, so the hope is to start small amounts of clear liquids later today.  She will conti...

Sunday Sunday was not a fun day for Heather.  Of course, no day in the hospital is ever fun.  Her pain seemed to get a bit worse, which was expected a few days after surgery.  She did 10 laps today which was incredible.  The surgeon is pleased with her progress.  They started her on IV with nutrients.  She has had nothing to eat/drink for 8 days, so this will help increase her energy level.  Hoping to have NG tube out in a day or two!!!!!!   Happy Father's Day to Dad and Joe.   We have lots of celebrating to catch up on when Heather comes home (Kevin and Heather's birthday, Dad's birthday and Father's Day). Hug your loved ones. Monday Just arrived at hospital and Heather is sleeping - YAY.   Earlier in the morning I listened in when Doctors stopped by.  They decided to clamp her NG Tube and see how she tolerates it.  It will be clamped for 4 hours, then hooked back up to see how much fluid accumulated.  If things go well, ...

  I want to thank the Surgeon and medical team for taking care of my sweet Heather.  In a perfect world, surgery would have been under an hour, go in, peak around, make a quick fix, and close up the tiny incisions.   Heather's surgery took 3 1/2 hours (very long hours) The surgeon went in laparoscopically, but after examining her small bowels, he discovered extensive scarring (adhesions) throughout. To quote him, "I removed lots of scar tissue, but there was no clear area that I could see where the obstruction was.  I wish I could have found a specific area for concern, but there was scar tissue everywhere."  Given the amount of scarring, it has been building for a very long time, (back to infancy) they had to make an additional 8-inch incision to assist with the repair.   Fortunately, they didn't have to resection or cut out any intestine - that was amazing.  Sadly, he said the entire small bowels were covered in adhesions and there were lots of place...

Heather was admitted to the hospital on the 7th, for an intestinal obstruction and on the 11th things started looking up.  Thursday at 6am, they pushed the contrast solution through her NG tube, then clamped the tube to allow the contrast to work its way through the intestines.  The goal is for the tube to stay clamped for 6 hours, then they do imaging.   Sadly, 2 1/2 hours into the test, she started vomiting, so the suction was hooked back up.  The doctors hinted at surgery, but they needed to do more imaging and see how she progressed through day/night. Thursday afternoon things improved a bit for Heather and I was hopeful surgery could be avoided.  However, today, the surgeon just informed Heather that they need to do exploratory surgery.  Although there have been improvements, she still shouldn't be so nauseous and in pain, and the output from her tube is higher than it should be given no ice chips for the last two days.   My tough Heather is ready...

We finally have some encouraging news!!! Woo Hoo.  The fluid being withdrawn is looking better and the team is slightly hopeful that surgery can be avoided.  They can't perform the test mentioned in the previous post because they are still pulling out too much fluid.  I am hoping they can do the test tomorrow - or even better - maybe they don't need to do the test - a girl can dream can't she.   This is the first time in 4 days that Heather has smiled and talked.  Her pain and nauseau are being managed and she finally got some much needed sleep.  She had an IV in each arm, but because of meds they were pushing, the IVs kept failing so they had to insert a Midline which will make this process so much more comfortable. If Heather can avoid surgery, they are hopeful she can be released in 3 days.   Speaking of surgeries,  Heather has had three surgeries since September - one to repair a broken clavicle, another to remove the hardware from the broken ...

Heather became ill on her birthday and was admitted to the hospital with an intestinal obstruction.  Today is Day 4 and they are still treating Heather's obstruction using the NG tube to remove contents from her stomach.  There were lots of issues with the initial NG tube not working, so yesterday they replaced it with a larger tube which is extremely painful.  They are attempting to manage her pain, but as meds wear off and she waits for the next dose, she is miserable.   Tomorrow they will do a two-hour test that involves administering a water-soluble contrast agent through the NG tube and then monitoring its passage through the intestines with abdominal radiographs. This helps determine the severity of her obstruction and whether it can be resolved non-operatively.   If the fluid passes through, that will be AMAZING.  If it doesn't, she will need surgery.   It breaks my heart to see her in so much pain, but as I write this, she i...