Back to St. Luke's Hospital

July 2 -- Well, Nancy is back in the hospital today. After working nearly all last week to resolve the blockage in her intestine, the problem is just as it was last Monday -- well, maybe not quite as bad. After looking at the x-rays of her obstruction, her doctors decided to repeat the procedure they used last week to empty her GI tract. So, Nancy had to endure another NG-tube placement. She is such a good patient though, she just tries real hard to do what she is asked. So, right now (9:00pm) she is resting comfortably, watching the St. Louis Cardinal vs Arizona Diamondback baseball game on FSN-Midwest. Since we don't have cable at home, and Nancy has become quite the Cardinal's fan, the baseball game was her choice for TV viewing this evening.

The new wrinkle in this hospital stay is that her doctors no longer believe that just decompressing the abdomen with suction on the NG-tube will allow the blockage to resolve itself. Now they are talking about the possibility of surgery -- maybe making a very small incision and using the laproscope to see what is going on in her abdomen and only then will they make a decision as to whether to go ahead with what could be a fairly major surgery. On the other hand, they may not even want to take the chance of making her more uncomfortable with the laproscopic procedure. We really have to wait to talk about those options when the surgeon stops by tomorrow. Nancy's oncologist really can't make surgical decisions. That being said, her oncologist did tell her that if surgery isn't an option, there may be very little that can be done to improve her prognosis. That hit her pretty hard at first. However, after some tears -- by both of us, she seemed almost relieved that the "end of life" subject had been brought up. She didn't want to hear it -- and I still don't think she believes that she is there yet, and hopefully she isn't -- but it was good to at least have the subject brought up frankly by a doctor she respects very much.

I stopped home to have something to eat and to let our 4 month old poodle puppy, Cricket, out but Kelly had stayed home tonight so I was off the hook on taking Cricket out. While home, I grabbed a box of "Puffs with lotion tissues" to take back to Nan. If there is any significant crying ahead, we ought to have better tissues than the ones provided by the hospital. Those things could give you second degree abraisions by just rubbing them on your nose!

Well, I will add more news tomorrow after we discuss options with her surgeon.