Day 239 ~ An ileus · Mar 7, 02:03 PM by Dale
Patrick here. I’m in the room with mom and dad (Chris) as well. The short and immediate is that mom seems to be doing marginally better today, but we have had some positive news so far, with hopefully more coming when dad meets with Dr. Sarriera later.
We just had a visit from Dr. Graham, who is the surgical consult for mom’s main doctor, Dr. Sarriera. He answered several questions for us, mainly concerning mom’s gut. She has an obstruction in her bowel or “ileus,” he explained that there are two versions “mechanical” and “paralytic.”
If it was a mechanical ileus then it would have to be solved by surgery, an option we all dearly want to avoid. If it was a paralytic ileus then it would have to be waited out. Dr. Graham says that today’s x-ray looks better than yesterdays and they were able to detect some air movement past where the blockage was, which makes them think it is the latter of the two options. Basically it means the bowel is simply not pushing and so the food stuff ends up not going anywhere.
They’re doing everything they need to and are currently being fairly positive. So now we’re in a bit of a waiting game. We have to wait for it to resolve itself right now. She is going to be moved to a new room tomorrow into “intermediate intensive-care.” We don’t know which room yet, but we just know it is going to happen.
Mom’s spirits seem to be up a bit today. She’s still foggy, but she made a joke earlier that was 100% Dale Jarrett. Unfortunately it escapes me, something about making a break for it.
In closing: Our situation is still not good, she is very sick, but today is good news so far.
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Day 237 - Somewhat worse today Day 239 late Critical day tomorrow