The C Word – A New Battle Day 294 - Rough Start to Retirement

Well, this is not exactly what I had expected as my “start” to re-retirement.  It’s only been six days since my last posting – and things went downhill rather quickly.

I ended up getting a cold/upper respiratory issue which knocked me down for a few days.  (So much for getting outside and finishing any planting!).  Had no energy because I couldn’t take deep breaths.

Finally, Saturday I started feeling better and started doing some crafting upstairs.  Downstairs, George was starting to get bad abdominal cramps.  By 3:30 we were on our way to the emergency room to figure out what is going on.

Over the course of the past few days, we are not much farther ahead than when we began.  The CT scan did not show any blockages, but there was still much pain.  They noted some anomalies with the pancreas and wanted to investigate further.  They admitted George that night.  Fortunately, we ended up in the post-surgical ward which is a place we are very familiar with and where I can spend the night. 

The next morning we are told that George might have pancreatitis… or a bile stone… or a blockage near where the liver and pancreas empty into the small intestine.  Treatment, pain meds and IV fluids.  Later in the day we find out that pancreas and liver enzymes were extremely high (pancreas at 5000 where normal is 50-300).  Just keep pushing IV and morphine. 

This morning the enzymes had come down quite a bit – but still abnormally high.  Although the doctors were thinking along the lines of having an ERCP (endoscopy procedure), they later ruled that out.  At least for now. 

This evening we were visited by a GI doctor.  According to him, he doesn’t believe it pancreatitis at all.  He thinks perhaps there was a small blockage.  Somewhere…. But blockages don’t always show up on scans.

So, here we sit after two days in the hospital and expect to be here at least a day or two longer as we wait this out.  My husband appears to be an anomaly – no one knows what the problem is!  As I said, we don’t know much more today than we did two days ago.

We DO know that the amount of cramping episodes has decreased, but still exist.  We DO know that the plumbing works.  We are grateful that, while nauseas at times, that’s all that ever took place. We are grateful that we have nowhere else we need to be right now.  So just kicking back.  This is the first time since all of this started that I have not been torn between two places.  (work, grandma, home, kids, etc)  Not that we enjoy being here, of course, for no one likes to be in the hospital.

The plan is to perhaps start on a clear liquid diet tomorrow and test tolerance levels.  If that works okay, then on to soft foods.  At some point, we will get to go home.  Just not exactly sure when at this point. 

Hopefully, this will not be the trend for us!  Me sick… him sick… etc. etc. etc.  Just got retirement off to a rough start.  Things have GOT to go up from here… right?