My post from 8-13-10. Surgery woes.

Aug 24, 2010

Im not sure where to start,  What a rollercoaster ride its been.  At this point im cautiously opptimistic and scared to death.  Here is a recap of my week.

Saturday.  Woke up feeling sick, Weighed myself and found out that i had lost 25 pounds in 9 days.  I was happy for about 10 minutes until I went to the bathroom and all that came out was blood and clots.  I called the hospital and they said come on in. After two more trips to the bathroom and having the same results I decided that I needed an ambulance.  My wife called her mom and she rushed over to get my kids so they wouldnt see daddy being put in an ambulance. 
Arrived at Magee ER.  They stuck me here and there (btw I could never bat for the other team....did not like it).  They decided to admit me for observation because they didnt know whhy I was bleeding,
Sunday.  A lot of sitting around having my vitals and blood count taken.  I was losing blood...dont know why.
Monday.  To scope or not to scope...that is the question.  My surgeon doesnt want to scope me for fear of injuring my new stomach and other connections.  We will wait and see how the blood numbers look,  Guess what...still dropping.
Tuesday.  Less and less blood in my body....how is this happening?  Wait and see........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wednesday.  Well Mr, Baumgardner, you blood count seems to have leveled off even if they r low...you will be ok and we are going to discharge you.  Um...Ok.  They come in and take out the IV and disconnect the heart monitor,  Jen and the kids are on there way.....but i dont feel good.  I make it to the bathroom and round two begins.  I call the nurse and she calls the dr. and I get readmitted!  I am losing faith and trust in the people who are supposed to be taking care of me.  What would have happened if this happened when i got home?  At this point i am really scared and frustrated.  What the F@#$% is going on?  I called Jen and told her to turn around and take the kids home and why.  She said ok.  About twenty min later she comes in and we just both break down.  She was stronger than i was....God bless her!  Im glad she didnt listen to me.  So, the dr. comes and guess what the plan is????? lets wait and see how your numbers look tomorrow.  Guess what?!?!?!?!? They are still dropping!  Im very weak and tired but they do schedule an endoscope to see what my new pouch looks like. 
Thursday.  Well I was NPO (no food or drink all night) and in the morning they gave me the endoscope.  There was debate about the results.  My dr. doesnt think that the pouch is the culprit, she thinks its my old stomach and that its a staple line bleed.  BTW they cant scope that far down.  They cleared out a little blood from the area.  Guess what we get to do now?  Wait and see how my numbers are.   All night long my levels dropped and they kept me npo. 
Friday.  My dr. wakes me up and says that we are going to scope you again both upper and lower just to rule those areas out.  We are also going to transfuse u with 2 units of blood. I ge the blood.  They take me down for both surgeries, they are going to do them in one sitting.,  I wake up in recovery and im still alive.  Yeah!  When i get back to my room I find that my dad, wife and surgeon are waiting for me.  Here is what my surgeon said.
"the endoscope showed nothing, however, there is a mass in your colon.  They took a biopsy of the mass but we wont know if it is cancer until tuesday or wed of next week.  It is in an area of the colon that produces cancer.  It was difficult to see because of all of the blood surrounding it.  We are going to have you do a colon prep on sunday and do another scope on monday."  She actually said this is good news because now we have found the cause of the bleeding and we can do something about it.  I agree with her about that!  Now I just hope and pray that it isnt cancer. 
Jen has a pretty positive outlook on it and I am trying as well, but it is some scary shit. 

I left alot of the ups and downs out of this post but I think you guys get the idea.  It should be a long weekend.  Please send your prayers to me and my family.  I know we will get through this and some day down the road it will be but an unpleasant memory.

BTW thank you all so much for the prayers and well wishes you have already sent my way.  You have no idea how much it helps.

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