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So, Rex finally got out of the hospital after a 17 day long stay.  They did surgery (after day 5 of being in there) and found that his feeding tube was eroding the tissue in his "old" stomach and that was causing the bleeding.  So, they took the feeding tube out and fixed the problem....or so we thought.  2 days later he was still having bloody stools and they ended up giving him 7 bags of blood since his hemoglobin dropped back down to 5.  Then after 13 days in the hospital with no relief of pain, they finally called in a GI specialist.  The GI specialist went down his throat with a scope and found a lot of dead tissue and a bleeding ulcer.  According to his normal doctor it is VERY unusual for someone to be bleeding in 2 totally different places inside their body at the same time.  He was bleeding in his old stomach and new pouch both.  So, for now the bleeding has stopped.  He is going back to work tomorrow....because we can't afford for him to be off anymore.  Hopefully this surgery did the trick.  He looks better because he gained 15 pounds in the hospital.  We'll see. :)

OK, so last week he went for his check up and got admitted.  He was in the hospital from Tuesday the 8th until Thursday the 10th.  So, this morning around 2:30 am I hear something that sounds like pots and pans banging together in the bathroom.  I jumped up and ran to the bathroom.  Rex had passed out and fell back behind the toilet, knocking the shelf over, and blacking out for 30 seconds!!!  SERIOUSLY!  ....so, he called the doctor (who was still asleep when she finally returned his call 40 minutes later) and she said to wait 1/2 hour and see if his dizziness goes away and if not, to go to the ER.  So, we both lay down and fell asleep.  Then at 5am he gets up and says he feels like he has diarrhea so I help him to the bathroom since he is soo weak and guess what...??!!  It's a toilet full of blood.  I'm not even joking.  AND, he has lost another 6 pounds since Thursday.  So, we called the doc back and she said to head to the ER NOW.  We flew up there, and now he's on a feeding tube, a PICC line, getting blood transfusions (because he has filled the toilet with blood 6 times since he has been there), fluids, and soo on and soo forth.  The doctor said he was not leaving the hospital until he gained atleast 20 pounds this time.  I'm at a loss.  I have no idea what to do now.  I feel like we are slowly losing the battle and he won't be able to take much more.  They haven't done anything to see where the blood is coming from because "no matter where it's coming from, the treatment is the same".....according to the doctor.  When I inquired about getting the RNY reversed, I was told that he is in too bad of shape to go thru another surgery right now.   He had 2 dreams last night that he died.  It's getting scary.

Dawn

OK, so....we go in to the dr. for his 2 week check up after the surgery today.  He weighs in and finds out that he has lost 22lbs in the last 14 days.  A lot of it was probably water and such from the previous surgery, but still. ...  He honestly looks like he is starving to death.  The doctor took one look at him and said she was going to admit him.  So, here we are again.  He's getting a "J-TUBE"....apparently the "G-TUBE" didn't do any good, as well as a PICC line again (remember the 1st one got infected).  They had him drink some dye (which he puked 3 times and finally got the 4th try) and took some X-Rays of his abdomen.  This was the first time they have done that, so lets hope they can get it figured out this time.  let's also hope that our insurance pays on the doctor bills because when they printed out his orders for admission to the hospital, on the bottom of the form it said that our balance was $23,000.00!  YIKES.  His cheeks are sunken in, the Dr. said she could see his shoulder bones through his shirt....it's a sad thing to see happening.  For someone to go from being sooo strong and happy to being sooo miserable and weak.  He can't even hold his own 8 month old baby for longer than 3 minutes.  His bones are weak and he's starting to hunch over when he walks.....He has no muscle and complains of chronic tailbone pain.  He's begining to lose faith.  I think we all are.

 Dawn

Rex went in for surgery at 9am on 11/13 for the removal of the big ulcer in his stomach.  They didn't have a problem cutting the ulcer out, so the surgery took around 2 hours.  Well, after recovery and about 5 hours later, I noticed that his drain bag was full, so I asked the nurse to empty it.  Then, after 5 minutes it was full again...and so on and so forth for 3 hours.  They called the doctor on call and took bloodwork.  Well, to make a long story short, by the time they did emergency surgery at 11pm, his blood pressure was down to 77 over 44, his heart rate was 143 and he had lost 7 units of blood.  During surgery, which lasted for 3 hours, they gave him 4 units of blood and he woke up on a ventilator in the ICU.  I've never been soo worried.  Apparently when they removed the ulcer through a hole in his belly button, they hit a blood vessel.  SERIOUSLY.  This has been a complete nightmare.  Still praying. 

Well the last visit to the hospital for a scope a couple weeks ago, revealed a huge ulcer that started at the top of the intestines and covered 1/3 of the inside of the stomach.  We knew he had an ulcer, but it started out small.  Apparently from all of the ballooning he has had done, it stretched the ulcer....and the ulcer is continuing to get bigger.  Well, so here we go...back to the hospital on Friday morning to get 1/3 of his stomach cut out since the medicine isn't touching the pain, and the ulcer is growing.  So, guess what this means...yep, a smaller stomach, back on liquids again, time in the hospital, time off work....for what?  What if this doesn't take care of the problem?  With everything else he has been through this far, it's hard for him to keep a positive attitude and keep going, ya know?  In the past 9 months he has lost 178 pounds.  He has gone from 330 to 152....Just this past week he has lost 5 pounds, so he is continuing to lose more every week.  He's 6'1" and his bones are sticking out everywhere.  Ofcourse he has skin hanging in his belly, butt, and under his arms....right there is probably another 10 pounds or more.  He can't sit on his butt still due to his tailbone hurting soo bad and his butt being soo skinny.  He has gone from size 44 pants to size 30 pants.  Please, Lord, let this be the answer to our problems. 

Well, Rex went in on the 14th to get his stomach ballooned for the 5th time since surgery!  He told the doctor to stretch it as much as she possibly could.....since he needs to gain about 30 pounds.  She got it stretched to a whopping 15mm!  And, let me just tell you that he feels better now than he has in the last 6 months.  He still isn't at 100 percent and doesn't think that he will ever be to that point, but it's a start!  Now, we need to get the ulcer under control.  He has been taking his medication and vitamins every day and has only puked a couple times since the ballooning!  That sounds like a lot, but keep in mind that he was puking several times a day.  We are still praying that he will get closer to 100% and will find a job closer to home so he can start going to church on Wednesdays and attending the church functions throughout the week.  Right now he leaves out on Monday mornings and gets home on Saturday afternoons.  He always does better eating and drinking when he is at home.  He can monitor it a little better.  Thanks for the prayers everyone!

  Dawn

Welp, made it home from the 3 day hospital stay!  Got the PICC line out and they said they weren't going to be able to put it back in because the infection was soo bad that they were afraid he wouldn't be soo lucky if it got infected again.  So..... We have to be back at the hospital on Monday to get his stomach stretched (yet again...4 times now).  Hopefully the ulcer will be gone so it won't be affected by the stretching.  I do believe his job gets more insecure as the days go on.  Really not a good thing with 4 kids.  I know GOD will take care of us though.  He always has.


 Dawn

So, been back in the hospital since Monday at 9pm.  High fever, very dehydrated and infected PICC line (on the heart end).  So now the PICC line is out and we are waiting for the infection to clear up and the fever to go down so we can put the PICC line in his other arm. ....the battle goes on.

OK.....I hope things are getting better.  I don't think he puked at all this weekend!!!  He's back out in the semi, so hopefully the TPN is working.  Keep praying! 

:o)