Monday, September 5, 2011

Mike in Hospital

You ALL know that I HATED taking Mike to the hospital. I HATED that he usually left with different problems than he went in for. Unfortunately, last night I had to take him to the ER and he has since been admitted.
He had a fever on Saturday, but otherwise seemed OK. Yesterday he ate and drank fine, but around 7:30 he started throwing up every 15 minutes and it was a dark liquid, almost black in color. My first and immediate concern was that he was bleeding internally. The last time he had thrown up like that, with that color was when he had to have emergency surgery to remove an infected, bleeding gall bladder filled with stones. I called Hospice and they suggested a suppository to help alleviate the nauseousness. It didn't work, and he kept throwing up. I knew something was wrong, so I called an ambulance.
He was admitted with a POSSIBLE bleeding ulcer. They will be scoping him to see what's going on and they've put him on an IV with something to coat his stomach. Courtney and I left the hospital at 4:30 a.m. and will heading back there shortly. Three hours sleep...not so bad.
A couple of things make this even more unfortunate. First, this weekend Brandon came back (on his own) to surprise us. He will now have to take the train back to college with this on his mind. Second, as we sat in the emergency room watching Sunday turn to Monday, Courtney "celebrated" her birthday. She spent the first few hours of her 20th birthday in the hospital with Mike.
I thought we were past all this. I could NOT consciously NOT treat Mike if he has something that can be treated. He had been written off many years ago by so many professionals and had we listened to them, Mike wouldn't be here. If this was a decline due to Alzheimer's and a result from it, it would be a different story...but throwing up blood wasn't something I could ignore and not treat. Please pray for our strength.

1 comment:

Kathy Knowles said...

Praying with you and for you, Karen. I agree wholeheartedly with you taking him to the doctor. Throwing up blood is not part of this disease. You have to be so weary, but God gives you strength. He will continue to bless you, and you are doing the right thing. Don't ever doubt it.
Kathy