Update on Megan
From: Amy (adkramer@mediaone.net)
Mon Jul 9 14:17:50 2001
Megan has been admitted to the hospital. She's scheduled for an
UGI/SBFT with "enteroclysis" tomorrow.. which means that instead of
swallowing the barium, they will insert a catheter down through her
esophagus and into her duodenum, inflate it and put in the contrast that
way. It will be more uncomfortable/painful for her, but the surgeon and
GI feel that they will get a better picture of what is going on in her
insestines that way vs. the standard barium swallow.
Surgeon is still reluctant to do surgery *just* for adhesions, and is
basially looking for a clear reason to operate. He also needs to know,
if he does go in there, exactly what area of intestine he will be
targeting, rather than having to manipulate and look at all of it and
thus increasing the chance of adhesions throughout the intestine as
before. Laproscopy is NOT an option for her due to the extent of her
adhesions, he wouldn't even be able to get the scope through. Long
term, they are talking giving her a port-o-cath for better IV access,
especially if she won't be eating for awhile. She's pretty down but is
being a trooper. Still on only Ultram for pain, again, reluctant to
give narcotics due to the narcotic bowel syndrome she developed before.
Still, he paints a pretty grim picture of the future for her... says it
is likely she will have to live with pain from adhesions most of her
life, and will have to learn to deal with it. Plan is to create a team
of pain management specialist, gi, surgeon, and nutritionist to
coordinate her care, long-term.
Damn this disease (crohns) and adhesions.
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