Re: Update on Megan
From: toni welsh (twelsh1@hotmail.com)
Tue Jul 10 07:48:05 2001
At Mon, 9 Jul 2001, Amy wrote:
>
>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.
You got it I HATE that disease CROHNS, I worry so bad about my 25 year
old son. So far he has been very lucky! No problems since diagnosis.
Asacol is doing a great job for him. I hope Megan feels better soon. My
sister has had a terrible time with crohns!
Toni