We have GOT to stop going to Dr. Price's office. It seems every time we go, he creates new holes in Brent. Crazy. Today's visit was pretty good, and the CT from Tuesday was positive. The abscess is decreasing in size, just finding new ways to drain on its own. Another CT and appt. in two weeks. He is hoping to be able to start working a little bit in the near future. Maybe he is just tired of me hovering. The good news is that Brent is eating just about anything he wants. Yesterday we ate at Terra Mia (the best authentic Italian pizza ever!)and he had pizza and gelatto. Yum.

~Lisa

Well, lets see, another eventful day at the hospital. Brent said to tell you that we didn't know it was possible to make such a big hole in your incision with one little q-tip. . . well, Dr. Price can. We think that sometimes he forgets that when we are in his office, Brent is awake, unlike when he sees him in the operating room, out cold. Brent keeps springing leaks due to the abscess that never ends. So, now we have a rather large wound to deal with, but hey, we can do that. Been there, done that. I should start charging the insurance company for my services. :) They are saving a fortune. Anyway, Brent is doing well, despite the new hole in his gut. We even went out to lunch afterwards, which is really the first time we have gone out to eat (both of us eating) for a very long time. He happened to be under the influence of serious pain meds, but hey, I'll take what I can get. :) We are grateful for the little blessings as well as the big ones. Thanks again.
lisa

So, I really don't want to jinx anything, but Brent has been feeling pretty well the past two days. He's still trying new foods, and so far so good. :) It has been so long since he has been able to eat normal food, that when we were trying to make a list for the store, we couldn't remember what he used to eat that wouldn't bother him. It's pretty strange, but nice.

Medically, the drain has pretty much stopped draining, and the hole in his incision has almost stopped draining also, and looks to be healing. (mind you, I'm not a wound care nurse, but probably could be.)

General news: Michelle comes home tomorrow for our "other" daughters wedding. We love you Shalee!!! :)

Friday night date night?

So for our Friday night date night we decided to take a little jaunt up to LDS hospital. It wasn't by choice. I've been trying to figure out how to word this post without being really gross. I'll try to spare you the gorey details.

Suffice it to say that Brent had a CT done on Thursday. When he woke up on Friday his incision had a big bubble on it. We knew that couldn't be good. When we called the surgeons office they said they would call back later with the CT results. When they called they said there was another part of the big abscess that was not draining, and we needed to go to LDS as soon as possible to get another drain put in. Well, before they could even get him in for the procedure, the abscess broke through his incision. (sorry, yes it is gross.) Nobody really knew what to do, I mean these are a bunch of radiology techs, not surgical nurses. After about an hour and a half, and after conversations with the surgeon, they did another scan, and determined there was nothing left to put a drain in for. So, now we have an open wound, and nobody knew what to do about it since it was now 5:30 and everyone who is anyone had already gone home. While the techs were frantically trying to figure something out, we got a call from our Nutritionist who we know very well and who monitors everything that happens with Brent. She 'just happened' to run into Dr. Price at the other hospital, and he told her what was going on. She just kind of took over, and has made arrangements for us to meet today with her favorite wound care specialist up at IMC. Crazy.

So, no drain was needed, which spared Brent a ton of pain, and Merin called at just the right time to take over and make a plan in the midst of nobody else knowing what to do with him. She's our Nutritionist . . . yet so much more. Sometimes it really IS who you know.

He feels alot better since the abscess drained.

AND, the date wasn't a total bummer. LDS hospital is very close to Greek Souvlaki #1. You better bet that my dinner was pork souvlaki in a pita, red sauce, no onions. Brent had a pita. :)

Sometimes you just gotta take the little miracles for what they are. No, we feel like we aren't getting any breaks some days, but others He lets us know that He is still there.

. . . another day . . . another appointment.

So, we had an appt. with Dr. Price today up in SLC. It was short and sweet, the kind we like, as opposed to last weeks visit which lasted 8 hours. :) Not a whole lot of news. The drain is still in. We have to keep changing the antibiotic he is on since there are various types of bacteria that we are dealing with. What one bacteria responds to, the other is resistant to. Crazy. Brent was extremely happy to get rid of the Zyvox, which kicked his butt and made him sick. We are now on one that we infuse directly from a syringe.

Tomorrow we head to radiology for another CT scan to see if the abscess(es) are decreasing in size. If it shows that it is not draining right, then they will have to change the position of the drain in order to get all the areas of the abscess drained. Since the Doc is headed off on another vacation that we probably personally funded, we probably won't know the results right away.

On a happy note, Brent is trying different foods, and so far nothing has bothered him! Today he had a peanut butter sandwich! That may not seem like much to you, but to someone who has only eaten pureed/strained soups for almost 3 years, that is awesome! He had some tuna and cheese on crackers for dinner. Wouldn't it be great if he could eat a whole meal again? He still has TPN every night, but that could change to less frequent as he eats more. he will never be totally off TPN, since he doesn't have enough intestine to absorb any nutrients.

On another happy/interesting note, as we were reading our new insurance benefits for 2010, we see that our insurance company has now approved intestinal transplants. How cool is that! One less thing to worry about when the time comes to head to UCLA. :)

As always, thank you for your continued support and love. It hasn't exactly been the biggest scariest roller coaster this time, but a roller coaster nevertheless. The 'downs' are much easier when we know we have family and friends to lift us back up.
~lisa