Here We Go Again

I am going to quickly post this before I head back into the hospital. A lot of people are wondering what happened... this is what I was writing last night thinking I might get a decent sleep.

Not much has changed in the last 24 hours. They had to continue giving him morphine throughout the night every 3 hours and he continued to vomit. Because they were planning on doing the sigmoidoscopy today he wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything after midnight. That slowed the throwing up down but not the pain. His tummy continued to get distended. We finally were able to see a real surgeon this afternoon since we were admitted to the hospital on Thursday night... don't get me started. We also discovered his oncologist has not been informed of what is going on and is not in coordination with any of the other doctors...don't get me started. So a call was put into him this morning and I guess he has 24 hours to come and see us. So far no visit. Anyways... the surgeon came in this afternoon right when Layne's pain got bad. It was a huge blessing. Usually he can go 3 hours without too much pain but this time around, it only lasted 1 hour 20 minutes and was unbearable. It was horrible to watch but at the same time I was so happy it was happening while he was there. He decided to cancel all further testing and decided Layne must have a partial block somewhere (as he has been having a hard time passing gas or having a bowel movement since saturday afternoon). He ordered abdominal x-rays right away and then had the nurses put an NG tube down his nose into his stomach. This is supposed to relieve all the bile and gas build up in his stomach and help relieve the pain and take away his stomach distention. He said most likely the partial block is from a twist in his bowel due to either inflammation from the chemo or scar tissue from the surgery site.

This will be a waiting game too. He said once we get all the gas and fluids that have been backing up out of him his bowels will have time to heal and the inflammation should reduce. That should allow the block to heal on it's own. If not we would have to do surgery and they don't want to do that especially because he had a surgery so recent and he is currently doing chemo. So far this has made the most sense to us so far and brought us the most comfort.

It seemed like the NG tube was doing it's job. His pain seemed to subside and he felt less nauseous. At this point Layne was so livid. I have never seen him so mad. I have actually never really seen him mad. He was mad because it took them 4 days, 2 of them him being in extreme pain to have the surgeon come in and tell him something completely different than what the other Dr's were saying. I'm sure it was a mixture of lack of sleep and drugs and pain but he has every right to be. He has been through so much. I think most of us are at our breaking point today. It has been a tough one. It's hard to sit and watch this all, so I can't imagine how he feels. Please please keep praying for us and especially him.

I decided to go home at 5 tonight so I could actually put the boys to bed tonight and get some sleep. Jackie stayed with him. I was feeling pretty good about things when I left. I thought we had finally figured everything out... not so much. He was transferred to a different unit tonight. When he was admitted on Thursday from emerg, the only bed they had left was in the paediatric unit. So he has been in with all the children :) The nurses there were awesome, always on top of his pain meds and willing to help with anything. Because things are becoming more severe they decided to transfer him to the surgery unit, where he was after his surgery, because they deal with adults. Let's just say we had the worst experiences there last time and it doesn't seem to be much better this time around. Anyway's I guess since I have been gone his pain has come back again and got even more worse...(At this point I got a call from Jackie asking me to come back in)

She told me the pain was not getting better and it should have with the NG tube the surgeon came back and ordered more blood work and x-rays again. He said he was thinking surgery was our only option at this point. I got back in just shortly after 11:30pm. I made it there to have a few minutes alone with Layne. He was telling me about the first time he saw me and described exactly what I was wearing. He was a sweetheart. I can't believe he remembered and I can't believe I wore that outfit (green shirt, brown corduroy pants with white nike shoes) But I guess I was the most beautiful girl he had ever met despite the outfit. It was a nice moment to have with him. The surgeon came back said the x-rays were showing a blockage and the fact that it wasn't getting better would indicate he could get a perforated bowel and then we would be in trouble. He said we have the option to wait it out a bit longer (until morning) to see if it would miraculously heal on it's own or he would do it right then. It was a hard decision to make. I really didn't want to have to go through this whole surgery thing again. It's so hard on his poor body. But Jackie took charge and made some suggestions that made sense. He had been in pain for far to long. We couldn't keep going like this. He was relatively comfortable at that point but we knew it would come back and then be putting him at other risks. After Layne, his dad, his mom and I made the decision to go ahead with the surgery, it was the weirdest feeling. Everything was calm. We knew we had made the right choice without a doubt. It was so nice to have that confirmation and right now I believe we all needed that little tender mercy.

They took him back for surgery at 1:30am. The surgery would be a few hours. Jackie had not had anything to eat all day and me being pregnant and always hungry especially if i stay up late went to get a bite to eat. Let's just say Lethbridge is not a good place to find anything open for 24 hours. Even though tim hortons was open they were only serving cold or hot drinks at 2 in the morning. So thankfully McDonalds was open and we got to get something greasy. Yuck! After that we went back to the hospital and waited. The surgeon came out at 4 am. He said he went in there through the old surgery incision. They couldn't do it laproscopically because his belly was so distended. He was able to get a look at everything. There was a kink in the bowel which would cause a partial block and he was able to see a few ulcers and clean up a few small adhesion (scar tissue) but he didn't see anything that would indicate the type of pain he was in. So he said all those things plus the chemo may make for a very bad tummy ache. He was worried Layne might still experience the same pain as before the surgery but it least we were able to make sure everything was okay. He told us it was the right thing to do because we would have been going in for surgery no matter what with his symptoms. We also know there is for sure no cancer back as well, which will give Layne huge piece of mind. At this time we are having no visitors. He is isolation. Because he is chemo we are trying to take every precaution to avoid an infection. That is a major risk of doing surgery on someone going through chemo. So texts and emails would be appreciated. I can read them to Layne.

I was able to get home by 5am after seeing Layne in recovery. The anesthesiologist wasn't going to let us go in and see him for an hour after the surgery but when I saw her go into labour and delivery I walked up to the doors and knocked on them and when the nurse opened the door I made sure she saw my pregnant belly and asked kindly if i could see him before I went home. I needed to get some sleep. They were good and let me come in and also let Jackie come in after. Russ (Layne's dad) stayed with him for the rest of the morning until now. It was hard to see him again and know we have to start all over. I am so sorry he is going through this. I would't wish this on anyone. I wonder what I have to learn from this because Layne sure doesn't need to learn anything. He is the most kind, considerate, generous, compassionate and positive person I have ever met. I have always known he would be okay but I always knew it would be a long difficult road. I just didn't think this difficult. Hopefully things get better now. I just spoke with his dad and he is having the same pains as before and he has an epidural. He is numb from his toes to his armpits. I am about to head in and hope that by the time I get there the pain in under control. I really hope it just clears up on it's own and nothing else crazy happens. Time will tell. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers, we are definitely needing them right now. I am not going to edit this post so sorry if something doesn't make sense or grammar is more bad than normal. 4 hours of sleep can do that. My mom cancelled her shows for the nest few days and drove down here at 3 in the morning. So he has the boys. I am so thankful for my family!

Got the NG tube in

Being transferred to the surgery floor

Visiting with Layne before he goes into surgery

Waiting for the surgery to be done.