Waiting Game

I ended my last post Friday night. Things didn’t really change much until Saturday afternoon. Then things got bad. Saturday morning Layne was able to talk to the Surgeon on call over the phone. He reassured Layne that the bleeding should stop and it would heal on it’s own. Even if we did the Small bowel walk through that day instead of on Tuesday and we were able to see where the bleeding was coming from, they still wouldn’t do anything because they want it to heal on its own. They don’t want to have to do surgery (and neither do we).  At about 3pm a few hours after talking to the surgeon Layne’s pain changed. It went from being a localized area about the size of a quarter to spreading all the way up into his stomach and across. The pain got so bad he could hardly breath or speak. In between waves of pain all he could do was cry. It was very scary for me. I was here by myself. They were able to give him come Percocet, which after 15 minutes it started to get better. In the mean time I called his mom who left from a wedding and got back over here. He wasn’t able to eat anything since breakfast so he had an empty stomach and it kicked in pretty quick. Because his symptoms changed so quickly, they called the Dr back. We were able to get him a CT scan. The Dr coordinated with the surgeon and the radiologist before he left for the night. They got him down right away to get the CT scan. When he came back he was experiencing the extreme pain again and they gave him another Percocet while we waited to get approval from the Dr on call to get IV pain medication. It least this time I had someone here with me but it’s not easy to watch him go through that.

It took 2 hours to get the results back from the CT scan. And guess what… they came back fine. No nothing! We know the cancer is not back, no appendicitis, no blockage, no nothing. It’s quite frustrating. The surgeon did not come in until this morning. Layne’s mom was here. He said they are going to do a sigmoidoscopy in the morning and leave the small bowel walk through for Tuesday. The sigmoidoscopy will give them a good view of his anastomosis (where his small intestine attaches to his rectum) and make sure the bleed is not coming from there. They do not think that’s the case though and they do not think the small bowel walk through will show anything either. They are still hoping this pain and bleeding will clear up on it’s own and he will be okay. I find it hard to believe as I sit here watching him. His tummy is so distended it looks like he is pregnant. He is in so much pain and now he can’t keep any food down, he throws it up shortly after eating a few bites and he doesn’t have the energy to walk. After trial and error today we know he can go 3 hours and then we have to give him more morphine or else the pain gets out of control. He told me though that he knows that he is not doing well today but he plans on doing better tomorrow. What a positive attitude (well on morphine) J We sure love him. We are praying for a major turn around or for something to be found over the next few days.

Having a good snooze

He likes to sit up sometimes even though it looks extremely uncomfortable

Feeling good for a few minutes, so we thought we would try food again. Threw it up 20 minutes later.

We are postponing our turkey dinner. We were supposed to have it today. Instead, Ciana is bringing the boys in and getting KFC and eating it at the park here in Lethbridge. Both Blake and Ty are sick with colds and Ty has an ear infection so we are planning on wheeling Layne out into the hall where there is a big window to the lobby and letting him watch the boys. I am hoping Layne perks up here in a bit or else that might not even happen either. A big thank you to Auntie Ciana for watching them and having sleepovers these past three days. Couldn’t have got through this with out you. Layne was able to come and see the boys in the lobby. He only lasted a few minutes watching them yell his name and saying they loved him. He got too nauseous and had to go back to his room but he said he loved seeing them and they loved seeing him too. Not being able to see them is one of the hardest things on him right now. He misses them!

Having some fun at the park, enjoying our thanksgiving KFC

The boys waiting in the lobby for their dad to be wheeled to the glass on the 3rd floor.