Monday, August 8, 2011

Since July 30th....

How is it already 8/8/11? I do not understand! Ugh, times flies when you sit in a hospital room all day and do NOTHING let me tell you!

So since the last time we talked we have had quite a few issues pop up. A week ago today we had a CT scan done after our "regular" radiation over at IU. The CT showed air in the wall of his bowel. The (the doctors) immediately made him NPO (no food) and wanted his bowel to rest for 7 full days. So that started the beginning of the hellish we we have just gotten through.

He wasn't pooping either and that was a real problem considering his bowel was irritated and we had been giving him meds to make him go. We upped the anty on Tuesday and started to give adult doses of Miralax in hopes that we could get things moving, later that night they added Senna to the mix (also a stimulator) but that nothing either.

By Thursday Proton Beam down in Bloomington was ready for us and we were carted down there early in the morning via ambulance. By this time he is cathed with Foley, has IV antibiotics running for whatever is going on in his bowel, and still hasn't pooped.

His first real day of Proton Beam went fine and without a hitch, if you don't count me taking a tumble out of the ambulance upon arrival in B-town. The radiation took a little longer than his normal radiation since they had to do a "dry run" before they turned the beam on. But it was pretty easy, he went under, had the radiation and they called us back before he awoke.

Friday morning came, still no poops. The decided to add another drug to our daily regimen and give it to him 3 times daily ontop of EVERYTHING else he was(is) still getting including steroids. We went to Bloomington and back Friday morning for radiation and all went smooth again PLUS I didn't fall out of the Ambulance! Keegan even got to pick out a toy from the toy wall (since he can't pick and we didn't see anything he could use we opted for a $10 I-tunes gift card to buy new apps for his I PAD).

By Friday night Keegan started pooping. I was never so happy to see poop in my entire life! I was so excited I started updating facebook accordingly and I apologize to anyone who thought this was too much. But when you have been waiting and waiting and waiting for something to happen and it finally does you are just sooooo relived that its happening. I began to wonder in my head if it was because of lack of feeling in the lower half of his body.

The pooping ensued all weekend and as of today I think we are the 11th or 12th poopy diaper. We had Proton Beam this morning and were back at Riley by 1:30 pm. Ryan's brother Scott is visiting from AZ so its been nice to have him around.

We had a mini family reunion this past weekend and his other brother and sister came down with their kids to visit with uncle Scott and to see Baby Keegan. It was so nice to catch up with everyone, all the kids are growing up so fast on me I can't even take it! (I started dating Ry 7 years ago now and my one niece was 1 at the time!)

The plan for the following week is this:
  • Proton Beam via ambulance tomorrow since we are still inpatient then a CT to see if the bowel conditions they were worried about have cleared up. We should then be able to start bottle feeding him again-THANK GOODNESS-he has lost a few pounds over the last week.
  • We are slowly stepping his steroids down which I am hoping will take away some of the moodiness and hungryness.
  • We will be taking out the Foley Cath and doing an in and out cath every 4 hours or so to empty his bladder and make sure its empty.
  • We will continue proton beam this week every day but Friday, they are closed once a quarter for maintenance and that just so happens to fall on this coming Friday.
  • Meanwhile we are continuing to watch his leg to see if he is getting any movement back.
  • Hopefully we will be home this coming weekend and back to Bloomington and living at Jill's house by Monday if all goes well.
If you pray can you please pray for an easy week for us transitioning back to the outside the hospital world and that we can handle all the new responsibilities that have come our way since the tumor has grown so big!

I also wanted to put this out there:
There is a Tupperware benefit being held in our honor
If you want to go to :here
and order Tupperware a portion of the proceeds will go to our family for Keegan.

Love

3 comments:

  1. Continuing to pray for you guys!! Beth, I know all about being excited about poop. I have done the same thing with Ellie! She has those issues when she comes off the paralytic! You are in our prayers everyday!
    Love,
    April Hendricks

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  2. Don't worry. I think everybody understands that you are excited about poop. I am happy for every good news. I think and pray for you every day.
    God bless.

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  3. Ok! Focusing prayers on poop!

    Thanks for the update, I am sorry things have been so rough for the last bit. Praying your weeks will be better.

    <><

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