August 25, 2012

Outside Temp: Not sure... not too hot.  Nice.

What I cooked today:
Nothing...

Update:
Ryan Day 8 in the hospital

If you neglect to take into account the fact that we are still in the hospital, and that he has an NG tube down his nose, and he can't eat, he's doing fine.  He has no fevers or pain, and we're just bored and hungry.

The good news is that he does NOT have C-Diff, which is a bug you can get when you have too many antibiotics.  The bad news is that he doesn't have c-diff, so we can't treat his problem with antibiotics.

His doctor decided to get a CT scan of his belly today, to make sure there were no major problems (like an obstructed bowel, which would totally suck).  He looks good, with the exception of his spleen, which is enlarged.  If I understand the physiology correctly, the spleen can get enlarged when you have an infection, because of the increased production of red blood cells.

One theory we have right now is that perhaps the spleen, being enlarged, is pushing on the intestine or stomach and causing a slight obstruction.  He is still going to the bathroom, so we know that he's not totally obstructed.  But, he did have a lot of green colored stomach acid and bile out of his NG tube today, so we know that the GI tract is not moving at it's normal rate. 

The good news is that the color turned more yellow today, which means less bile, which means that bile is going down instead of into his stomach.  So, the plan now is to keep him hooked up to suction on his NG tube for the night, and then try clamping the NG tube for periods of time tomorrow, to see if he can handle it. 

It's also good news that his electrolytes and the rest of his labs are stable.  He has no fevers and he's feeling good.  Amazingly, he's keeping his NG tube in his nose, which we were pretty sure he would pull out as soon as he got the chance.