This year has been quite the uphill battle for Andrew's health. Back in February, he had major stomach pain. He went to the colon Dr. and found out he had a major diverticulitis flair up. It was so bad it perforated his colon and fecal matter was leaking into his abdomen. He was hospitalized for four days with heavy iv antibiotics to get the infection under control. They released him from the hospital and wanted to let his colon rest before they operated to take out the diseased colon.
May 2nd he had surgery to remove the diseased portion of his colon. His colon was so bad she had to remove over a foot of it, (about 1/3). He was in the hospital for another 3 days.
He started to heal but about 3 weeks later they found an abscess the size of a large apple in his pelvic area. He had fever and chills every night for a while. They inserted a drain in the abscess to remove the infection. He had the drain in for about 10 days. They removed the drain on our 20 year anniversary.
He started having fever and chills again every night and that is a sign of infection. They found the abscess was back. They inserted another drain to remove the infection. This drain was a nightmare from the beginning. When they did the procedure Andrew felt the whole thing. He wasn't consciously sedated he was awake. After the procedure was done he was in so much pain. He couldn't walk because the drain was sitting on nerves. The Dr. said it was one of the hardest drains he has ever installed. That night he was back home and was in so much pain, dehydrated, weak from not eating before surgery, fever and chills were back so he passed out. Luckily Charlie and I caught him. I told Charlie to call my Dad, but then I was so worried that he was going septic I told him to hurry and call 911. The paramedics came and checked him. His vitals were ok considering all that he had been through. He was stable enough to stay home and sleep here.
His drain was such a nightmare the whole time. It started to drain poop through the drain, and the pain was horrible. We went to see his Dr. and she thought his colon was leaking from the surgery. She said that if that was the case the next step was to get on IV nutrition for 3 months! The wanted to do a scan before starting the IV nutrition to make sure the colon was leaking. Andrew went in to get the drain looked at and they found that the Radiologist that installed the drain didn't secure it. It shifted and went straight through his small intestines.
They took him to do emergency surgery because if the drain shifted again he could go septic. That drain could have done nerve damage, it could have impaled another organ, or he could have gone septic, or a million other problems. This mistake could have done so much more damage than it did. We were VERY LUCKY that he is still ok. He is finally home and seems to be improving a little each day. We have been going through a long dark tunnel for a long time and we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Charlie and Andrew went on a Deacans camp up at the Ivins cabin. They shot guns, drove side by sides, went boating, and had a great time!
