Last night (around 4 am Saturday) John had a bit of a fever so they moved him to ICU B in the morning. This is a unit for patients who are not as critical as those in ICU A, where he was before. They just wanted to be able to monitor him very closely.
After they removed his epidural Saturday morning he was in a lot of pain (he described it as an 8 out of 10). They started giving him hydromorphone but it did not improve much.
Saturday afternoon his temperature spiked again and the doctors were worried he had developed an infection. They did a CT scan and an X-ray in the evening. His Mom was with him while this happened and kept me up to date. I came back to the hospital after tucking the kids into bed, leaving my parents to sleep on the couches in our living room. (Thanks Mom and Dad!)
After reviewing the scans, the doctor said he is stable enough to avoid doing surgery tonight. He will remain in ICU B overnight and they will continue giving him antibiotics for the infection as well as hydromorphone for the pain. Another complication shown on the CT scan was an ileus in his small bowel, meaning a buildup of material that has stopped moving through his intestines, leading to swelling, pain, and potential blockage.
The other unpleasant thing he had to endure tonight was the insertion of a nasogastric tube through his nose to his stomach. This was to help drain some of the stomach juices and relieve some of the painful pressure in his abdomen.
I should also mention that the good news is, he has started having bowel movements again, but there was a little bit of blood in his stool. Not enough to make them rush him to the operating table but enough that they want to keep an eye on his hemoglobin to make sure it’s not dropping. The CT scan showed that this blood was coming from the same site that was bleeding before, but thankfully it is not bleeding as profusely. Hopefully it starts to heal on its own.
The nurse sent me home to get some rest so that is what I am going to do. Please keep praying.