Bobbie has been in and out of the hospital over the past month or so with abdominal pain and a general feeling of being sick (weakness, fatigue, low grade fever, etc.) and was found to be anemic and losing blood via her digestive system. The exact cause has remained elusive and they had given her 6 units of blood via transfusion over the past 2+ weeks to remedy while they tested her trying to find the cause. Among the tests given at Rex hospital were:
- X-ray - negative
- Endoscopy - erosion in stomach (pre-ulcer)
- Colonoscopy - 2 small polyps, negative
- Barium swallow - negative
- Endoscopic camera pill - bleeding and mass in upper small intestine
- CAT scan - 4x masses in small intestine
Upon receipt of the results of these tests, she was referred to a specialist at UNC Hospital to perform a "push endoscopy " which was performed today, 1/13/09. He verified that the masses which he could see appeared to be melanoma cancer and biopsied them, though we will not receive those biopsy results for 2-3 days for full confirmation. While she was still sleeping off the anesthesia, I spoke with the endoscoping doctor as well as a surgical consultant. It appears that there is really no other treatment option outside of surgery, so we will be meeting with a surgeon here at the hospital tomorrow to discuss the plan. The consultation today indicated that the most likely effort will consist of removing (redacting) a portion of the intestine/bowel that contains the tumors, though there will also probably be an exploratory element to the surgery in terms of discovering what additional tumors may be present that are undetectable via the tests discussed above. Apparently, 20+ feet of intestines is impossible to non-invasively map.
So, we wait until the surgical team rolls through tomorrow before we know anything more. I don't know how long Bobbie will be incommunicado, but will pass along anything I get by email and the like. She has her cell phone by her bedside, but I don't know what they will be giving her in terms of medication that might keep her knocked out. I won't bother passing out a room number until she is seen by the team tomorrow, because it is possible that they will move her from the general medicine floor to the oncology floor.
Bobbie asked me to send out this update, though I had already planned to do so. I will send out another update asap after we meet with said surgical team.
Please forgive any misspellings or the like. It has been a long couple of days.
2 comments:
you're all in my thoughts, Paul.
Thank you, Kelley.
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