Monday, August 2, 2010

Update on Greg

Greg, and by extension everyone who loves him, did not have a great weekend.  The CT scan and ultrasound they did Saturday afternoon showed that his gall bladder was very infected.  The doctors did not want to do surgery because of the infection he had in his body.  They decided to put a drain in hoping that would buy some time to get the infection under control.  They took him into radiology to put the drain in.  He was not put out because they needed him to be able to move.  Whatever it was they gave him for the pain did not work and he felt them cut him and sticking the drain in and them trying to push it into the gall bladder.  It was not a good experience for Greg and it ended up not working.  So there was now a hole in the gall bladder and bile was leaking into Greg's abdomen.  They brought Greg back to his room to prep him for emergency surgery.  I wasn't there, but the accounts of the experience from those who were are awful.  Greg was in excruciating pain.  As they brought him off the elevetor they could hear the yelling/bellowing/moaning sound he was making clear down the hall in his room.  Every nurse on the floor was in preping him for the surgery.  They were throwing paperwork at Natalie to sign.  She asked if it was possible to send him to another hospital and they told her he wouldn't make it if they did. 

Kyle and I were in Bear Lake and I happened to call my mother about this time.  She was crying and told me things were really bad.  We got in the car and headed for the hospital in Logan.  When we got there everyone was waiting for him to come out of surgery.  When the doctor came in he said it had gone well and it was probably for the best that they took it out.  It was very infected and diseased.  The doctors theory is that Greg got salmonella back around the first of June when this whole thing started.  It has been ravaging his body and got into the blood stream causing the infection there.  He said he figures that the salmonella is what attacked the gall bladder and infected it.  The first antibiotic they gave him in June killed too much good bacteria in the stomach and has caused a different infection there so getting the right mix of stuff to treat this is going to be tricky. 

When I saw Greg yesterday he was still in quite a bit of pain, but said it was a different pain and not as bad.  He was very doped up but was able to carry on a conversation with me for a little bit.  He will be in the hospital at least until tomorrow and maybe longer.  The doctor said after all the messing around with his general doctor and the 3 trips to the ER he isn't letting him go home until he knows they have a handle on this and that Greg is getting better.   Natalie is amazing and holding up really well.  I'm so proud of her.  She is such a strong woman.

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