good and bad (mostly good)

OK, I ended up being in the hospital until the 12th of March, something like 23 out of 26 days. But, I’m good now! I had a multitude of angioplasty type procedures, the last one having a 16 French tube installed. Biggest one they have. They couldn’t just pull the tube out (too big) so every 2 weeks I went in for a drain tube downsizing. When the 16 French was in, it wasn’t thru the scar tissue, so everything was flowing normally. They reduced to 14 French, it passed thru the scar tissue, no issues, 12 French passed thru but ended up with a slight infection, was growing different germs than what my antibiotics killed, switched antibiotics and attached an external drain. 2 weeks later, went in for another downsizing to a 10 French which didn’t pass thru the scar tissue and was called a ‘capping trial’ since there wasn’t an external bag either. I did bloodwork, but my liver enzymes were up, so in for another tube downsizing to an 8 French (smallest one they make for biliary drains). Doc thought the 10 French tube was affecting the liver function, and ultimately it was. I did bloodwork Tuesday after the procedure (which was on Thursday the week before) and my liver functions were down but not quite in the normal range. Waited until Friday (this would be last Friday) to do bloodwork, results Monday came back normal, so I ran as fast as I could to the hospital where Dr. Perrin (interventional radiologist at Sarasota Memorial) pulled that freaking tube out of me!!! So… now I just have a bandage over the ‘hole’ that is healing. I do have some serious irritation due to all of the medical tape I was using but I’m wiping the area with prep wipes to reduce irritation. It isn’t draining any more (when he first took the tube out, bile practically shot out of my abdomen!) which is a good sign, I think Monday I can start the exercise process again!

Anyway, there’s the long and short of it. Oh yeah, at Sloan they did do bile duct scrapings and everything came back negative so there is no recurrence at all. If this issue happens again, which they told me prior to the surgery that it could, I can deal with it no problem! The alternative is way worse for sure!

Well, procedure did OK, but I blew 4 Fevers over 5 days just a shakin’ and a bakin’… no fun. On 2/24 they exchanged the 10 French drain to a 12 French and plugged it the next day to drain internally. I was discharged 2/26 and flew home 2/28. 3/1 went to Sarasota Memorial with a fever. IV antibiotics and believe it or not they let me go home… hour later and one ambulance ride, I checked back in with a high fever. IV antibiotics, blood cultures, bile cultures, haven’t had a fever since late Saturday. Monday they replaced my drain and did 1of 3 angioplasty procedures. Put in a 14 French tube, a bit larger. Haven’t had any leaking since Monday (other drain was leaking like a sieve) and may get out of here tomorrow… definitely sick of hospitals… been in one 14 of the past 16 days… but hey, beats the alternative, doesn’t it?? Negative biopsy is the best result, I can deal with the scar tissue…