Miss Diagnosis: G.I. Bleeding and the E.R.

Monday, July 13, 2009

G.I. Bleeding and the E.R.

Yesterday morning when Alex woke up she was complaining of really bad abdominal pain. What started out feeling like constipation eventually turned into diarrhea, followed by bleeding. I guess maybe that's normal with Crohn's? I don't know; it's never happened to her before. She was pale, shaking, and nauseous as well so I called the advice nurse who told us to go directly to the E.R.

They ended up giving her fluids, pain meds, anti-nausea meds, running labs and ordering a CT. Even with both Zofran and Reglan in her system she had a really hard time drinking the contrast without puking. They consulted with her G.I. doc and let us leave about 10:00 last night. I called the G.I. doc this morning to see her for follow up and we will be going in tomorrow. Alex really isn't feeling any better today, and the anxiety it's causing isn't helpful. She's really worried they will cancel surgery.

Will this stuff ever end?

1 comment:

judycolbyJuly 13, 2009 at 8:33 PM
I'm so sorry that Alex is going through so much. I hope things go as scheduled this week.
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Transphenoidal Pituitary Surgery- From the UCSF web site

What happens during surgery?
The surgical removal of the pituitary adenoma is performed by a technique called a transsphenoidal operation. The word 'transsphenoidal' describes the path the surgeon follows to reach the pituitary gland. The word comes from 'trans', meaning 'to cross or pass through', and 'sphenoid', the name of the cavity (the sphenoid sinus) that is passed through to reach the pituitary gland. Newer techniques and improvements in technology now allow removal of these tumors without the need for an incision under the lip or within the nostril. The surgeon begins the approach by entering through the nostril on one side. The surgeon uses a brilliant fiber optic light to illuminate the internal anatomy, a microscope to magnify the area of surgery to 12 times the actual size, and very tiny microsurgical instruments especially designed for this particular operation. The surgeon guides the surgical instrument into the nasal cavity and an opening is made in the sphenoid bone. The sphenoid sinus is entered, and then an opening is made in the wall of the sella turcica to expose the pituitary gland. The adenoma can be readily distinguished from the normal pituitary gland tissue and is removed without removing the normal gland. After the surgeon removes all the tumor tissue, the small cavity that is left is treated with alcohol to destroy any tumor cells that may remain. This cavity is then sealed, sometimes with a piece of fat that the surgeon removes from the patient's abdomen. The surgeon then applies a biological 'glue' that helps seal the pituitary area from the nose and promotes natural healing. No nasal packs are used with this approach.