Sunday, March 22, 09 Lorraine’s Report
Another Sunday and Chuck handed me his computer for me to post. We are still here at Pio Pico in San Diego. I got out of the hospital on Thursday afternoon, with directions from the doc to take it easy, don’t take any of my current medications except for my Thryoid pill and come back to see him on Monday in his office. I must say this is taking longer to get over than I originally thought. I’m still yellow tinged, my eyes are still yellow and my urine has not cleared. I don’t know what else I can do to help me get better. It still hurts to eat food, my stomach muscles are all sore and my whole mid section is bloated. Off and on, I still get that terrible headache, only there’s not much I can take for it. The doc said I could have Tylenol, 325mgX2 once every eight hours, that is all. It still hurts to go to the bathroom, so I’ve been eating very little. I’ve been trying to drink lots to flush my system out. Tomorrow I go into the doc’s office for blood work and hopefully a release to leave the area. If not, we will be staying for more testing; a liver biopsy and who knows what else. The other doc said when he did surgery on Tuesday evening that he saw no cancer or blockage, so we do not know what this is. They did talk about Hepatitus A, but the test came out negative; I’m wondering if they missed the window of it showing up.
Yesterday, Saturday, Chuck took me for a long drive. We went and found several RV Parks, should we have to stay here longer. It was nice to get out. I guess there’s not much else to talk about. I appreciate everyone’s prayers and good wishes. Thank you all for all your kindnesses. So until next time………..Lorraine
Following is an Email that Lorraine sent out while she was in the hospital this week.
Hi all,
Just wanted to up date everyone on what's been happening with me. I did have bronchitis, a urinary track infection, and this was the biggest problem. I'm currently in the hospital in Chula Vista, CA. Chuck took me to a specialist, Dr. Bronsky. He then took me for an ultra sound. Dr. Bronsky then sent me to the emergency room here in Chula Vista. I was entered into the hall in front of the office of the emergency room. Dr. Bronsky had another specialist, Dr. Mickhail, look at me. I then had an MRI. From the tests taken and blood work, Dr. Mickhail decided we should operate and check out my bile duct in my liver. I had surgery last night on what we hoped was stones in my liver, specifically the bile duct. All signs pointed to it being blocked by stones or something else. An operating room opened up and around 8 PM, I was in surgery. It went well, but no stones or other blockage, and he did open the bile duct further; no known reason for all my pain. I spent the night in the hospital.
I woke up this morning with no pain. My throat is sore from the camera going down to the liver. I was hungry, but all I could have was a clear liquid diet. They finally gave me food after my doc came in. It was 42 hours on clear liquid. But the doctor thinks we may have found the cause for my pain. I'm taking Celebrex for my arthritis, which I started again while we were in the bay area in December. The doctor said he had had a woman in his office whom he said did what i have just been through. He said I have to stop taking Celebrex NOW. Hopefully, this is the problem and it getting fixed. If my liver numbers keep dropping, hopefully, I'll be going home tomorrow.
Of all the places for my liver to stop working correctly, this happened in a good place. The doctors have been wonderful, the nurses and aides here have been wonderful. I'm so thankful for the initial walk in clinic doctor. She sat knee to knee with me and listened to all my symptoms. I'm grateful for the support of such a loving husband who supports me 100%.
So that's it for now. We still don't have cell or internet service at the campground at Pio Pica, that really sucks.
3/22/09 Chuck’s Report
Happy first day of Spring, it’s raining here and in the mid 50s, not what I signed on for. Guess I can’t complain too much, this may be the 5th time we’ve had rain since New Year’s day. We expected it to be much warmer here for the past two weeks but still better than some area in the USA, that’s for sure. We are still at the 1000 Trails park near San Diego, no cell phone or internet access unless we go to the lodge.
On Monday, Lorraine had another doctor’s visit to see if they could figure out what’s going on. They set her up to visit a gastroenterology specialist and get a cat scan on Tuesday. When she met with the doctor, he set her up to go into the emergency room and have a MRI. Between the doctor’s visit and the hospital, we had to return back to the coach and let Misty out. Once we got to the hospital, they set her up for more blood work and the MRI. The doctor also had a surgeon come by to check on her.
The emergency room here is very busy but they did a pretty good job of getting her going. Once they started to fill out the paperwork for the MRI, they asked when she had last had anything to eat or drink. Her doctor had told her she could have a light meal before going to the hospital but she only had some water. They told her she would have to wait another 4 hours to have the MRI, lucky she hadn’t eaten anything. Anyway, she had the MRI about 7 pm and they scheduled her for surgery following that.
She got to the surgery room about 8 pm, was scheduled to last about an hour. I had to return back to the coach to let Misty out once again and she was in the recovery room before I got back to the hospital. The doctor said they didn’t find any stones (they were sure she had some but they didn’t show on the x-ray or MRI) or tumors. I couldn’t see her until she got admitted to her room about 10:30 that night.
Next day, the doctor came into her room for more consultation, reviewed her chart and tried to figure out what was wrong. Her blood test showed her liver function was getting better (normal is around 15 – 20, hers was about 1900, lowered to 1500) and she wasn’t feeling pain in her liver anymore. Doctor decided one of her medicine could be causing her problem, especially since she is allergic to sulfa or sulfur. So she can’t take her Celebrex ever again. I had read about this medicine before and it isn’t good for the heart or liver anyway so its a good thing she is off this one. Doc said she could eat lightly, it was almost 40 hours since she had anything solid to eat and she was hungry.
She stayed in the hospital until Thursday, they ran more test and still couldn’t find anything else. So we pretty much just set in the coach, taking it easy. Yesterday, I took her out for a drive in the area to let her see/do something. Other than that, she has stuck pretty close to home and not able to do much. Her skin color and eyes are still yellow but getting better, she says her pain level is manageable.
This morning, I took her up to the lodge for breakfast, I’m not much of a cook. I’ll add a couple of pictures here, just because.
Jim/Annie, a very nice couple we met here. I asked Jim if he would walk Misty for me while Lorraine was in the emergency room on Tuesday. Of course, he said yes. We are glad we met these nice folks. Jim is a retired Military and Airline pilot.
Territorial view between Yuma and here.
Bad picture of large rocks that make up some of the hills around here.
Lighthouse in the hills, not sure why as it is many miles from the ocean.
Some flowers along the road and the type of palm tree that Lorraine likes, not sure of their name however.
So that’s another week. We see her doctor tomorrow for more blood work and to see if we can leave the area on Tuesday. If are able to leave, we will head towards Palm Springs for two weeks. If we have to stay here, we checked out some other campgrounds that we could move to. So lets all hope for the best, here’s hoping we head towards Palm Springs.
Thanks Chuck
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