Back At The Hospital

Yesterday was a horrible day. All morning Devan's pain kept getting worse and worse. Then he started vomiting again. At about 11:00 we had to rush him back to the emergency room. After some x-rays they were able to tell that nothing was internally wrong with his surgery sight. The first thought was that maybe one of his internal stitches ripped because of the prednizone that he is on. After the happiness wore off of knowing no stitches ripped we received the bad news...he had to have the tube put back up his nose and in to his throat. Lets just say that yesterday morning was filled with a lot of frustration and crying...from quite a few of us...and not just me. We were lucky in that his surgeon came down and oversaw everything that was going on in the er. He was the one who put the tube back up his nose...MUCH BETTER THAN THE FIRST TIME!!!
Then he admitted back in to the hospital. All of our favorite nurses welcomed us back and we fell in to a feeling that we just couldn't get ahead of the game. Once he got all settled in we all just sat around and waited for him to start getting better. Sam and Danna Lee stayed with us almost all day along with Garald and Nyla. I went home last night to try and get some much needed rest. One Ambian and 11 hours later I woke up and got ready for work. After work...I came back to the hospital to spend the afternoon and evening with my cute hubby again.
He is doing much better today. The surgeon says that the pain and vomiting might have just been caused by an air bubble and that is was a total fluke thing to have happen. Hopefully we will going home tomorrow (again). Till then...here are some shout outs...

Danna Lee - Thank you for giving me the sleeping pill. Without it I would have been up all night worrying about Devan. Also, thank you for staying with us all day yesterday and taking me to go get food.

Sam - Thank you for staying with us most of the day. Also, thank you for staying late with Devan last night and then coming again today while I had to work.

Garald & Nyla - Thank you for everything!!! It is too much to write down, but know that we appreciate it all.

Price - Thank you for coming last night to visit and just generally being one of the best friends we have ever had.

My Mom & Dad - Thanks for letting call and cry to you (about 4 times yesterday.)

We are so blessed to have the family and friends that we have.

Keep Your Fingers Crossed

Today just might be the day that we go home. I know that Devan is starting to feel better because he is now starting to complain about everything. He hates the oxygen tube because it smells like vinyl...he hates being woken up in the night...he hates the leg things he has to wear in order to avoid blood clots. I can tell that he is doing much better and ready to get out of here.

Yesterday started out pretty rough but changed course once we were able to take the tube out of Devan's nose. He stopped getting nauseous..and most importantly...he could start a clear liquid diet. The first thing he wanted was some apple juice. He said it was of the best things has ever tasted. After a couple of hours with no nausea or pain he was updated to full liquid diet...mean he could now eat pudding. I haven't seen him that happy in along time.





After we talked with the doctor I went home to take a shower. I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few visitors in Devan's room when I got back. Danna Lee and Adam brought us some Valentines treats to give to our nurses and also something very special for me...SUSHI!!!!!!! Danna Lee knows I loves sushi, especially the Don Juan roll from Tsunami. She also figured that I probably wouldn't be going out for a nice dinner with my husband to celebrate the holiday, so she brought the nice dinner to me. I think i inhaled that poor little sushi rool within about 5 minutes. I should have taken a picture of everyone that was here along with all of food that was brought...but I ate it (the food...not the people.) One visitor that we got that we were not expecting was Jared Johnson and his sweetheart dance date. What a pleasant surprise. It was really great to see him. We also had Russ, Natalie and Whitney come by...they brought some ridiculously delicious cookies. Loe and Evelyn came to see Devan, and Price and Sam stopped by on their way home from the airport.

Overall I would say that yesterday has been the best day yet. He improved a great deal both in health and moral. He started eating food...and we had some great visits. Now all we are waiting on is for the doctor to come in and to give us the go ahead to go home. This morning Devan was able to get up and eat breakfast while sitting in the chair and we were able to give him a much needed shower :) He only has one IV left in him and they have officially stopped giving him narcotic pain medicine. Like I said...today will hopefully be the day we go home. Peace Out!!!

Hospital: Day 6

Devan had surgery yesterday on his tummy. The surgeon, Dr. Hashimoto, was able to get all of the infected, inflamed & blocked areas out. He ended up taking out about 10 inches of intestine. The operation took about 2 1/2 hours, which was a little longer than we expected. But the Dr. did a great job and Devan pulled through like a champ and here we are today recovering.



The first couple of hours after the surgery were the hardest part of the recovery process. He was in a lot of pain, sweating like crazy (he didn't have a fever), and completely incoherent from the all the drugs. It was hard to see him go through all of the pain...but I know that in the long run things will be so much better.
One major bonus we got yesterday was that they moved us to a single room. Hurray!!! Let me just give you a brief run down of the 3 different roommates we had. The first one watched TV (very loudly) until 5:00 am. I actually had to ask him to turn it off...I'm not sure exactly why he that was cool or considerate thing to do since the guy, who is also, is laying right next to you. The second guy was by far the best. He was quiet and very consciencense about he actions effected us. Then we come to roommate number three who was by far the worst. The old guy was hard of hearing, so he yelled everything. Plus, in the middle of the night he grunted, snorted, and talk in his sleep about every ten minutes. He was a really nice guy...but incredibly obnoxious. So here we are in room 2112 all buy ourselves. Plus our room looks out toward the west so we have a beautiful view of the valley. It is especially pretty right now because it is snowing.




The nurse yesterday was able to redo tape his nose hose with something a little more comfortable which has been even just a little bit more bearible. Plus, once he was out of surgery, he could start eating ice chips (he hasn't even been able to do that since we've been here.) He said it was the best ice he has ever tasted. He also came out of surgery yesterday sport a new IV, cathater, and some leg wrap things that inflate and deflate to help keep the blood circulating. I personally wish they had an extra pair for me because Devan says they lightly massage his legs all day.



Last night we got a visit from Scott, Sarah, Jackson & Price. When Sarah told Jackson that they were going to come visit Devan in the hospital and that he was very sick he immediately ran and grabbed a back pack and started filling it with things he thought maybe he would like to have while he was here. These items included some "billy bob" teeth, grimlin stuffed animal, Backyardigans memory game, big fake diamond, toy t-rex, and the movie Madagascar. He wanted Devan to know that these were just for when he was sick and not for keeps.



Last night the nurse brought me in a roll-a-way bed for me to sleep on. Now, it is not the best bed and I might get Tetnis from it because of all the springs and the bailing wire holding it together...but it felt fantastic. It definately beats sleeping in a chair.

At about 8:30 this morning our nurse, Seiko, came in and got Devan to go for a walk. This was the first time he has gotten up since his surgery. He walked all the way to the end of the nurses counter and back. He did great!!! The walking will not only help keep any blood clots from forming but it will also help him heal faster. He is going to have to do is a couple more times today. The down side to walking is that it hurts and also makes him nauseous and dizzy. But the more he does the easier it will get.



That's about it for now. I am blogging, Nyla is sitting in the chair by the window freezing, and Devan is half sleeping half watching Pokemon. Thank you for all of your prayers, thoughts and visits. We appreciate them all.

An Update on Devan

Well, we are still here in hospital...it is day 4 (I think. It's hard to keep track of the days here.) Here is a quick breakdown as to what exactly is going on with him. His crohns is located within 5 inches of his intestines...I think it is in the small intestine right after his colon. As most of you know we have been battling a "flare up" of his crohns for about 4 months now. We have tried numerous drugs...everything from steroid based prescriptions to drinking coconut milk. Nothing appears to be working. This past weekend he started to go back down hill and not even his Lortab could keep the pain away. Monday night at 11:00 we were admitted into the emergency room at Alta View hospital. That was a horribly long night filled with Morphine, x-rays, vomiting and nose tubes. Once the imaging results came back we knew that his intestines had actually closed themselves off. This could happen for 2 reasons.
1.) The infected was so inflamed and swollen that it closed right up. or...
2.) After years of flare ups and generally pissing off his intestines, his crohns had built up so much scar tissue that it closed itself off.
This is how doctors go about fixing this issue: They shove a tube up Devan's nose that goes down in to his stomach. This alleviates the pressure by removing gases and fluids trapped that can not get out because of the blockage. Then, through an IV, they start pumping him with steroid drugs, antibiotics and antifugus medicines. Then they watch you for a couple of days. The the blockage starts to go away we know that is was just swollen and the medicine has done its job. If it hasn't, which is where we find ourselves right now, you know that it is probably scar tissue and surgery is necessary.
So here we are...day 4...and the x-rays show that his blockage is actually getting worse, the tube is sucking even more stuff out of his stomach...and he is generally getting sick and tired of having a tube in the back of his throat causing him to dry heave a lot. The surgeon, Dr. Hashimoto, came in today and we all decided to go for the surgery. We also decided to have it done on Friday versus having to wait until Tuesday because of the long holiday weekend. We are not sure when exactly it will be but it will definitely happen tomorrow.
We appreciate all the calls and general concern from all of our family and friends. I love knowing that if I ever needed something there is small army behind willing to do whatever they could. Right now the best thing is just get some company. It gets a tad boring just sitting here and it is nice to visit with people. That being said, we are still at Alta View hospital in Sandy room 2141. This is where we will remain until either Sunday or Monday.
I hope I wrote down enough of what was going on to give you all an idea as to what we are going through. Devan let me take a picture of him...he looks so sad. I feel bad that he has to go through this.
Thanks again for all of the love and support!
PS: The guy in the bed next to Devan is possibly the loudest snorer I have ever heard...even louder than my dad...and that is impressive :)

I am attaching a couple of pics...These are all the drugs Devan has recently been on to try and get this all cleared up.

At the Hospital Again...Boooooo

Well, we are here at the hospital again. Only this time instead of being in and out withing 4 hours and only visiting the emergency room...we get to spend a couple of days here. Devan's Crohns is being quite the little pest lately. If anyone would like to visit we are in room 2141 at Alta View. I think we might move down to the American Fork hospital either tomorrow or the next day because it would put us a little closer to the specialist who has been working with us. I will try and put updates here on my blog...so far we are in the "wait and see" mode of all this craziness. Blah