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Recapping, Jo had a colonoscopy that showed a mass in her sigmoid colon. Biopsies showed it to be adenosarcoma. She was scheduled for a sigmoid colon resection on Thursday. She had two infusions and pre-anesthesia screening which provided excellent information about all aspects of the planned surgery. The surgery on Thursday showed the mass to be much more intrusive into the bowels than an MRI had indicated so more than one resection was required. After the surgery she was transferred to the ICU. Yesterday we were expecting her to move out of the ICU and into a ward. There weren't any beds available in the selected ward so she stayed in the ICU.
Last night at about 10:00 PM her heart rate increased dramatically (190 bpm) and it was determined to be atrial fibrillation. Since AF has a number of causes; surgery, a blood clot in the lung, or a heart condition, she was given medication, an ultrasound to see if there was a clot, a CT scan, a chest X-ray and an echocardiogram. There doesn't appear to be a clot or a heart problem and the meds have it stabilized. The medical team will confer to see when she can be released from the ICU. Stay tuned for the continuing adventures of Jo Grace, girl medical experiment.
For those who don't know her history, she had surgery for portal hypertension, due to blockage in her liver, in 1989 after vomiting a large quantity of blood from varices in her esophagus They attempted a shunt to bypass blood from the liver to reduce the pressure on the capillaries in the esophagus. It failed. She then had recurring bleeding from the varices every 2 or 3 years which they treated by sclerosing them and with a blood pressure reducing drug. In 2001, she had a splenectomy after another such incident revealed the splenic vein was now blocked. After the surgery she had a C Diff infection that took months, intravenous hydration so and multiple antibiotics to cure. At the same time she was diagnosed with polycythemia vera and given medicine to reduce the number of excess red and white cells and platelet precursors in her marrow. (Due to a non-inheritable gene mutation.) A few years ago one of those meds, a cytotoxin, began attacking normal cells and she had to stop taking it. So she has spent many, many days in the hospital, most of which included the sign on her room that is Latin for "Nothing by Mouth". And yet my strong, patient woman continues the battle.
Last night at about 10:00 PM her heart rate increased dramatically (190 bpm) and it was determined to be atrial fibrillation. Since AF has a number of causes; surgery, a blood clot in the lung, or a heart condition, she was given medication, an ultrasound to see if there was a clot, a CT scan, a chest X-ray and an echocardiogram. There doesn't appear to be a clot or a heart problem and the meds have it stabilized. The medical team will confer to see when she can be released from the ICU. Stay tuned for the continuing adventures of Jo Grace, girl medical experiment.
For those who don't know her history, she had surgery for portal hypertension, due to blockage in her liver, in 1989 after vomiting a large quantity of blood from varices in her esophagus They attempted a shunt to bypass blood from the liver to reduce the pressure on the capillaries in the esophagus. It failed. She then had recurring bleeding from the varices every 2 or 3 years which they treated by sclerosing them and with a blood pressure reducing drug. In 2001, she had a splenectomy after another such incident revealed the splenic vein was now blocked. After the surgery she had a C Diff infection that took months, intravenous hydration so and multiple antibiotics to cure. At the same time she was diagnosed with polycythemia vera and given medicine to reduce the number of excess red and white cells and platelet precursors in her marrow. (Due to a non-inheritable gene mutation.) A few years ago one of those meds, a cytotoxin, began attacking normal cells and she had to stop taking it. So she has spent many, many days in the hospital, most of which included the sign on her room that is Latin for "Nothing by Mouth". And yet my strong, patient woman continues the battle.
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