Status Update

As some of you know, for the last 2 months or so Marc has been plagued with intermittent, diffuse abdominal pain. It was difficult to assess as Marc couldn't verbalize the nature of the pain but just draw a line with his hand around his waist and back when asked to pinpoint the pain. The pain became more severe the last few days and I was finally able to get him in to the Dr. when he was having the pain. Always before I would tell the Drs. about it but when evaluated he wasn't having pain so they just chucked it up to gas, constipation, diet, etc. The last time he was hospitalized he even had an X-ray of his abdomen with negative results. When he was evaluated yesterday, the Dr. found a good sized umbilical hernia and recommended a CT scan of the abdomen to rule out any other pathology. He needed labs first to evaluate his kidney function before the radiologists would do the CT scan. Because we already had an appointment for a MRI at MD Anderson the next day (today) and he would have lab drawn there prior to the MRI the Dr. thought it was acceptable to wait and use the labs from there and do the CT early next week. Anyway, that was the plan when we left the Drs. office yesterday afternoon.

Well last evening and night the pain became more severe and constant. I put in a call the the nurse practitioner at MD Anderson early this morning to see if the CT scan could be done when he was there for the MRI. It was late in the morning before she got back to me. In the meantime I called his Dr. and was told to take Marc to the ER for evaluation. I agreed and by the time I got dressed and ready to go Marc had made up his mind that he was not going to the ER because he did not want to miss the MRI. I called the Drs. office back and they were able to schedule a CT to be done at 1pm today. We jumped in the car and went directly to Conroe where the CT was scheduled as a prep must be done 2 hours before the CT.

Marc was so uncomfortable, even with pain medication and a sedative that he asked that I be allowed to stay in the room with him while the CT was done. Once he was settled on the table we did some relaxation breathing and he was able to make it through the exam. After the exam we waited for 30 minutes for them to run a CD of the procedure so that if we had to go to the ER over the weekend I would have the disc and the test would not need to be repeated. We were cutting it pretty short because our appointment at MD Anderson was scheduled for 3pm. At 2:30 the clerk told me the system rebooted and they had to start the process of transferring the images again and it would be at least an hour before the disc would be ready. I made arrangements for Julie to pick up the disc later today and we headed to the Medical Center.

Poor Marc was miserable. We stopped by the house and got him a pain pill for the trip into Houston and he settled in for the ride. Our first stop at MD Anderson is always the lab, fortunately their phleblotomists are excellent as Marc has no veins left. Then it was time to give Marc more sedative so that he could make it through the MRI. He never used to be claustrophobic, but the frequent MRIs have done him in. By the time they got his IV started he was more relaxed and the pain had decreased a little. He again requested that I go in with him for the MRI. What an experience. I had never had an MRI nor been present in the room when one was being done. The opening in the machine is just big enough to squeeze Marc in. His arms are up on his chest and they place thin rubber pads on his sides so the arms are held up and don't rub on the sides. Ear plugs are placed in his ears (I am also given a set to use). A mask is placed over his face and the table he is lying on moves into the circular opening. There is just enough room for him to breathe without his chest and abdomen rubbing on the opening. Then the MRI starts - the noise is unbelievably loud, rumbling and pounding. The table even seems to vibrate from the sound. The test lasts about 25 minutes and he is expected to lie perfectly still the entire time. I now understand why he gets so anxious.

We are home now and will not have any results until Monday or Tuesday on either test. Marc is still very uncomfortable, he tried going to bed but was not able to get comfortable. He is now in his recliner and just started snoring. I am praying that he is able to sleep through the night and that we can manage the pain over the weekend; if not we will go to the ER .

I will post an update after we get the results of the tests. In the meantime, the weatherman gave us a 60% chance of rain tomorrow and we are hoping that he is right. I never thought I would wish for a rainy weekend but it has been so dry for so long we really need the rain. We wish you all a wonderful weekend.