Some of you know we have been dealing with some health issues with our son. He will be 40 on 08/16 and I am going to try and give the cliff notes version. God Love you if you read all of this....
04/2021: Chris comes to us with chest pain, can't get a breath etc. We rush him to the hospital. He has a blood clot from his ankle to his hip. He also has clots in both lungs putting pressure on his heart. ICU for I don't know how long. The Hematologist figures out he has some rare genetic disorder that makes him prone to blood clots. He did a mesh filter, blood thinners, then eventually removed the filter and life went on. He nearly died according the the Cardiologist. We got him home and he went back to work and life eventually went on. I did post about this at some point.
04/2022: We were at the Dixie show and I get a phone call from Chris saying he has extreme abdominal pain. He had been battling some back pain recently but caulked it up to his job. He went to the Dr. for it as well. I told him we were 45 mins away and if it was that bad, call 911. We get home and find remanence of the EMT's being there. He is at the UNC in Holly Springs NC. My wife goes up and they tell her its gall bladder and they are keeping him overnight. Next morning we go to UNC HS and they tell us he was moved to the REX location.
We drive to REX and find out he is in the Vascular ICU clinging to life. Kidneys shut down, I bet he had 20 IV bags. The pain he was in was excruciating to the point they couldn't relieve it properly. We spoke to the Dr's and Surgeon and they tell us he has acute Pancreatitis. Not everyone recovers from it and they are preparing us for the worst. He was in ICU for probably 2 weeks and made it through. He was put in general population as I like to call it. Things were looking good for recovery. We show back up one morning and he is in ICU again. Bleeding internally.
Keep in mind, he is on blood thinners for the previous issue of blood clots. It's a balancing act....
Back to general population. He was hospitalized for right at 6 weeks and they begrudgingly let him come home. He is at home and healing. We met with the pancreatic surgeon who has been with us the entire time. This dude has called it to the letter from the start. Amazing doctor. He said he really didn't want to let Chris come home but since we were there he agreed. Surgeon says he wants to go in and release the crap the pancreas has purged and the body and isolated in the abdomen and Chris should start feeling better. He would put a stint between the pancreas and the stomach and that would allow the toxins to purge through the stomach. Surgery was a success. Chris was in great pain but on his way to healing. He has been great through all of this mentally and ready to get his life back.
Fast forward a few weeks. He starts complaining of being dizzy and nauseated. He has been on his back since April, it's now end of July/ early August. His blood pressure starts dropping to around 98/80, He has been prescribed by his "pain management Dr" physical therapy. They won't touch him due to his BP. The Surgeon tells him to stop taking any BP meds. After he stops we record BP Systolic from 147 to 98. Sunday afternoon, he is groaning like I haven't heard since he was in ICU. I asked him about his pain and if he wanted to go to the ER. He said yes and we took him in this past Sunday evening. A LONG day, Rex wouldn't let both of us stay with him so I took off and was sitting in the Vascular lobby because it was 98 degrees outside and I couldn't sit in the car without it running. Some lacky comes and tells me I can't sit in the lobby by myself, not bothering anyone and I have to wait outside!!!! My response must have been epic, that dude took off like his life was in danger....
This morning around 6am Chris txt me his new room number. We arrive at the hospital and the receptionist tells us he is not in that room but ICU. Nothing new, we have been down this road before but still surprising. Come to find out, it seems from what I can deduce, the Surgeon came in early this morning and found Chris non responsive with an extremely low BP. They spent the majority of today just trying to get him stabilized. He received two units of blood, a unit if plasma and a Christmas tree of IV"s. It's like we are starting over again from last April. CT scans show no obvious signs of internal bleeding. The Docs tell us he was septic and has an infection. They are going to install a drain tube from his abdomen. Today through all of this he is coherent and talking to us. Good Signs. This morning we didn't know if he was going to make it. We actually still don't know but things are looking better this afternoon.
So that is where we are. I have probably left a lot out and quite frankly we are exhausted and I'm not going to go back and proof read all of that. If you have any questions, I will happily answer any and all questions. Typically acute pancreatitis is caused by binge drinking. While Chris was drinking to deal with some deaths of some folks that were really close to him, all the Doc's have said "that's all you were drinking" and the surgeon said there are a 1000 different reasons you can get pancreatitis, including a scorpion bite from an indigenous specie in Arizona..
I'm not sure what Chris's current beliefs are in God but we are believers outside of the Church. Please give him a prayer for us. He is a good person. His customers at work are still asking about him after 4-5 months of not seeing him. Also put in a good word for my Boss (forum member) for how good he has been with me over these past few months. A true saint. He could use a prayer as well.
