If you read the post from July 14 titled Two Steps Forward, One Step Back you may recall that Bettie had an incident with her gall bladder that required the insertion of a drain. The original prognosis was that the gall bladder was infected and should probably be removed. However, removal in that condition posed a higher risk than the surgeons were willing to take. It was decided that a drain could help clear it up sufficiently to do the surgery later...four to six weeks.
For the past five weeks, since the drain was installed, she has gone without bile. Bile is a digestive juice produced by the liver and stored, when necessary, in the gall bladder. (You don't want to know where or how this is "handled" when a drain is installed...trust me.) The bladder condition, the drain, and the lack of bile to help with digestion, has been somewhat debilitating for Bettie. Today we took what will hopefully be a big step toward solving this issue.
During a visit to the internist, the drain was capped, allowing that nasty collection bag to be removed. The "drain to nowhere" is still in place, but her bile and gall bladder should now function somewhat normally. Next week a couple of tests will confirm that all is well...and if so, the drain comes out and the gall bladder stays in. With that accomplished, we will look for more energy, no more abdominal pain, and an increase in the rate of progress...all good things
Dick,
ReplyDeleteI hope you had a nice evening away at chorus last night. Bettie and I had a very good evening. I'm happy to report that we worked together with the theraputty doing the prescribed exercises plus a lot of just handling and shape forming. We also worked on word flash cards and item recognition from the LARK box. Bettie received mail and she worked at pinching her index finger and thumb together to pull the card out of the envelope. We read through her basket of cards and talked about the nice people that have sent her get well wishes. Most importantly she didn't lie down. Normally she stretches out on the couch and goes to sleep, but she didn't last night, because she didn't need to. She stayed awake, alert and connecting for 1 ½ hours. At 7:30 she was ready for bed. I tucked her in and off to sleep she went. Like I said, it was a very good night.