I'd post the picture of Nick in his hospital gown with an IV but he'd never forgive me.
So, we're going without photos for this one.
Nick hasn't eaten anything since Thursday, which would be the same day he threw up on the drive through Texas, with a low grade fever and flu-like symptoms.
He arrived home Friday night looking like hell.
Saturday and Sunday, he didn't get out of bed, couldn't eat, could barely swallow water without feeling like a knife was getting stuck into his diaphragm. We gave him some pain meds, hoping it would relax him, but nothing seemed to work.
Last night Bob took him over to Urgent Care, but they said there wasn't anything they could do -- their x-rays were basically only good for broken bones. He went to bed, frustrated, exhausted, and terribly hungry.
This morning at 8:00 I was on the phone with the doctor, although they couldn't see us until 10:00. The Doc seemed at a loss. I kept saying, "I think he's torn something." He thought it was acid related. He suggested we try some meds and if they didn't work after a couple of days, we could go see a specialist that might have to scope his esophagus.
Uh, no. Let's call the specialist now. So he did. And Nick looked and me and said, "This is why you had to come."
But the specialist couldn't see him... until Thursday.
That's an entire week from the last time Nick was able to eat anything.
He said he would prescribe viscous lidocain that would numb the pain, and a medication used for ulcers that would coat and heal any sores inside. The lidocain would completely numb everything, from his tongue down, as well as swallowing. Great! But it should make it so that Nick could eat and drink until Thursday when we went to see the GI Doc. The only way to get him seen earlier would be the last ditch go-to-the-ER.
So we took the 'scripts and then, at Target, the pharmacist said, "Before I fill this one, I need to let you know the copay is $250.00." Choke, sputter, cough, excuse me? I called the doctor's nurse who said, "Choke, sputter, cough, really? Let me talk to Dr. W when he gets out with his next patient." Luckily, the ridiculously expensive med was the one for ulcers, which he probably doesn't have, and the $15 one was the one that was supposed to make him able to eat. Guess which one we got filled?
When we got to the house, we followed the instructions and mixed what can only best be described as snot (viscous = snot) into the Mylanta, and Nick downed it, nearly doubling over from the pain. He was supposed to wait 5-10 minutes and everything would be numb for the next hour.
It didn't happen.
His entire mouth went numb, it was hard to feel himself swallowing, but dangit if the knife was right back in his gut after trying one bite.
Enough.
I called Bob, who has gobs of sick days, and he came home and took Nick to the ER.
Turns out, shocker, Nick was severely dehydrated, which was contributing to the pain. He spent the afternoon going through bags of IV fluid, they ran a chest x-ray, and, surprise! he has a tear in his esophagus. (Just call me Doctor Tori.) Sadly, the pain is something that will just have to fade slowly but that he will have to suffer through. He's to eat lots of ice cream and let it numb and fill him. I think part of the fear was wondering if the pain was being made worse by trying to eat. Now that he knows it's not, hopefully he can get to eating his Bluebell.
My poor baby. You'd think that too if you saw the picture...
This morning at 8:00 I was on the phone with the doctor, although they couldn't see us until 10:00. The Doc seemed at a loss. I kept saying, "I think he's torn something." He thought it was acid related. He suggested we try some meds and if they didn't work after a couple of days, we could go see a specialist that might have to scope his esophagus.
Uh, no. Let's call the specialist now. So he did. And Nick looked and me and said, "This is why you had to come."
But the specialist couldn't see him... until Thursday.
That's an entire week from the last time Nick was able to eat anything.
He said he would prescribe viscous lidocain that would numb the pain, and a medication used for ulcers that would coat and heal any sores inside. The lidocain would completely numb everything, from his tongue down, as well as swallowing. Great! But it should make it so that Nick could eat and drink until Thursday when we went to see the GI Doc. The only way to get him seen earlier would be the last ditch go-to-the-ER.
So we took the 'scripts and then, at Target, the pharmacist said, "Before I fill this one, I need to let you know the copay is $250.00." Choke, sputter, cough, excuse me? I called the doctor's nurse who said, "Choke, sputter, cough, really? Let me talk to Dr. W when he gets out with his next patient." Luckily, the ridiculously expensive med was the one for ulcers, which he probably doesn't have, and the $15 one was the one that was supposed to make him able to eat. Guess which one we got filled?
When we got to the house, we followed the instructions and mixed what can only best be described as snot (viscous = snot) into the Mylanta, and Nick downed it, nearly doubling over from the pain. He was supposed to wait 5-10 minutes and everything would be numb for the next hour.
It didn't happen.
His entire mouth went numb, it was hard to feel himself swallowing, but dangit if the knife was right back in his gut after trying one bite.
Enough.
I called Bob, who has gobs of sick days, and he came home and took Nick to the ER.
Turns out, shocker, Nick was severely dehydrated, which was contributing to the pain. He spent the afternoon going through bags of IV fluid, they ran a chest x-ray, and, surprise! he has a tear in his esophagus. (Just call me Doctor Tori.) Sadly, the pain is something that will just have to fade slowly but that he will have to suffer through. He's to eat lots of ice cream and let it numb and fill him. I think part of the fear was wondering if the pain was being made worse by trying to eat. Now that he knows it's not, hopefully he can get to eating his Bluebell.
My poor baby. You'd think that too if you saw the picture...
How in the world did he get a tear in his esophagus?
ReplyDeletefrom throwing up on the way back to Colorado -- it was that violent!
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