Wednesday Evening, 8/22/07

I went to the hospital this evening. Nathan was downstairs getting a CT scan of his chest, abdomen and legs. They want to get a look at his bowels and possible blood clots in his legs. After he returned I noticed more improvements with his face, legs and feet. He's expelling more fluid than he's taking in, and at a good pace. However, the catheter in his abdomen continues to empty fluid at a surprising rate. We had expected it to taper off by Monday or Tuesday, but the rate is constant.

I spoke with one of the surgeons about the CT scan. There's nothing alarming from the scan, but he thinks the CT was a bad quality scan. I also had an opportunity to speak with the attending physician, who revealed that they also were expecting the fluid from Nathan's abdomen to taper off by now. There is some concern that the fluid is coming from a leak of his intestine. At the very least, he's still improving with regards to his adema, vitals and breathing. But at some point they'll need to determine what is causing this fluid and why it's not coming out of his ostomy instead. There's a chance he might have to go back into the operating room this week to get a visual of his bowels.

I have a nagging worry that there may be damage to Nathan's small intestine. If it's just a leak around the stoma, under the skin, that's probably something that can be easily repaired. My worst fear is that they find portions of the unhealthy intestine that never healed. It's hard to believe that anything in there could be really bad, given how well he's finally recovering. But this is why I've tried to keep an even keel; it's scary how quickly things can go from good to bad to worse (and back to good) in a matter of hours.