Today's Update

Ben had a very bad weekend. Fevers. Pain. Sara's mother. It was just a crappy weekend all around.

The doctors this morning decided that the time had come to do another CT scan to see if anything had changed. Ben had to get a new IV line inserted, because the contrast dye can't be delivered via the PICC line for some reason. He had that done at 11am. He finally had the CT scan done at 1pm. We have been waiting for results ever since. I have begun to think that we won't hear any results today at all.

The results are in, and the news is good

After waiting all afternoon to hear the results of the CT scan, the doctors finally came in a little after 5pm to give us the news.  For starters, all of the pancreatic psuedo-cysts are either the same size or smaller than they were in last week's scan (this is good).  Also, the psuedo-cysts have formed thick membranes (this is also good, because it means they will be much less likely to rupture).  The one that was at the tail of the pancreas contains less air than it did last week (this is very good).  So basically, the psuedo-cysts are resolving themselves normally and by all indications they should be completely gone in about six to eight weeks.

So why is Ben still experiencing abdominal pain?  Well, therein lies a tale.

After the procedure ten days ago, he was experiencing the normal and expected pain following a prolonged abdominal endoscopic procedure.  For this pain he was being given morphine.  One of the common side effects of morphine is that it causes the muscles in the bowels to slow down or stop, thereby causing constipation.  Ben's bowels have been filling with fluid, and have not been moving regularly enough to void the fluid.  Bloated and distended bowels cause abdominal cramps.  Ben has cramps, Ben shows he is in pain, Ben gets more morphine.  Morphine causes increased constipation.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

So the big thing that today's scan showed (aside from all the good news about the psuedo-cysts) is that Ben's large intestine is completely filled and distended with liquid, and this liquid has even backed up into the small intestines.  All we need to do is get him to pass this fluid, and the pain will go away.  At this very moment, Sara is walking Ben all around the hospital to try to get things moving.  Walk, walk, walk, sit on commode and wait for something to happen, lather, rinse, repeat.  If walking doesn't kick-start the process, then we can move on to other more direct solutions, but really we hope the walking does the trick.

With any luck, Ben will pass all this fluid and be ready to be released in the next few days.  The end is near!