Another Update on Samuel

We came home from the hospital around 8:30 pm last night.  The procedure went well, but we had some good news and some bad news.  The tubes are giving him a lot of problems, but they are what keep him alive right now and they can’t be removed until he is more healed internally.  After the procedure, Samuel was still in a lot of pain.  I was pretty frustrated yesterday and Dr. Kozar had the specialist who does all these kinds of surgeries come by and talk with us.  I didn’t understand what was going on, so he drew a diagram and explained it in detail.    A while back, Samuel had a tube that eroded a hole into his intestines, which was a new problem to work through.  They replaced that tube with a smaller, softer tube.  Well, now the smaller tube worked its way into his bladder and out the other side.  So, now he has additional problems and it will take additional time to heal.  They can’t pull the tubes out because that would leave big holes.  The plan is to keep downsizing the tubes smaller and smaller and letting the wounds close around the tubes little by little.  It will take a lot of time.  He will go back to the hospital in 4-6 weeks (if nothing new happens) and they will downsize the tube again.  It will be kind of big deal because they will be replacing four tubes that day and the procedure will take most of the day.  I really like this doctor a lot and I trust that he has Samuel’s best interest at heart.  The human body doesn’t like foreign objects and it resists and fights things that should be in there.  Sometimes the tubes migrate to places they shouldn’t be and that creates more problems, like in the case of Samuel’s tubes.  There are so many problems so close together that to correct one, you sometimes compromise another.  The seatbelt caused a lot of damage, but without the seatbelt he would have never survived.

As far as the pain problem goes, the doctor explained that Samuel is in a tremendous amount of pain (even when he doesn’t want us to know).  He said that to sedate him enough to replace the one tube yesterday, the amount of drugs needed would have put two elephants to sleep.  He said that because we can’t take the tubes out, the pain will continue and we will have to deal with that for at least six more weeks, maybe longer.  The new pain management plan is that he will stay on pain meds constantly, not letting them wear off.  Over time, the medicine will start become less effective and at that time they will increase the dosage.  They don’t want to increase the dosage now because they know we will have to do that a little later.  So…..today we remind ourselves that in just a few days it will be four months post-accident and Samuel is alive and that is a miracle.  We pray for the pain to be managed and healing to be swift.  We pray that no new problems arise and that those tubes stay exactly where they should be and doing their jobs.  We pray for peace and strength. 

Update on Samuel

Samuel is in the hospital this morning for another procedure. They will be taking him back to the OR any minute. He is in a lot of pain today.  The goal is to reposition the JP drain and see if that will be less painful and give him a little more comfort.  If the procedure goes well, he will be released today. As always, we appreciate your prayers.

Back at Memorial Hermann! :(

Well....this has been a very frustrating experience. Samuel came to the hospital with pain in his lower abdomen yesterday afternoon.  He was also having problems with the JP drain not working quite right.  His situation is so complicated that the doctors don't really know what to do sometimes.  Dr. Kozar is out of town,  but we've been in contact.  At about 10:00 pm last the trauma team made the decision to remove the SP tube because it wasn't working right and it is the source of much of the pain. The plan was to remove the drain and send us home.   We were pretty happy, but it didn't go so well. They were not able to pull the tube out. They are concerned that it has either been entangled in scar tissue or possibly eroded into something else.  They admitted him to the hospital and we finally got a room around 2:00 am. The urology team came by this morning and tried again to remove the tube. It was extremely painful and I honestly cannot believe they proceeded to try to remove the tube...but they did!  It was impossible and now we are continuing to wait for the CT scan.   They put him back on morphine. It is helping some, but not elevating the pain.  I am thankful we are out of the Trauma ER because it is a very scary place to be at night.  There were two code blues while we were there and a lot of noise. Being in a room is so much better!  We have had very little contact with the urology team here and dealt mostly with the trauma team.   Today we got some pretty negative news about Samuel's upcoming surgical possibilities. I want so badly to take Samuel to Johns Hopkins to his original doctor.  I really value his opinion.  We have been in contact with him and he is so much more optimistic.  I wish we could get to a place where Samuel is doing well enough that he could go to Baltimore for a consult.  Tomorrow Dr. Kozar will be back. I like it when she is here because she is well respected and a great advocate for Samuel.  Please continue to pray for pain control, complete healing, rest and strength.