(no subject)
My grandfather (the only one that I have known), is in the hospital. He was bleeding internally for no known reason. He passed out one day and the blood started appearing in his stool. I talked to my mother the day that she emailed us to tell us and I was here (Connecticut) the next day.
Grandpa was bleeding in his small intestines. While he was bleeding they gave him 12 units of blood, which just happens to be more than the body normally has in it. The doctors did endoscopies and colonoscopies on him but couldn't find the bleeding. Finally they took the longest endoscope that they had and went through his stomach into his small intestines and found the bleeding. The doctor that was performing the procedure was hoping to be able to cauderize the bleed with the endoscope but once he saw it they took Grandpa straight to surgery. They performed surgery on him yesterday and removed 18" of his small intestines that were bleeding.
Grandpa is doing better now and is out of the ICU. He feels weak but is very Chinese in the fact that he doesn't want to either be a burden or show weakness. He currently has about 15 wires and tubes coming out of him and he looks like hell, but he wouldn't let you know that he is in pain. He says that the most difficult part is that they aren't letting him eat or drink anything right now. In an attempt to let the intestines heal they have a tube in his nose going into his stomach pulling everything out. (at this point there is nothing in there but the sube is still drawing air out decompressing his stomach relieving tension on his intestines. They are feeding him by IV and are attempting to keep his GI system dormant for a while.
Mom has been troubled by this whole thing (not that I wouldn't expect that from her). She is taking care of my grandfather and her life kinda revolves around him so she is really taking things hard. She knows he doesn't have much time left, since he is 88, but it is still hard for her to rationalize. I think that she is afraid of death herself and it is manifesting in her fear of loss. She has been really happy I have been here, and has said a couple of times that she didn't know that she needed me here until I was here.
I am glad I was here and I owe it to my boss. We had just paid bills so we didn't have the cash for me to come. When I told my boss Mike what was going on he said that he would buy the ticket for me. Not only that but he handed me some cash in case I needed it. I am sure that I will be paying him back out of my next bonus check but it was still very nice of him to offer without my asking.
Grandpa was bleeding in his small intestines. While he was bleeding they gave him 12 units of blood, which just happens to be more than the body normally has in it. The doctors did endoscopies and colonoscopies on him but couldn't find the bleeding. Finally they took the longest endoscope that they had and went through his stomach into his small intestines and found the bleeding. The doctor that was performing the procedure was hoping to be able to cauderize the bleed with the endoscope but once he saw it they took Grandpa straight to surgery. They performed surgery on him yesterday and removed 18" of his small intestines that were bleeding.
Grandpa is doing better now and is out of the ICU. He feels weak but is very Chinese in the fact that he doesn't want to either be a burden or show weakness. He currently has about 15 wires and tubes coming out of him and he looks like hell, but he wouldn't let you know that he is in pain. He says that the most difficult part is that they aren't letting him eat or drink anything right now. In an attempt to let the intestines heal they have a tube in his nose going into his stomach pulling everything out. (at this point there is nothing in there but the sube is still drawing air out decompressing his stomach relieving tension on his intestines. They are feeding him by IV and are attempting to keep his GI system dormant for a while.
Mom has been troubled by this whole thing (not that I wouldn't expect that from her). She is taking care of my grandfather and her life kinda revolves around him so she is really taking things hard. She knows he doesn't have much time left, since he is 88, but it is still hard for her to rationalize. I think that she is afraid of death herself and it is manifesting in her fear of loss. She has been really happy I have been here, and has said a couple of times that she didn't know that she needed me here until I was here.
I am glad I was here and I owe it to my boss. We had just paid bills so we didn't have the cash for me to come. When I told my boss Mike what was going on he said that he would buy the ticket for me. Not only that but he handed me some cash in case I needed it. I am sure that I will be paying him back out of my next bonus check but it was still very nice of him to offer without my asking.