CT Scan - update

Sorry that he is going through so much pain and I'm hoping that they can find out the reason why.  He should have test upon test to give you an answer and then they should be able to control the pain some how.  Please keep us informed and I'm hoping that he feels better soon.

Kim

I hope you find some answers soon and I hope your husband is pain free. Sending thoughts and prayers to your family.

I apologize if you have explained this before, but what is the " dilation procedure " and what is it supposed to help with?  Is it to help open the artery in the leg?

If the pain is too great, perhaps you might request that he be admitted to hospital for pain management until they can assess the cause and get him doing better.  Living in pain is not good for the body or the mind.

If it were an infection wouldn't they be able to see an elevation in the white blood counts?

Was the CT with contrast? 

Hoping that they quickly come to a determination and get him feeling better soonest.

Marie who loves kitties

I think you're going to have to really push for some answers at this point.  It's just not acceptable for him to be in this much pain.

If it's an infection, where and what is it?  They should be able to tell from his bloodwork if an infection is involved, right?  Wouldn't the white blood cells be elevated?  And if it is infection, wouldn't a course of antibiotics be appropriate?

When will you get the CT results?  Depending on what's going on, it may not have answers, but they should still get this read asap.

And I would ask for WAY better pain meds.  When I had a period of significant pain a couple of years ago, I had to move up from Vicodin to Oxycodone.  I wasn't thrilled with that, but I did get some relief, and that's critical.  It's terrible to be in such constant pain.

Hang in there, girl.  You know we've got your back in all this craziness.

Hugs coming your way~AA

jen2012 said:

I guess the culture grew from

I guess the culture grew from the time she emailed me til she called a few minutes ago.   There is an infection.  He has to go for more blood work in an hour to determine if it's the port or the rectal area.  When he gets the dilation, it's done with a sigmoidoscopy and i guess that could cause infection.   I'm thinking it's not the port and I am not too happy with the surgeon right now.  Shouldn't take the oncologist to figure this out when we have talked to him and his staff about this for 2 months now....grrrr!

My husband has had 4 pre sacral infections.  he will have chills, maybe a fever...maybe not and often excruciating pain. Last infection four weeks ago the pain was so bad I had to call an ambulance as I couldn't get him down the stairs. You will probably be sent to an interventional radiologist, the abscess will need to be drained. I would definitely ask for an infectious disease specialist to determine the proper antibiotics. My husband was on the wrong antibiotic for his first two infections and was not dealt with as aggressively as he should have been. Not a criticism, most doctors know the basics regarding infections but a specialist can get right to the bottom of it and treat accordingly. 

jen2012 said:

Thanks AA - he now has a full

Thanks AA - he now has a full collection of drugs...tramadol, percocet, oxycodone and vicodin.   They said he can alternate the oxycodone and vicodin, so that is what he's doing now.  Honestly, I'm a little nervous about him overdosing at this point.  You know when you are up all night but not completely with it - I'm afraid he's going to forget what time he took stuff.    On Tuesday, she suggested he try 3 Advils.  He hasn't taken advil in a decade because an allergist told him not to.  But out of desperation he tried it...it was the most relief he's had!  2 hours later, his bottom lip started swelling. Doctor says no more ibuprofen.  They are also calling in a low dose steroid - I told her we just need to manage the pain at this point, while trying to figure out what it is.  I'm a little disappointed - I was hoping it was an infection that they could clear up. Yea Chelsea, it is strange what we start to hope for.

Just got an email from the nurse - the blood and urine cultures from Tuesday afternoon are still clear, but they will continue to grow them for a week.  The preliminary results from the CT scan are also clear, but the doctor is going to go over and look them over with the radiogist.  I just don't know....my question to them is if the CT will show bone mets, infection, disc issues and enlarged lymph nodes.   Waiting for the answer.  He also has an MRI scheduled for Monday night.

 

I hope that they can get that under control soonest.

Hugs to you both,

Marie who loves kitties

jen2012 said:

Robin - how did they figure

Robin - how did they figure out it was an abscess?  The CT scan didn't show anything - they are supposed to take him for an MRI tonight.  Thanks for the info - I did ask for an infectious disease doc ...wouldn't have thought of that without your post.

Jim's first infection was the result of an anastomic leak following surgery. when his back pain got so bad a couple weeks after LAR surgery the visiting nurse finally convinced the surgeon that this was not normal post surgical pain. I took him in for a CT and they could see a fluid/gas filled pocket in the pre sacral area, behind the rectum (which for him was now colon), and in front of the sacrum. He went in immediately for the insertion of a drain tube (butt cheek), IV antibiotics, overnight in the hospital and had the drain for 10 weeks. 

The second bout followed the barium enema test for his reversal. All looked fine on the x-rays but in 24 hours he had really bad chills. I had to insist on a CT because his white count was low.  This time it was determined he had a fistula, repeat treatment above and drain for three more months. 

All good again, he had his reversal and within a week the infection was back. It was during this round that an infectious disease specialist was brought in. He changed hs antibiotics, said they were wrong for the various strains of bacteria. The infection cleared but he kept draining, had the drain for five months and realized that nothing was going to heal so had the reversal reversed.  He was left connected in case he wanted to reverse again. 

We thought that would be the end, three months after the reversal Jim started getting really bad chills and a fever off and on. Because a visitor had gotten sick about the same time he did we just figured he was sick. Shouldn't have ignored the symptoms, at this point Jim was septic. This time the infectious doctor kept him in the hospital all week on IV antibiotics, the drain is still in (4weeks so far).  

I can't check back while writing and can't remember the name of the test your husband had but my guess would be that there might have been some damage: small nick or something allowing leakage from the colon to enter the body. We didn't expect this recent infection since that part of his colon isn't even hooked up and working but apparently it is always producing something. 

The first two infections I had to act like the crazy wife and insist on the CT, the third and fourth it was taken much more seriously. When you have a bacterial infection that has progressed to causing this much pain its not something to the taken lightly, sepsis can take over in a matter of hours. I'm also not knocking the IR doctors and others but it was the specialist who was able to determine what he needed. 

Jen, please keep us posted...will be thinking of you. This will be okay.  I think the complications from treatment have been worse than the actual treatment sometimes.

Robin

jen2012 said:

Robin - thank you so much for

Robin - thank you so much for the details.  You guys have been through a lot        It sounds like the same thing...but nothing showed up on his CT.   I'm not sure what they are looking for on the MRI, but hopefully we'll have some answers today.

I hope Jim is feeling better!

Keep pushing, he has an infection...that you know and they do cause a lot of pain. Its coming from somewhere. Do you know what bacteria they found? E-Coli?

Jim has been through a lot but it pales in comparison to so many others, helps me to keep things in perspective, but thank you. 

Robin