Update from Barb (Ken's CaringBridge site) Tuesday PM

[Guest guest]

Ken's back in the hospital.

This a.m. Ken had labs, followed by support group and then clinic. In clinic we

were told everything was going well, stay the course. Ken complained about his

never ending hiccups and told them that the wound doc thought he had a hernia,

he also mentioned (once again) his problem with pain. I told them about

yesterday's fever. The doc decided to send Ken for a CT scan, to see if they

could figure out the cause for the hiccups. (Ever hear a person snore & hiccup

at the same time? It's totally weird sounding!) Last night for the first time

since tx, Ken had his best nights sleep - go figure.) Since Ken is/was out

patient now we had to go to an imaging center. Anyway, they did the scan,

repeated it with contrast, and told us to stand by - the doc wanted to talk to

us. We both knew what that meant...... The coordinator called me (while we were

at the lab) and said; stay put, they wanted to do an Ultra Sound too. OK..... So

we did that, and the coordinator called again and said Ken's " portal vein is

clotted off " , get back to the hospital, soooo, back we go. The tx doc said " it's

really rare for a clot to happen this far out from surgery " . Yeah right, neither

Ken nor I were amused and frankly we tired of hearing *rare*. If this had

happened right after surgery, they would have gone back in and removed the clot,

but because we are so far out, the plan now is - drugs to thin the blood. Who

knows by tomorrow that might change. By now it's 7pm, to say we both were worn

out is a huge understatement, we had gotten up at 5:30. Ken's battery on his

w-vac was as tired as we were. So I had to come back to the apartment and get

his plug in (and other stuff) and go back. Ugh. The bulge on the side of his

incision seemed to get bigger during the day. (It's the size of a good

baseball.) I'm sure they will look into that some other time, it's not high

enough on the list right now. I'm positive they will be hearing about the

hiccups again tomorrow during rounds ;-) Oh yeah, they think the clot happened

because of the splenectomy (and his million + platelets didn't help.)

There was some good news in all this, his liver continues to be happy in it's

new home.

I'm pooped and going to bed.

Barb

P.S. Please forgive any spelling/grammer/etc errors, too tired to reread and

correct.

[Guest guest]

> Ken's back in the hospital.

I've only just started reading about Ken (wasn't online before). I'm

sorry to hear he's back in the hospital, but hope everything is taken

care of soon. I am glad to hear his new liver is doing well " in it's

new home " . Take care, both of you.

--Meghan, mom to Wyatt -12yo, fap,psc,uc-crohn's,a/ihives