My Grandma Nena has been in the hospital for over two weeks. Just before my parents came down to visit during the Water Line Episode, in fact. There'd been a stomach flu going around her town, and so it was assumed that her issues were related to that.
By the time Sam and I went up to visit his sister and family, my grandmother had been transferred out to Wichita, because her local hospital thought they had found a large tumor on her colon when they did their CT scans. So while we were up in KC, my grandmother was getting settled in in Wichita.
It was a blitz trip up to KC and back, and we stayed the night at my parents Saturday with the plan being to come on home on Sunday. However, because of everything going on with Grandma Nena, I opted to stay in Kansas while they did the biopsy on Monday morning.
It's always difficult to visit someone you love when they're sick, especially when they're hospitalized. However, I'm very glad I decided to stick around--I like to think my parents and Grandma Nena were glad to have me around making inappropriate jokes.
It's a living.
Sammy went on home Sunday, which commenced the 48 Hours of No Spouse. My poor husband had no clue what to do without me around.
I was a little lost myself.
Anyway.
Monday morning they went in and did a biopsy on Grandma Nena's colon. To their surprise, there was no cancerous mass like the original CT scan had indicated. Instead, her colon was highly inflamed due to a lack of blood flow to that area, and part of her colon was starting to die off.
Not good news, but better than another go 'round with cancer.
I stayed that night and went up to see her again Tuesday morning. She was in much better spirits than I had seen her, because she knew it wasn't cancer. Then one of the doctors explained what all was going on, and indicated that what they believed had happened was that the main artery that fed blood to the colon was collapsing, so they were planning to go in and put a stint in place in order to increase blood flow.
At the time they did not know for certain when they would do the procedure, so I decided to come back home, with the caveat that if things suddenly got worse, I'd be back north in a heartbeat.
Yesterday was the first day in a week that I hadn't spent a minimum of two and a half hours in a car, so I was lazy and spent most of the day napping. Today's been my catch up day, and my house, clothes, dishes, and cats are thankful that I'm back taking care of things.
Meanwhile, this morning they went in and did the angioplasty on Grandma Nena's artery, and discovered that the artery was completely blocked. They did something else--I'm not completely clear on what--and now they're in a waiting game to see if this fixed the problem. If it worked, then she should heal up fine. If it didn't, then they'll have to go in and actually remove part or all of her colon, which is a bit of a risky surgery.
Obviously we're hoping and praying for the healing up fine.
Grandma Nena will likely be home in the next couple of days, and then begins the waiting game. They'll know one way or the other after three weeks. If she can go that long without any bleeding, she'll be free and clear. If not... well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there.
I'm telling you all of this so that if for some reason I go MIA again, you'll have a rough idea as to why.
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