Thursday, January 14, 2010

From Mark's room we are waiting for him to wake up from his Mesinteric Angio-Scope which inserts a scope in the goin area and looks at the arterial blood supply in the upper GI area and determines if there is interruption of blood to the intestine (Bad) or flow to the tissue (Good). He has "normal flow" and no noted abnormalities.


The GI team is not quite ready to call a diagnosis but they are looking at, "Mesenteric Sclerosis" which is something seldom found in juveniles but far more often a condition found in older people, say in their sixties. Treatment would usually combine steroidal therapy combined with Methotrexate which is a chemo drug interestingly, used in breast cancer treatments. Mark does not have cancer but this drug, used in small doses has become a preferred drug for these issues.

Again I say, the doctors aren't quite ready to call this but, they are leaning toward the treatment protocol. This would mean that Mark is going to be on a long-term steroidal therapy maybe for many months, even after he leaves the hospital. These would be aministered at home with injections.

Mark has to keep his right leg motionless for several hours to avoid blowing out the scope suture so that as much as anything, is making him a little agitated but he seems to understand his part in the process.

The challenge in the short term will be to get the feeds working and the talk now is that they may need to pull the N tube and put an NJ which feeds the colon in a normal fashion. Mark cannot leave the hospital until he is able to process solid food without the tubes so this is going to become a big priority in the coming week.

Tomorrow the pallative care team will meet with parents and discuss issues of a social-emotional nature for Mark's recovery process. We welcome the help the PCMC teams give and truly appreciate the overall approach to health care here.

Mark soldiers on and he could teach the class on coping better than most adults. He is a real fine young man and not a day goes by that the family does not feel blessed to be his family.


Ken









6 comments:

joshua said...

Marky you are an awesome little man I cant wait until you get to go home. You are a little champ. I can see you are standing with a smile on you face. I know you cant wait to get back to school I have sent a little something for you in the mail. Have a blast with it.

We love you tough guy.
Kathy

Anonymous said...

Thanks for all the updates. Glad to hear things are going as well as they are. Love to all, extra kisses for Marky!

love,
Evil Aunt Barbie

Anonymous said...

Hey Mark!

Hello from DisneyWorld! We are here on vacation and am so glad things are going well! YOU are a TROOPER! I love seeing your smile even though sometimes it must be hard! I will tell Mickey Mouse & ALL his friends hello for you! Keep up the good fight! McKenna & Jessica & Roger say "HELLO" Tell your family hi for us too!

Kristi

Cathy Wallace said...

Thanks for keeping us up to speed, Ken!

Marky, you get to try to eat some food this week? Wow! That's awesome! We're all gonna do a dance or something on the day your tube comes out! :)

Here are few food jokes for you to tell your visitors:

What did the mother ghost tell the baby ghost when he ate too fast?
Stop goblin your food.

What did the hungry computer eat?
Chips, one byte at a time.

Why do fish avoid the computer?
So they don't get caught in the Internet.

What did the cannibal order for take-out?
Pizza with everyone on it.

What did the mayonnaise say to the refrigerator?
Close the door, I'm dressing!


The customer asked: "Do you serve crabs here?"
"Yessir," repplied the waiter. "We'll serve just about anybody."

What's the worst thing about being an octopus?
Washing your hands before dinner.

Why did the man stare at the can of orange juice?
Because it said 'concentrate.'

Love and Prayers from the Wallaces

Unknown said...

Great news about the normal blood flow! And maybe a correct diagnosis??

Uncle Boote' said...

Hi Marky, I have to sleep with a tube and mask everynight because I stop breathing from time to time. I think it is because Aunt Kelly puts a pillow over my face, but now I have a mask and tube and she can't hurt me. I'm starting a club called the tubesters, want to join?

Uncle Boote'