What a difference a few hours makes

Well, after a truly wonderful morning at Allerton, Brian and I each headed our seperate ways for the evening. Brian and a friend were bartending a wedding from noon-midnight and me the kids headed to campus for my church's Social Justice Banquet. At 2PM, Brian and I spoke and he was feeling great and in a good mood, having fun.

Dinner had just concluded for me at the banquet. The ceremony was about to begin. My kids were in the childcare room content with babysitters and other kids. My pastor, who often times kids around with me, hands me a piece of paper that says "Brian called. It's an emergency" I looked up at Pastor Keith assuming he must be kidding and he shook his head and told me to let him know. I quickly left the table and called Brian frantically from the hallway. He was having an attack and was being delivered to the ER in Monticello.

I raced to the table, excused myself, ran to the childcare room and threw all my kids stuff in bags and off we ran...to the car to get the kids in and home for the longest 30 minute trip in the pouring rain. I called my neighbor to watch the kids and go home for just a few minutes to drop the kids off with my heaven-sent neighbors, grab a sweatshirt to cover my banquet attire, and ran to the car to get to the hospital, only a block away.

As I ran into the entrance, Brian's friend, Jane was outside on the phone. She had been the one to take Bri to the hospital. I asked what happened and she quickly told me that she didn't know. He was Ok and then all of us sudden was bent over in pain and saying he needed to go to the hospital. She said, "Katie, it's bad. He's in alot of pain." I thanked her and ran inside just in time to see Bri being wheeled away in a wheelchair to get a CAT Scan. He said he just had a big dose of pain meds and was doing much better.

I waited for him to return and when he did, he told me he ate a small meal at the wedding, began sweating and feeling uncomfortable, got some rest, tried to get back to work, had to rest again and then all of a sudden, the pain hit him and he was unable to do anything. He went to his friends and asked for a ride to the ER. He was moaning and shaking and unsure how to deal with the pain. He described it as the worst pain of his life and said he would have prefered to have his fingernails ripped out that endure the pain again.

Pancreatitis was the biggest concern and while we waited for the CAT Scan and blood work to come back, I wondered what the next few hours or days would hold. Would he have pancreatitis? Would he be in the hospital for the next few days? Would something else be wrong with him? Could there have been a complication with the proceedure on Thursday? What the hell is going on? My husband has an extremely high threshold of pain so hearing that he's moaning in the backseat of a car racing to the ER was something I've never experienced and never wanted to.

The CAT Scan and blood work came back within an hour and the first thing the doctor said was "no more Tylonol and no alcohol" Well, shit! We'd already heard that on Thursday. His GI made a big fuss about how they both seperately were tough on the liver but together could be very damaging. What was this all about- why the lecture again? Well, the CAT Scan showed that his liver was enlarged and "congested" and his blood work showed that his liver enzymes were high. Huh? What? His liver? No Pancreatitis. That's good. Whats all this liver stuff about.

The ER doctor then said that what he assumed is that Brian has an acute condition call Bilar Colic ( As in Bile Ducts). The liver has "congested" and working overtime already because its being challenged. When the body then begins to work on a new food to digest ( the the two buffalo chicken wings Bri had), the liver begin to go into overdrive to create enough bile to compensate for the amount of fat in the system. The liver then overproduces and when the bile is in the bile duct on it's way to the small intestines, it spasms or kinda freaks out from overworking, causing very intense pain in the area.

Bri had just had a CT Last week and there was no talk about en enlarged liver. I asked if two days of drinking in New Orleans at a bachelor party last weekend could have caused this. Perhaps the doctor said. Binge drinking is defined at more than 5 drinks in a day and while most of us have had "binge" days and Brian has had many in his lifetime, his compromised body along with his constant use of Tylonol over a week long period could contribute to this enlarged liver and elevated enzymes.

He recommended a liver biopsy to see of the liver had been damaged but said that would be up to his GI and he needed to have a conversation with him on MOnday about it all.

So, off we went- home...with a copy of his CT and reports, some more pain meds and a new issue. NO TYLONOL. NO ALCOHOL WHAT SO EVER. And a very very low fat simple diet.

Brian had a terrible night's rest and had terrible indigestion and uncomfort but the tremendous pain was gone. Back to the fleeting moments of discomfort and the reality that once again, he's all messed up- only this time with new symptoms.

He rallied Sunday morning and we headed to the Pumpkin Patch as we had planned to do all week as a family but probably more out of obligation that anything. Brian has been suffereing for aove a month now with pain. THe kids know he's sick and he's been unable to do alot of the things he usually does with them because it's physically painful or too exhausting. He just wanted to be as normal as he could with the kids and we ended up having a really great time together.

He'll call his GI this morning and tell him everything. Perhaps he'll have to go in today or tomorrow for an appointment or furthur testing however he already has a scheduled visit on Wednesday so he may have to wait. We've talked at length about what our own plan will be. He will wait and see what his GI says however we may be to the point where a second opinion is necessary. It's been the toughest month of Brian's physical life. He's not doing better, he's getting worse and we must look at the entire picture. Perhaps it was never a Gallbladder issue in the first place. Perhaps this liver thing is due to two nights of drinking and a bunch of Tylonol or maybe there was something there before that no one saw on the first CT. Could it be something else entirely? We don't know.

While he has really good moments and hours of feeling pretty OK, he's not himself and he's not healthy. And the moments when he's in excruciating pain feel like an eternity and leave him, and all of us, feeling pretty helpless, frustrated, and concerned for what will happen next.

More to come soon. Pray for answers, please.