I'd like to request some ~ma for myself. As most of you know I was in the hospital last weekend due to some abdominal pains. I was released at the end of the weekend and hadn't had pain over the weekend. Of course they'd also had me on IV fluids and no food for almost the whole time I was there. Well, I got home and the pain has kicked back in. It seems to be related to food. Unfortunately unlike before my surgery where it was very specific bad eating habits that would kick off a gall bladder attack, this seems to be triggered by any food intake at all. Today I've had bread and rice and water to see if this will ward off the pain, but I'm not hopeful.

I have an appointment with my PCP in the morning, and I've got a call in to the gastroenterologist to see if she has any ideas or wants to bump up my followup appointment.

I can't express how much I want this over with. I'm starting to get depressed about the situation. So far every test that has been done has come back clean, so at this point everyone is at a loss. I'm not looking forward to a drawn out treasure hunt trying to figure out why my body is doing this.

Right now I just keep thinking that I was better off before the surgery. I'd had a total of two gall bladder attacks in 8 months. The low low fat diet was a bit of a drag, but not like this.

So yeah, I need some ~ma, especially tomorrow morning for my doctor appointment. Please let us figure something out.

The bro updates, they keep coming:

Well, things just continue to get more interesting. I don't know if I told you, but while i was in the emergency room on August 9, I went into atrial fibrillation. Yesterday, during pre-surgical testing, it happened again. Which means that, instead of a one-time event during and/or after the seizure, it is now a chronic situation that needs to be dealt with after the surgery. It also means that, according the Dr. Ketema, whose job it was to provide medical clearance for me at Sloan-Kettering, Tuesday's event has changed from "brain surgery" to "high-risk brain surgery."

I think I deserve some sort of recognition. I have managed to simultaneously break both my brain and my heart, which I think would probably occupy the top two slots in most people's list of vital organs. Woohoo. The good news is that my blood pressure is coming down. I 'm attributing that to no alcohol in almost three weeks.

WHAT. No, the atrial fibrillation was never mentioned before. Apologies for the many updates, but any ~ma you can direct NY-ward on the 31st is, as always, appreciated very much.

I just called an ambulance for the first time. Drew is in severe abdominal pain, worse than it's ever been. I followed the ambulance in and am waiting to hear. I'm really worried and could use some of that Buffista -ma.

ETA: After the max dose of morphine had brought the pain from a 10 to a 9, they finally gave him some diludad (sp?), which brought him to a manageable 7. They are doing a bunch of tests, but the doctor suspects bowel obstruction.

Looks like Sloane-Kettering on August 31st is the place to be. My Aunt B has been scheduled and will be having her high-risk surgery the same time and place as Amyth's brother.

It's going to be a long day.

So we have results back, and Drew is being admitted. His liver and pancreas levels are "sky high" and his CT scan shows blood in the gall bladder area (but no bowel obstruction). He has acute pancretitus, and even though last weekend's MRI showed no stones, they are almost positive that there must be a rogue stone somewhere in there that is causing all these problems. They are going to wait 24 hours and watch his numbers, but if they don't go down they are going to do a risky but important procedure to scope out the area and remove any stones that have been hiding; if that is the problem, it should take care of everything else. I'm not even going to think about it being something else, because that will open a nasty can of worms that will make me go back into panic mode. I'm feeling pretty positive about the prognosis right now, and since Drew is going to be purely on IV fluids, bedrest, and painkillers for the indefinite future, he feels okay too. We are both glad that there is finally some progress towards an answer.

Drew will be in the hospital at least until Tuesday and quite likely until Thursday, but the doctors are playing that by ear right now. He isn't up for phone calls, but emails would be great. He will have his iPad by this evening. Thanks, everyone, for your love and support. It means the world to us both.

A couple of people have asked for this info, so I'll post it here. Drew is in room 672W in Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, CA.