Monday night, Greg made a pork roast on the grill. He cut a piece off to eat and, even though he chews his food up VERY finely and drinks lots of water while he's eating, a small piece of meat got lodged in his throat. For over an hour he tried coughing it up and nothing was working. I gave him some Coke to drink (it helps stuff to dissolve), and that didn't work. After arguing with him, I finally got him to agree to go to the ER. Mind you, it's a 30 minute drive to get there because we live in the middle of nowhere.
The entire drive to the hospital, he's gagging and coughing. I gave him an empty ice cream bucket, because he was spitting up stuff and that's as good a puke bucket as anything! When we got to the hospital, Greg went and sat down and I got him checked in. While we were being checked in, the young lady at the desk called and told them that there was a 61 year old man with esophageal cancer that had something lodged in his throat. I assumed someone would be coming out to get him. I was wrong. After about 15 minutes a nurse came out, looked at him and said "Oh, you're breathing fine. It's going to be a little while yet." Granted it seemed fairly busy in the ER, especially for a Monday night, but I couldn't believe they weren't going to take him back right away! We tried sitting away from everyone, because the sound of his coughing and gagging and hacking up stuff was pretty gross. It was getting to me, too. (I can't handle puke, it makes me want to gag!) While we were sitting there, of course, some people couldn't help peeking around the corner to see who it was that sounded like they're dying of Ebola or something! One woman looked at me very compassionately, and I told her about his cancer and that he has some food lodged in his throat. She and the person she was with couldn't believe they were making us wait. The other people in the waiting room just shook their heads. There was no one there with any sort of life threatening illness, and truth be told, I'm pretty sure a bunch of them were there because their insurance won't cover an office visit!
So, after at least 30 minutes we finallly got called to "triage." The nurse takes our information and tells us that we have to wait again, because the procedure room needs to be cleaned, and that's the room they're going to want to use for Greg. OK, fine. More waiting. Believe it or not, I was fairly nice to the nurses. I was disgusted with the waiting, but I knew there was nothing that I could do to make anything happen any faster. Greg was actually surprised that I managed to hold my temper!
When we finally got into the ER, the doctor wanted to try a drug called Glucagon, which is supposed to relax the sphincter muscle in the esophagus to allow the food to go down. This is normally a very quick working drug. The doctor said it's one of those drugs that either works or it doesn't. Unfortunately for Greg, it didn't work.
Because that didn't work, they had to call in a Gastroenterologist. We were lucky enough to have Dr. Christopher Young attending to Greg. This doctor is the most compassionate, nicest, sweetest doctor I have ever met! And that is no exaggeration! While he was examining Greg, we were talking about his cancer, and Greg mentioned that he was "Iron Man" because of how he has beaten cancer twice before. Dr. Young was more than just a little impressed at what Greg has all been through. We talked about the endoscopy he was going to have to do on Greg and what he expected to happen. He walked me out to the waiting room and then left to perform the procedure. He came back about 20 minutes later to tell me he was all done. He even had some pictures for me!
In this first picture, I have circled and put an arrow to the food that was stuck in Greg's esophagus.
While Dr. Young was in there, he took some other pictures, including this one of Greg's feeding tube from the inside!
After Dr. Young was done, all we had to do was wait for Greg to wake up sufficiently so I could take him home. That took almost an hour. Trust me when I say I was ready to go home. It was already 1 a.m. and I really needed to get to bed. I had left a voice mail for my supervisor at 10:30 p.m., so she would understand why I wasn't in at my usual time. I must say, I have some really awesome supervisors who are so understanding. I'm also very blessed to be working from home! Even though I started late, I was able to get extra sleep because all I have to do is walk downstairs to my office! It's great to not have to worry about how I look or what I'm wearing. Truth be told, I was in my pajamas until 4:30 p.m.! Isn't that great! LOL
Anyway, when we finally left the hospital, I was starving, as I hadn't eaten dinner. The only place that was open at 1 a.m. was Hardees, so I pulled into their drive through. I asked Greg if he wanted anything, and he said "a burger!" I damn near died when he said that! After all that he had been through, to say he wanted a burger, well, I think he's tjust rying to kill me! (LOL) Obviously, I did not get him a burger. He got a chocolate shake!
So that was our Monday night. We finally got home at 2 a.m. Neither of us got a lot of sleep. Me, because I had to get up for work, and Greg because he had to get up to go to the hospital for his last dose of chemo! Of course we appreciate all your continued prayers that this will heal him!
Blessings to all!
Julie
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