BreAnne

I posted this on my blog yesterday, but figured more of you would be reading this one anyway, so here's what I wrote: Most readers know by know that Bre is in the hospital. But in case some details have been lost in translation, and in the interest of keeping everyone consistently up-to-date on her condition, I'll be posting some short notes on how she's doing. We went to the ER Sunday at around 6 p.m. while our wonderful friends David and Megan watched Micah and Asher (who ended up staying the night at their place while we stayed the night in the ER). Bre was diagnosed with pancreatitis, an inflammation of her pancreas. The doctors think the inflammation was caused by backed up pancreatic fluid as a result of an obstruction of her pancreatic duct, which was most likely obstructed by either remnants of gallstones in her common bile duct, or newly precipitated granules that have settled down into the hepatopancreatic ampulla, where the two ducts come together before they go into the duodenum, the short first section of the small intestine after the stomach. In any case, it was a pretty serious inflammation, but it's well under control now. Bre hasn't eaten since Sunday afternoon. They have her on a saline drip to hydrate her, and will be performing a short procedure tomorrow (11th) in which they will guide a small camera and cutting tool down to the opening of the duct into her intestine and cut it, effectively making it larger, allowing the obstruction to pass and pancreatic fluid to resume normal flow. She will (tentatively) be released on Thursday, although a Friday or Saturday release is very possible. The deciding factors are completely subsided pain and inflammation (i.e. not needing pain meds any more) and how well she tolerates food at that point. She spends the day resting and loves visits from the boys, who love visiting her. I miss not having her here, and I wish I could be there during the day (and night) to hang out, but I love having so much time with the boys. It's fun waking up with them, getting them ready for the day, eating with them, playing, and getting them in bed at the end of the day. But they miss their mommy, especially Micah, who keeps asking about her and saying we need to wait for her to eat, bathe, etc. It's sad. She's had a great team of doctors, nurses, and residents taking care of her and she really likes them. They seem to be managing her pain well and keeping her as comfortable as possible.