Oilpressure

It is probably a good thing that I had already said that there would be no post here on Monday. The plan was that I wanted to be a slug all weekend and watch football. Well, I watched football on Saturday, but all day Sunday was spent sitting at the ER at Vanderbilt.

Without going into too much detail, Susan was not feeling well Friday and Saturday, saying she had indigestion. Sunday morning, she said she felt like she had some type of blockage. After a visit to a walk-in clinic showed nothing, they referred us to the dreaded Vanderbilt ER for a CT Scan. After a five-hour wait, she was finally seen. It’s a very good thing we went.

The CT Scan revealed that Susan has a blockage from her stomach to her duodenum. Not only that, but the scan also revealed a small perforation in her duodenum that they are obviously very concerned about. She was finally admitted and into her regular room by about 8:00 Sunday night.

They are unsure of the cause of both. Of course, the big fear is that new cancer has appeared and that an undetected mass has caused this. The surgical oncologist doesn’t think so. She thinks this is likely caused by scar tissue from her surgery, chemo and radiation four years ago and that the scar tissue has shifted. She has seen this before. We like her theory better.

Regardless, Susan is scheduled for surgery to bypass the blockage and repair the perforation today (Wed Sep 11) at 1:00 pm. The good news is that this will be a laparoscopic procedure and if all goes well – the doctors say there is still a chance she can attend both days of the IndyCar season finale this weekend. That would be great if it happens, but I’m not fully counting on it.

While any surgery is a risk, I’m not as worried about the surgery as I am the possibility that cancer has returned. If we can get good news on that, and she comes through the surgery OK, then she should fully recover fairly quickly.

Once they pumped her stomach Sunday night to relieve the bloating, she is feeling fine and is very upbeat. She has all kinds of IVs attaching her to pumps on a pole, but she has been going for regular walks on her floor just to keep her strength up. Once she has the surgery, she will lose the dreaded NG tube up her nose; which up to this point has been the most unpleasant part about this whole thing for her. But she feels good and looks good. We are optimistic going into Wednesday, and hope the day closes on a bright note. (Photo posted with her permission)

Needless to say; with all of this going on and trying to work my day job – I have given no thought for an IndyCar-related topic for here today. I was lucky to have enough time to write out a few paragraphs on this. The plan is to have my usual Nashville Preview up here on Friday. Unless things all go terribly wrong, I still plan to attend the race even if she can’t go. And yes, I already have her blessings on that. I will have an update here on her condition here on Friday. Hopefully, it will be a positive one. Please keep Susan in your prayers.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on September 11, 2024 at 4:03 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.