We were right in thinking it was a blockage, but it appears to be a mechanical blockage - a blockage caused by a mechanical obstruction. This is what happens when your intestines get twisted or kinked. Food will still build up at a point in the intestines, but it's not due to the food. They compared the intestines to a bunch of spaghetti noodles. When you run your hand through the noodles, they are free to twist and turn and move all around. And that's normally how intestines are, free to move around inside you. However, after surgery, scar tissue can form around incisions and your intestines can adhere to that scar tissue, gluing them in place. Now when they shift around, they can become kinked like a garden hose.
With any blockage, along with the pain there is nausea and vomiting, as was the case with Karen. This is because food has no where to go but back out the way it came in. To prevent this they've inserted an NG tube into her nose and down into her stomach. This sucks out any food that may be in there along with any stomach acid, and it allows the intestines to rest. But it makes talking uncomfortable, and it's given her jaw pain and a head ache as well. Of course they can give her pain meds for that, but it's still no fun.
We've been told that about 75% of mechanical blockages resolve on their own, but the other 25% require surgery. In rare cases the blockage can actually cause parts of the intestine to die. They have a blood test they run every 6 hours to check for changes in the blood that you see when tissue death is occurring. This test has repeatedly come up negative for Karen, and they are discontinuing the test today as everything seems to be working itself out. When she first came in her belly was as hard as a rock and she was in a lot of pain. It's softened up a lot since then and it's pain level has gone way down.
That said, we aren't entirely in the clear yet, and they've let us know they want to keep Karen for another night. With the way they are talking, it sounds like it may actually end up being two or three more days, but they'll only say one more for sure. They want to be certain things resolve completely before sending her home, but that's hard to do when she's already having diarrhea and nausea from the chemo. So they are being extra cautious and not rushing anything along.
