The CT scan showed a moderate to high grade bowel obstruction with a visible transition point. The "visible transition point" just means they can pinpoint the exact spot of the blockage, which is very helpful if they have to go in to fix the blockage with surgery. Surgery would normally be considered at this point but due to all the abdominal surgeries Karen's had in the past, scar tissue is holding everything together and it'd be hard to get/cut through to the blockage. So, we're back to the old waiting game. Karen's been admitted and they found her a room. I imagine this will take a few days to work through.
They finally put an NG tube in her nose around 3pm. Based on past experiences I felt this should have been done much sooner. They were giving her very strong pain medication - hydromorphone (Dilaudid) - but it was barely helping at all. I even felt the nurse was suspicious of Karen's claims of pain, at least until the CT results came back. When she'd be hit with a wave of pain, it'd spike up into the 8 to 10 range, and would hover around a 5 in between. The amount of time in between those waves of pain has also increased significantly, from once every two to five minutes to once or twice an hour. And the although she's still hovering around a pain level of 4, the waves of pain are less severe. They were also giving her a lot of medication to help with nausea. It's been a couple hours now since she's had the NG tube in and her nausea has vanished completely.
I had mentioned an NG tube shortly after we were admitted, but Karen really hates having them shoved down her nose and asked me not to bring it up again. However, when it finally happened, the nurse did an excellent job inserting the tube. The process was pretty much pain free. By far the easiest NG tube Karen's ever had inserted. Hopefully this experience along with how much it seems to have helped will make her more comfortable with the idea of NG tubes in the future.
