Too much information?

A visit from Juliet

My blogging has been sporadic to put it mildly but I persist in hoping that I can report some constancy.  This has not yet happened so here goes for an update.

What follows is a detailed description of John's plumbing problems that may seem like TMI to some.  In that case, know that he is not seriously ill but is plagued by problems sufficiently dire to require ongoing medical care.  You need read no further.  

My last post reported that good news that John's bladder cancer was not as pervasive as feared and that there were no lung metastases.  We did not actually have a date to go back to Mass General and talk to the docs about what came next until November 10th.  

In the meantime, however, John began to feel ill again on Saturday, November lst.  That night he went to the emergency room and was diagnosed with a kidney infection.  He was given IV antibiotics in the ER and sent home with prescriptions for various things.  Thinking he would take the medicine and get better, I tooted off on a long delayed trip to Maine (we had both intended to go).  I had not even reached Belfast when I got a message that John was back in the ER and a few hours later, that he had been admitted to Cooley Dickinson Hospital. Thanks be for Eliza and Michael who were available to help John out in my absence.  

The next day I did various errands and visits in Maine and monitored the situation in Massachusetts by phone.  Mid-afternoon, John called to say that his doctor had decided to do an emergency procedure to bypass a blockage somewhere in his plumbing system and I decided that I would cut short my Maine stay and return to Northampton.  The procedure they did is called a nephrostomy and consisted of placing a tube to drain urine from a hole on his side. They kept John in the hospital until that Friday.

Our long awaited visit to the doctors at Cooley Dickinson was scheduled for that Monday so off we went.  Our MGH doctor scheduled a "study" for the next Monday.  This was supposed to determine whether the antibiotics has worked to unblock his system, meaning he could go back to normal or alternatively whether a stent needed to be placed.  That was yesterday. 

We had assumed that if placed a stent would replace the nephrostomy tube and were taken much aback when all was over and it turned out that he got a stent and kept the NT as well!  Apparently his ureter has narrowed (why?  no-one seems to know) and they are trying to stretch it with the stent.  We go back in a few weeks for another "study" (they use contrast radiography).  As for the long term treatment for the bladder cancer, that will be done with the BCG treatments that are standard for non-invasive cancer but it is all on hold until the other problems are resolved.  

A tough day at MGH-- we didn't get out of there until 6:30.  It ended with a nerve wracking rainy drive along the Mass Pike, embellished by a forty minute crawl along 8 miles of accident slowed highway.  But it was warm and cozy in our car, we had Pandora and each other and we were home safely at last.