Tuesday, January 5, 2010 at 7:17am
Sorry this is so wordy! my mom wrote it, but it explains everything that had happend over the past couple of months, thanks so much for all the encouraging e-mails and prayers :)
Ernie has lived with chronic pain for well over a year. It just got worse in November, were he couldn't stand the intensity of it...so on Nov. 15th at 3am, he finally agreed to go to the hospital. They put Ernie on morphine injections for the pain & on Nov. 20th, they sent him home...he was prescribed morphine pills to take at home but he couldn't digest these because of the hardening of his internal organs, (the esophagus & stomach). He kept waiting for the painkillers to kick in but finally on Nov. 29th at 3am, HE told me he was going to the hospital, he was experiencing chest pains. The ER doctor was Ernie's former doctor. By this time Ernie was down to 119 lbs.. I asked Dr. Hardy if he noticed that Ernie was just skin & bones...he said, "I just see bones". Anyway Dr. Hardy knew about scleroderma, so that was a big help. Even before Dr. Hardy got the blood & heart results, he said he was admitting Ernie. They pumped him intravenouly with iron, 2 units of red blood cells, saline, albumin, morphine, etc.. Dr. Fargher's (hospital doctor), report states, "Examination revealed a wasted, thin, chronically ill looking man whose weight had dropped to 55 kiolgram from 62.7 kilograms on Nov. 15/09". On Dec.2nd & 4th, they gave him a barium swallow which left him in tremendous pain and to make it more horribly painful his body was rejecting the morphine. On Dec. 5th, another ER doctor put a nasalgastric tube to drain the barium and morphine from his stomach. Lots of trials to "get to the problem". On Dec. 9th, Dr. Clark(family doctor) ordered a CT angiography and later told Ernie his stomach was very much hardened and there was nothing that can be done. This left Ernie absolutely devasted! Ernie cried, "Lord if your not going to heal me of this disease, than take the pain away." I called all the prayer lines I knew, and Pauline Gunner called all the APM churches to Pray for a Miracle! I requested prayers on internet. Martin Lasbrook visited him and prayed through with him...Ernie said he felt the pain leaving. On Dec.10th, I asked the doctor if I could take Ernie home, (thinking if there was nothing that could be done, than I wasn't going to leave him in the hospital). Dr. Fargher looked surprised at Ernie's meal and said, "If he can eat the solids without getting sick he can go home by the weekend!...not realizing that the kitchen staff hadn't brought him full fluids!..so there was Ernie eating solids! Hallelujah! Today, he is still pain-free.
Oh, I want to mention, Ernie use to take lots of diabetes pills per/day, because he refused to take insulin. Anyway, while in the hospital the nurses came in to give him insulin. I seen the look of fear(?) in Ernie's eyes as he told the nurse, he wasn't taking insulin...he never ever wants to be on insulin!...Stigma attached to going from pills to insulin!! Anyway, the nurse explained because he couldn't digest the pills, they were ordered to give the insulin...so he finally gave in.
Ernie was discharged from the hospital on Dec. 12th. He no longer takes any diabetes meds! He does not have celiacs! While in hospital he got bed-sores. Dec. 10th, I changed the tegaderm and saw that it had worsened. Dec.12th, I asked if they could change the tegaderm before we left. The bed-sores were all cleared up!!! Today, January 4th, Ernie is still pain-free and has gained 20lbs. Praise the LORD! God is good! Amen
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