Country Chatter

The last week and a half has been quite a ride. Let me share our story.

Gene has been dealing with long-haul covid for the last two years. He struggles with fatigue and extreme exhaustion and breathing difficulties. He recently made comment that he has felt better the last several weeks than he has since he had covid.

Monday (May20) came and he did not feel good with pain and discomfort in his stomach. He could hardly eat and felt bad enough that he couldn’t work. He started cutting hay one day and I had to go to the field to pick him up. He thought he had a stomach bug. By Wednesday it was worse with sharp piercing pain in his stomach. Some of the medicines he was on for long-haul covid has given him trouble with acid reflux and that really flared up. He started suspecting a stomach ulcer and Dr. Goggle confirmed all his symptoms. He called the family doctor to get an appointment and they had no openings until the following Tuesday. He asked for the doctor to call him but instead she had her secretary call with an over-the- counter 14-day treatment to try. It seemed to help.

Friday he developed severe back pain in the right kidney area. He has had more than his share of kidney stones and knows that routine well. He was really discouraged. He felt like he was not only dealing with an ulcer but now also a kidney stone. His history of passing them is not good. By evening it was intense, so he called his Urologist. They couldn’t see him until the next morning (Saturday). The last time he had a stone the Urologist had told him to not go to the ER but to call them directly, they can handle night attacks at their office complex-but that didn’t happen. He suffered through the night and by morning he was in intense pain. I had to use a wheelchair to get him into the Urology office. They did an x-ray and could not find a kidney stone. By then the pain had lessen so they thought he must have passed it. They gave him some pain medicine, scheduled a CT scan and sent him home with instructions in case it flared up again.

All day Saturday his stomach pain intensified. By evening he was moaning, groaning and writhering in pain. I looked at Dr. Google and ulcers do not create that kind of pain. At 9 p.m. he agreed it was time to go to the ER, something just wasn’t right.

They took us really quick at the St Francis emergency center. It did not take long to to be alerted to some alarming stats. His body temperature was 95, his blood pressure was 78/55 and he was in severe septic shock. As they wheeled him away to a room, the Triage nurse said, “I am starting the septis clock.” All hands were on deck and for the next hours there were multiple people sticking, probing, and doing scans and running tests. About 2:30 a.m. on Sunday morning we learned that a surgeon was in route and within the hour he would be in emergency surgery.

After careful examination of the CT scan and consultation, the surgeon felt it was a lacerated ulcer on his colon where it joins the stomach. But there was one sympton that didn’t quite fit that pointed to the gall bladder. She shared her plan and 2-1/2 hours later the surgery was over with a big twist.

Instead of an ulcer and a three inch cut, it was his gall bladder with a 10 incision on his belly. She didn’t feel it was safe to go in laposcoptically with his low blood pressure fluctuating so drasically because they have to use gas to inflate the abdomen and it stresses the heart. She found the gall bladder had shattered. It was a totally dead, watery, mushy, infected mess. It had affected his appendix which also had to be removed and his liver was a bloody mess.

Now we are in recovery and healing mode. They had him sedated and on a ventilator until noon on Monday. He is improving and doing well, very sore and extremely weak. God was been gracious and spared his life. One nurse commented that 50% of patients that are in his condition do not make it. This surgery was a big deal and he was in critical condition for several days. Jesus is the true physician. We actually are grateful it was not an ulcer because ulcers never really heal. You control them. He should have a full recovery but it will take several months.

He has to have one more surgery before he leaves the hospital to remove a gallstone. There was one stone in the bile duct and she couldn’t get it because of all the swelling and infection. They will use a scope to go down through the stomach and snatch it.

A number of farmers from Passion Community Church and Powhatan Mennonite are planning to come and help make his 110 acres of hay. What a huge blessing and we are so humbly grateful. Family and friends have surrounded us with words of encouragement and support.

Today they are moving him out of ICU. He was able to sit in a chair this morning for an extended period of time. Praise the Lord, he is getting better!

One guy said, “Gene is like an old Timex watch. It takes a beating and keeps on ticking.” Somehow that just seems to fit.

Someone had written the following verse on the board in his Intensive Care room.