My last blog post was dated July 28 (Sunday) and things were looking up. Instead much has happened. He got moved to Sheltering Arms Rehabitation Center on Thursday afternoon, August 1, and was there three days. Sunday morning I got a call from the doctor on staff and they were in the process of transferring him back to the emergency room at St. Francis. The 10 inch incision on his chest from the first emergency surgery was leaking nasty looking gunk and they were concerned.
Sunday evening they did emergency surgery to find and fix the problem. On Tuesday they had to go back in again. It is a long story and I won’t go into all the details. They could not find the leak as he has developed “Frozen Bowel Syndrome”. (You can read more about this on the web). The short version is his bowels have become a frozen, glued together block, that is incased in a hard cocoon shell. It was impossible to move the intestines around or even distinguish the individual strands so they were unable to get to where they thought the leakage was. Instead, they are trying to heal the intestines by creating a fistula with a drainage tube to enable the body to naturally seal off the leakage. There has been so much injury in the abdomen area with the different organs that is causing complication after complication. The surgeon said when they went into his abdomen the first time after the gall bladder ruptured, it looked like a bomb had gone off. Gene has had 4 major surgeries and 4 stent surgeries in 3 months. The hard reality is we may not be done yet.
He is finding it difficult to do the necessary therapy to strengthen his body. Continue to pray for him as he battles this difficult journey and that he can keep his mind focused on hope and not give up. I have been claiming Psalms 41:3 which proclaims God’s care for us on our sickbed. “The LORD will strengthen him on his bed of illness and sustain him on his sickbed.”
