Yesterday nothing showed up on the CT scan of the pancreas but the spleen had two spots indicating, I think, blood clots. These so called “splenic infracts” are blockages of the veins or arteries for the blood supply to the spleen. Atrial fibrillation and bacterial endocarditis are known contributors to splenic infractions. These are expected to be reabsorbed after awhile. Nancy’s current case of endocarditis has been halted. We also hope something can be done to reduce the incidents of A-fib. In any case, now the infractions are known about and fit into the general situation and are not a big worry. It is also a relief to know that the pancreas is without problems.
Splenic infarction can occur without symptoms (asymptomatic), which was the case with Nancy until this week. This week the typical symptom — severe pain in the left upper quadrant of the abdomen showed up. Sometimes the pain radiates to the left shoulder but that wasn’t the tell-tale sign. Fever and chills develop in some cases and she did have these, but, again, with the other things happening (including the bladder infection) they were not the symptoms that led to the CT scan.
So, onward. This morning the nurse told Nancy that her colonoscopy was scheduled for one o’clock. The nurse didn’t seem aware that an upper GI endoscopy had been talked about and so went off to check. Sometime later she came back to report that both were to be done – and so they were. So they looked into her from both ends and found nothing. Good news.
They refer to the upper GI exam as an “EGD” – and for good reason. Who wants to say “esophagogastroduodenoscopy” more than once? Rather than me explaining that you can read about it here:
http://www.gicare.com/endoscopy-center/upper-gi-endoscopy.aspx
A follow-on regarding the duodenum (the first section of the small intestine) is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duodenum
This test ruled out any bleeding within the three structures, and that’s good.
The last procedure for the day is the instillation of a “peripherally inserted central catheter” (PICC or PIC line) for which, in previous reporting, I used the acronym PICC. You can read about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripherally_inserted_central_catheter
I will add a bit more on this tomorrow. We then may have some indication of a release-from-hospital date because there are no more procedures scheduled and the PICC line can be used at the Ebrg hospital to infuse the antibiotic therapy as was done last July.
So while no plans are yet made, we are anticipating escape release soonish.
Cheers, John