[thechat] 3 months. 13 weeks. 91 days. far too many hours, minutes, and seconds

[Canfield, Joel]

> Wait a minute ... I must have missed out on some conversation 
> [1] ... why is
> she in hospital?

it may have been discussed mostly offlist with certain folks from Texas.

On April 12th I took Best Beloved to the emergency room with abdominal
pain which she described as 'much worse than childbirth.' A 1 cm gall
stone (they're usually a few mm) had completely blocked the duct from
the liver/pancreas into the intestines. all the digestive fluids backed
up into her pancreas and, well, started digesting it. the pancreas,
sensitive creature that it is, starts a kind of 'china syndrome' where
the more it's damaged, the more fluids it secretes. since the necrotic
form of pancreatitis is generally found only in lifelong alcoholics, the
usual treatment is to mitigate the victim's pain so they die in peace.

At first, it looked like that was gonna be the treatment this time, but
about 10 days in they discovered a combination of antibiotics and other
goodies that managed to cool off the pancreas, which stopped further
damage (though she'll never be able to drink alcohol, and has an
incredibly high risk of becoming diabetic.)

of course, then she had all kinds of dead tissue inside which couldn't
be removed via surgery because fussing with the pancreas would almost
certainly set it off again.

So, for the past 12 weeks they've been working on draining infected
fluids from her abdominal cavity and trying to fight the endless
infections.

Over this past weekend they removed the drains, and started her on what
they hope is the last round of antibiotics. If this all clears up okay
and they can get her blood count back up to something near healthy,
they'll let her come home, and monitor it with weekly or semiweekly
visits.

They suggest that she plan a week of recovery for every day in the
hospital, before she's back to her old self (other than the dietary
limitations.) Just off the top of my head, 92 weeks will end up
somewhere near our 4th wedding anniversary, in December of 2008.

I considered writing the short version, then realized there isn't one.

> elfur
> 
> [1] makes sense, as I've been busy packing my things in 
> shitload of boxes as
> I'm moving to Norway in two weeks., but the hospital 
> discussion first ... :)

norway? looking for that huge change in climate?