My husband started bleeding last June. He vomited blood, wanted to ignore it, but I did not; we ended up in the er with an n/g tube down his throat. It was confirmed that he had varicees and he was told never to drink and we were sent home. (To be honest, we did not really believe the diagnosis of drinking. He was only 37 at the time!) He -mostly- stayed off vodka and just had the occasional beer.
In Oct, he had another bleed and did ignore it until he passed out while trying to urinate. He lost 80% of his blood. Again, they said varicees, but sent us home and told him not to drink.
In late Nov, he had a small bleed, but went immediatley to the er (a different hospital). They banded him. A few weeks later, the dr said he looked "significantly, significantly, significantly better". He then flew to AZ for a job. (As far as I knew, there had been no drinking and he promised that there would not be any in AZ.)
On Feb 5th, he called and told me that he "popped". I hardly spoke to him from that point till the sedated him the next day for the scope. They rebanded him and kept him under sedation to keep him from vomiting. Apparently he kept bleeding (remember I am across the country) and they needed my permission to do the TIPS proceedure, which I gave after reading the wikipedia article. Little knowing that he really had a 50/50 chance of making it. I have never experience such a degree of terror as I did that day. He made it through the proceedure and I flew out the next day.
After a month of not seeing him, I was shocked at his jaundice and his ascites. You could not even see the knuckles on his hands. The nurses said it was because of all the IV drips but they were wrong.
He made it out (the confusion was just awful) and we are now home after a week of recovery out of the hospital.
He is on lactolouse, which gives him constant diareaha. He has lost 35lbs in a month. Now, a lot of that was the water - he was on meds to make him urinate and lose the ascites - but still. He looks like awalking skeleton - except for his stomach which is still distended.
All in all, he is alive and walking around. Which since I thought he would be dead on the table is a blessing.
We are coming close to the typical time when he starts bleeding again. (About every two months.) With the TIPS proceedure, he should never bleed again, but still, I am scared. I am so scared. I just wait for the phone call to come. I just wait for the phone call to come.
He has a check up on the 26, but it is now, it is today that I am worried about. The 26th may never come.
Please - - does anyone know - - can it get better? Is there a chance for normalicy? Does the terror ever cease?
Shajen
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