Expect the Unexpected

Today Jeff, the twins, and I headed down to Madison for a doctor check-up. We were only planning on being in Madison for a few hours. While we were at the doctors both babies pooped through both their outfits - we were un-prepared for a double poop mess so Mary ended up in just a onesie and pants and Joshie with a onesie and no pants. While the babies outtakes were no good Jeff's intake hasn't been so good and that is what brought us to the doctor today - 1 week after his first chemo.

The past two days Jeff has been experiencing a pretty violent cough when he would eat or drink - even just water. He also developed a shortness of breath that he was not experiencing before chemo. This led him to not drinking a whole lot at all and so we were expecting to go down for some IV of fluids and a quick visit with the doctor.

The doc was a bit concerned after hearing Jeff's new symptoms and sent us over to another clinic for an esophagram. This involved drinking some dye and then taking pictures of his esophagus while he drank so they could determine the cause of this crazy cough. What they found was a small tear in the esophagus. They noticed this because some of the dye was outside of his esophagus in the tumor. The doc suspects that because chemo is so dang effective that the tumor around his esophagus shrank very quickly and caused it to tear the esophagus as it went.

The next step was to admit Jeff to the hospital. That was not how we expected to spend our afternoon and evening. In order for the esophagus to heal food and water cannot pass through it. So once we got to the hospital Jeff received a chest x-ray, CT scan and blood work to see if there are any other effects or infection caused by this tear and another iv to keep him hydrated for the night. He will likely spend the next couple of days in the hospital. The best guess they had tonight was that Jeff would receive a feeding tube for several weeks until his esophagus heals (they need to nourish him somehow) but we won't know anything for sure until we see a doc tomorrow with the results from the CT scan. We are thankful for a good doctor - one of the nurses today even commented that most docs may hear about this and their solution would be to give it some time and see if it gets any better - Jeff's doctor was thorough and concerned right away even though he said he's only read this in books he has never actually seen it happen.

If anyone is in Madison near St. Mary's the next several days Jeff would welcome visitors - I am unable to spend the whole day there because of the twins. Give me a ring or an e-mail.

Phillipians 4:13 - I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

We've been talking a lot about how much stronger we'll be after this is over - This verse came to me in my car ride home tonight and was a great reminder to continue to lift up these struggles - while we feel like we are getting our butt kicked right now it is amazing to think that through Christ we are strengthened.