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Thursday, April 9, 2009

EE

If it's not me, I guess it's my husband. Another trip down the all too familiar road to the ER. Adam has Eosinophilic esophagitis, which is a relatively newly diagnosed disorder, and there aren't really any proper meds yet. He takes an asthma inhaler, but instead of inhaling, tries to swallow it.

Yeah, it's very hit or miss.

Because of this disorder, he typically gets food stuck in his esophagus and tries to flush it down by forcing water down his throat. He's learned to control the gag reflex to a certain extent, so he can force the water down by swallowing. Every so often that doesn't work, and eventually your body makes you throw up. But it's just the food in the esophagus; you don't end up throwing up your stomach contents.

Well, after a half hour of forcing himself to throw up last night, and me hitting his back to try and vibrate whatever was down there loose, we decided to head to the ER. The good thing is he can breathe and talk normally, it's just quite uncomfortable, and of course, he can't eat, or swallow any gulps. He can drink a tiny amount, which trickles it's way into the stomach.

The both of us, along with Sharon (Adam's mom - she had to drive, since I can't right now) sat in the ER for 5 hours last night, with the Dr's trying different techniques. Injecting morphine to relax him, which didn't work. Drinking Coke, which didn't work, and then something a little scary: a pill which dilates your blood vessels, and causes smooth muscle (like your heart) to relax. They say the esophagus is smooth muscle, but that didn't work either, and instead freaked me out. I watched, as this pill dissolved in his mouth, the colour drain from his face. His heart rate dropped to 30 beats per minute, and just as I decided to go and hop my way to find a nurse, he started to recover, his heart rate returning slowly to something a little more normal. Adam said it felt awful, like he was on fire from the inside, and he was sweating like crazy. Not fun.

So, that also didn't work, and they then admitted him, and had a surgeon speak with him. Now, 19 hours later, I'm waiting to hear from Adam. He's getting an endoscopy done, but I guess things are booked up right now, so he is sitting all alone in his hospital room, probably quite frustrated. He feels pretty much fine. So I can imagine how horrible it would be to be in the hospital. It's OK when you have drugs to knock you out, but I don't think he gets anything.

If God is trying to teach me lessons in taking things for granted, He can stop now. I know I don't want to live my life one leg short, and I know I don't want to live my life without Adam. But I also know that He is taking care of us, and hasn't failed me yet.

**Update**
He's now home, 24 hours later, and sleeping soundly - there was a snoring fellow next to him so he didn't sleep last night at all. Adam said he sounded like an outboard motor :) And we're back to normal, but a little more careful. They didn't find anything but a swollen esophagus. It must have been so inflamed that he was still unable to swallow even though he threw up the blockage. And he made the cut off for discharge with 5 minutes to spare, or he'd have spent the 4 day long Easter weekend in the hospital! Phew!

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