ERCP Surgery – Tuesday, December 29, 2015

On December 30, 2015 by Michelle Love

Tuesday, December 29, 2015…40 days in the hospital

Not much sleep and an early wake up and transport down to the Endoscopy unit in the adult side of the hospital made a rough start to the day. BJ had a platelet transfusion around 5am, and then another unit was hung to drip during the procedure. The ERCP went well. The GI doc put in a stent in his common bile duct, but did not remove any stones because BJ’s platelet count was not high enough (never got to 50k) to put a small incision into the muscle to sweep out stones. The contrast injected into the duct did pass up into the gallbladder, which showed that the smaller ducts were not completely blocked. After the stent was placed, the duct did drain some ‘gravel’ and sludge. We do know that his gallbladder will need to be removed, but this bought some time. So overall, this was good news.

When BJ woke up after the procedure, he was extremely nauseated. The area around his port was also very sore, which is likely due to the way he was positioned during the procedure. The nausea continued most of the afternoon, and was worse when he tried to sit up. He received another unit of platelets in the recovery room, and after getting back to his room, he also received 2 units of blood. His hemoglobin had fallen to 6.4. He needs to stay around 9 to avoid symptoms of low hemoglobin. The extra blood should help him feel better. He ate some crackers earlier which is always a good sign!

Thank you for all of your continued prayers!! Just like BJ says…The prayers are working.