Long Day

I'm happy to say that yesterday Chris finally had the embolization procedure done on the right side of his liver. As we speak, the tumors that were embolized are starting to die and we should hopefully get 18-24 months before they return and before Chris will need another embolization on that side.

I'm not so happy to say that the procedure didn't go as well as they'd like. There were a few complications related to his blood pressure and yesterday turned into a very long and stressful day.

About 90 minutes after I left Chris in the procedure room, Dr. G came out to say that Chris's blood pressure was 200/130 and that they were having a hard time controlling it. They finally wheeled him back up to recovery at around 1:45. They wouldn't let us in to see him until 6. that was an incredbily long 5 hours. In that five hours they tried every medication possible, and still his blood pressure was 190/120. FINALLY, they started an IV drip, and the next time we saw him, at 8, his pressure was down to 139/90. At that point, we went out and grabbed a quick dinner and got back to Chris's side around 10. His BP was the same at that point and he was going to be riding out the night in recovery.

The other component here is that his blood pressure skyrocketed before they were able to remove the catheter from his artery. This was the catheter from which they did the embolization. Once his blood pressure became so elevated, it wasn't safe to remove the catheter without putting Chris's life at risk. Because of the catheter, he has to remain flat on his back and not move. His leg is actually in an immobilizer. The hope is that his blood pressure would've gotten low enough overnight to be able to remove the catheter this morning. After the catheter is removed, he'll go back to recovery for a few hours and will then finally make his way into a room.

This is all uncommon for embolization procedures. While it is common for a patients blood pressure to become elevated during/after the procedure, it's not common for it to take so long for it to come back down. Embolization patients don't normally spend longer than 4 hours in recovery, let alone the entire night. That's my husband, never doing anything the easy way!

When we left him last night he was still pretty groggy from the anesthesia and all the medications. He was complaining of his mouth being dry (they don't want him to have anything to drink while he's lying flat on his back and still so groggy), but he was having some ice chips to combat that problem. His biggest complaint, by far, was the back pain he was experiencing from having to lie flat on his back for all this time. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to be able to get up and move around once this catheter is removed.

All in all, it was a long, stressful, day - but it's over and this emoblization should help Chris immensely with the pain and discomfort he's been having. These last few weeks haven't been easy for us and we're looking forward to a turn of events!!

I'll be heading back up to the hospital in an hour or so and will post another update as soon as I'm able, possibly even later this morning/early afternoon.

Please keep the prayers coming. Prayers for a speedy recovery and for the embolization to have been a success!