Chapter 14: part 5

continued from chapter 14: part 4

Hal was in pain and the doctors thought the bowel might be kinked and inserted a GI tube and took him off food for a couple of days.

In his third week there he woke from a nap gasping for air and the doctors ordered oxygen on an ongoing basis.

Hal always made it clear to the doctors that he wanted to fight on. The doctors stood by his bedside each day and discussed what else they might do. They had to get the pain under control but they didn't dare return to the site of the previous two operations. They had done palliative surgery the last time and that was it. Still, the pain was intense and Hal was struggling for some answers and relief. They were in a quandry knowing that Hal wouldn't quit and there wasn't much more they could do.

The pain wasn't being controlled by medication and as a last resort the surgeon decided to do a percutaneous gastrostomy . This is the insertion of a tube directly through the skin into the stomach, and the intent was to draw out secretions and gases. There is a bag attached to the tube on the outside. The procedure is done in the X-ray department, so that the medic can see the direction the tube is going. Hal was in terrible pain that night after the procedure and the next day and then during the evening, the pain stopped and it was never unbearable again.

This procedure was done on Monday. By Wednesday he felt cheerful and was able to eat selectively, mostly yoghurt or sherbet. He feared eating anything more solid in case the pain returned.

On Thursday, he developed a temperature and blood infection, which was treated with blood transfusions and plasma.He had only a few days left.

That same Thursday morning after I left for the hospital, Lorrie came to the house and took Hepzabah, our twenty-year old cat, to the veterinarian to be euthanized. Hal didn't ask about her even though we had made the decision together the previous evening. She was deaf, blind and appeared to be in pain and she had been howling all night for weeks.

continued in chapter 14: part 6