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Today Dirk went to see Dr. Postier, his surgeon, and was dismissed. He said he thinks Dirk is well and he doesn’t need to see him again. We thank God.

Dirk’s lack of pancreatic enzymes was causing him to have diarrhea. After he started replacing the enzymes, the side effect of that caused him to have constipation. Last Friday night he started having stomach pain and some vomiting. That lasted off and on till yesterday. I called Dr. Postier and he said to come to ER. X-rays revealed that his bowels were full causing the problems. They gave him medicine to correct that with instructions to drink lots of water with the enzymes from now on. Blood work also showed his enzyme count was up but the ER Dr. said that probably wasn’t a problem.

The problem with having the doctor at OU Medical center is that we can’t see him if something comes up. We have to go through the ER even though it is not an emergency. Going through ER is no fun and usually takes 7-9 hours. Yesterday it wasn’t very crowded so it *only* took 4 1/2.

Dirk went back to work on Monday and everything is going well. His enzymes seem to be doing their job. I think being on a regular schedule will help and he is glad to be back working.

Dirk has been having problems since his surgery with diarrhea and just sometimes not feeling like being up. He had been to his primary care doctor who thought it might be due to removal of the gall bladder. She gave him some sample meds to take but they didn’t seem to help. Yesterday we went to see his surgeon again and he said the CAT scan showed that the pancreas was bad and not creating any of the enzymes he needed. He said that he needed to be taking pancreatic enzymes so he gave him a prescription for them. He will need to take two or three 30 minutes before he eats and needs to avoid fats as much as possible. We hope this helps him to do better. He is scheduled to start back to work Monday, January 23.

Dirk got up today and went to eat at Neighbor’s restaurant, one of his favorites where every one there knows him. He went shopping at the mall. When he came back he said he thought he would move back home so I helped get his stuff together and he went home. He is feeling pretty good and the drain place has about stopped. He just has to have a small bandage over it.

Dirk stayed in bed most of the day. He got up for some lunch and then later to go to church in the evening. He is tired all the time which is normal for what he has been through.

Today we went in to get Dirk’s meningitis immunization. We were supposed to have Dr. Colisto, who works with Dr. Postier in surgery, paged in ER. We were there in ER about 3 hours and he finally got 3 shots. Dr. Colisto decided not to do the packing of the wound every day. Instead he put in a small drain into the stomach cavity that will stay about a week or so. Some have been thinking the drains we have been talking about are coming from the pancreas but they were just in the abdoman to drain the fluid left from the surgery. His pancreas that is left seems to be working alright. This new plan was a relief to us for it is painful to remove the packing and replace it. He won’t have to do that now.

Today the doctor released Dirk from the hospital. He will need to have his wound (drain site) repacked every day. Sue learned how to do this and they sent supplies home with him. He was feeling well and glad to get back home. He will see Dr. Postier next Wednesday and make arrangements to go to wound care at that time.

Yesterday I called the doctor’s nurse back and after telling her about Dirk, she advised us to take him to emergency where the doctor would see him. We got there at 1:30 and they decided to do a CAT scan. This took quite awhile to setup and for him to drink the contrast. He finally went in for this about 9:00 pm. We got results about an hour later. It showed some fluid under the skin on the right side. They said they would keep him overnight and put a drain in the next morning.

This morning they decided not to put in a drain but only do wound care on it each day. We were ready for him to come home then Dr. Posture came by and said they wanted to watch it awhile since he had some infection. It was decided he would stay another night or two to watch the infection. There is a possibility he will need to have surgery to open up the incision and clean it out. We surely hope not.