G.’s having some complications, though it seems like his doctors are on the right track in dealing with them. He had a low grade fever, which wasn’t exactly normal, but then, last night, he really began to have problems. His blood pressure went up sharply, he had a great deal of nausea, pain, and other kinds unusual gastric distress.

His doctor came to see him early in the morning, and ordered more tests. It seems that he has a twist or kink near the place where the new stomach pouch meets the rest of his digestive system. He talked it over with his doctor and they decided to insert an NG tube to try to relieve the pressure on the area, hoping that will allow the “kink” to work itself out.

But there’s no way he’s coming home today, and probably not tomorrow.

When I talked to him, he was still in good spirits though. He told me that his surgeon was deeply concerned about the complications. “Remember I told you when we talked that one to two percent of patients have this type of complication, and you just happen to be in that one or two percent…hearing that doesn’t help when it IS you. You are probably just thinking ‘this sucks” his surgeon said. (His surgeon has the reputation for being very plain spoken. This inspires G’s trust and confidence in him)

“No, I don’t feel that way. You told me there was a risk of complications, I decided based on those risks and now here we are. After all, I could have been the one in five hundred that dies. Now THAT would suck. So I’m grateful that what I have is something that can be solved. I’ll see it through”

Of course, he’d had some valium, but I still think that’s a pretty good attitude about it.

If the tube doesn’t work than he will have to undergo another surgery to untwist whatever is not working properly, and we all hope he doesn’t need to go through that. But he said that he felt tons better since he got the tube in, so he was really optimistic that would solve the problem and he’d be back on his way to recovery.