Casey had his hernia repair surgery today. They have just finished up and he is in recovery. He is doing fine, but of course, nothing is ever easy when it comes to Casey! He had two hernias instead of one!! (We always get double trouble!!) One large and one small. The large one was repaired by mesh and the small one was repaired with sutures. He's doing ok but he will be in alot of pain when he comes to! These type of surgeries are more painful than his transplants!
He will not be able to go home today as they hinted at. They told us maybe it would be an outpatient type surgery but that was BEFORE they opened him up and noticed the double trouble!!
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
Surgery Date Set
Casey will be having hernia repair surgery again on Thursday 9/1/2011. Please keep him in your prayers, as well as his doctors, as he undergoes this tricky procedure. I will keep you all updated.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Yet Again...
I haven't updated our blog in such a long time because everything has been going ok with Casey. BUT, about a month ago, he noticed a bulge near his incision area again. We consulted with the Doctor and it was just as we suspected...ANOTHER incisional hernia!! He will be scheduled for surgery sometime in September. It doesn't bother him so he is going to wait until a few things that we already have going on have been settled.
I really have nothing new to blog about as far as my health goes. I'm still seeing a Pyschiatrist for my anxiety and depression. I recently had to be taken off one of my medications because it was making me lose too much weight. Which is good and bad at the same time. I like that I lost 20 pounds, but I don't like that I am continuing to lose weight every month and my clothesare not fitting me anymore!! It's been two days since I quit taking this certain medication and I have already noticed an improvement in my appetite!!
I really have nothing new to blog about as far as my health goes. I'm still seeing a Pyschiatrist for my anxiety and depression. I recently had to be taken off one of my medications because it was making me lose too much weight. Which is good and bad at the same time. I like that I lost 20 pounds, but I don't like that I am continuing to lose weight every month and my clothesare not fitting me anymore!! It's been two days since I quit taking this certain medication and I have already noticed an improvement in my appetite!!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
All is well...
I always seem to have a long lapse in between updates and I sincerely apologize for that! Casey's surgery went very well. It was supposed to be outpatient, but while in surgery the doctors found another hernia a little further up from the incisional hernia he was having repaired. He had to stay overnight and was not released until very late in the day! So, that makes a total of three hernias that he has had repaired in less than a years time!! His body is full of mesh! Mesh is what they use to repair the diaphragm walls so that his organs stay in their appropriate place and not poke out and cause a hernia. This is just something that we have to be very careful with and watch that he doesn't overexhert himself or lift anything too heavy. He will always be prone to hernias.
He is doing great liver-wise. His blood tests are perfect and he feels great! I wish I had his energy! I have not been through half of what he has and yet I suffer from fatigue! :-/
He is doing great liver-wise. His blood tests are perfect and he feels great! I wish I had his energy! I have not been through half of what he has and yet I suffer from fatigue! :-/
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Just as we thought
Just as we thought...Casey has to have surgery again! :-( His dr. appt at Baylor Medical Center was today and they confirmed that he has an incisional hernia. The surgery will take place in a couple of weeks. We will have to wait for the coordinator to call us with the exact date. The surgeon thinks that the surgery will only take about an hour and he may not need to stay the night!! At least it doesn't require a week stay like last time! I'm really tired of hospitals as is he...but all that matters is that he is alive by the Grace of God!!
As for the car accident; it was not his fault. An older gentleman turned right in front him and did almost $9000 damage on our car. Casey is ok; the air bag deployed and saved him from getting hurt! The other guy was fine as well! This time I am not having to drive Mr. Daisy to work and back; the other guy's insurance is paying for a rental! Thank God, because the repairs are going to take at least three weeks!!!
As for the car accident; it was not his fault. An older gentleman turned right in front him and did almost $9000 damage on our car. Casey is ok; the air bag deployed and saved him from getting hurt! The other guy was fine as well! This time I am not having to drive Mr. Daisy to work and back; the other guy's insurance is paying for a rental! Thank God, because the repairs are going to take at least three weeks!!!
Monday, March 28, 2011
When it rains, it hail storms
As if finding out today's news wasn't bad enough; Casey was involved in a two vehicle car wreck today on his way back to work from the Dr. office!! He and the other driver are fine! It was not his fault this time, THANK GOD!!! Both cars look really bad and Casey's airbag deployed. I thank God that no one was hurt but this was very bad timing!!! :-( Does someone have a curse on us?!
NOT AGAIN!
I was really hoping my next update wouldn't have anything to do with bad news ...BUT no such luck. The last month or so Casey developed a golf ball sized protrusion right around where his scar from an incision is. At first it didn't bother him, but as the days progressed it became more and more intrusive. He called his coordinator last week and she said to see his family doctor. Today he went to see his family doctor and he suggested he see his liver doctors...ugh!!! But at least he informed us what it was. It's an incisional hernia!!! He just had a hernia surgery not too long and now AGAIN?! His family doctor suggested it be repaired ASAP to keep his intestine from peeking through and having the blood flow pinched off to it furthermore causing more problems like infection! When will his life ever get better?!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Sharing is Caring
Everything is going great in the life of the Fabulous Finkes! Casey's health, liver-wise, is great! His last set of labs were normal except for a slightly elevated cholesterol level! I guess he needs to lay off the fried foods and junk food. But hey, all the fried foods and junk food he's been eating has helped him gain some of his weight back! His face is looking a little more plump as well as his other end...his ever so cute bobo has returned!!
The only thing to complain about is the cold that he had for a few days...and passed on to ME! He decided he wanted to give me his cooties on my birthday! The last half of my birthday yesterday was spent laying on couch with an achy body and sore throat! :-( Thanks alot, honey dear! I think he took the phrase "sharing is caring" a little too literal!
Now that Casey has been doing so well, I'm afraid that I won't have much to blog about! I will try to keep my followers interested by blogging about daily activities and Casey's shenanigans and tom foolery! :-)
I'd also like to take this opportunity to invite you to follow my niece and nephew-in-law's cooking blog! I promise you will LOVE it!!
http://contemporarycountrycooking.wordpress.com/
The only thing to complain about is the cold that he had for a few days...and passed on to ME! He decided he wanted to give me his cooties on my birthday! The last half of my birthday yesterday was spent laying on couch with an achy body and sore throat! :-( Thanks alot, honey dear! I think he took the phrase "sharing is caring" a little too literal!
Now that Casey has been doing so well, I'm afraid that I won't have much to blog about! I will try to keep my followers interested by blogging about daily activities and Casey's shenanigans and tom foolery! :-)
I'd also like to take this opportunity to invite you to follow my niece and nephew-in-law's cooking blog! I promise you will LOVE it!!
http://contemporarycountrycooking.wordpress.com/
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Holy Shnikeys!
Holy Shnikeys! I have not updated this blog since August 2010! I apologize to those of you who actually looked forward to reading updates. So much has happened since August of last year. It's going to be hard to catch up but I will do my best!
In the last post I wrote about Casey's stomach being in the wrong position and I had no clue what this meant. His stomach was literally up next to his heart!! We joke about this now; but it was not funny in the least back then. My poor husband would hold his chest and complain that his stomach hurt! We could not comprehend why he could feel his stomach up in his chest area!! After many tests, the doctors concluded that he had a Hiatal Hernia. Any time an internal body part pushes into an area where it doesn't belong, it's called a hernia. The hiatus is an opening in the diaphragm -- the muscular wall separating the chest cavity from the abdomen. Normally, the esophagus (food pipe) goes through the hiatus and attaches to the stomach. In a hiatal hernia the stomach bulges up into the chest through that opening. Leave it to Casey to get these off the wall sicknesses! Surgery was needed in order to repair the diaphragm and put the stomach back where it belonged. So back we go to our 2nd home, Baylor Medical Center, for about a week. The surgery went well and he recovered quite quickly. But he did mention that the surgery was so much more painful than his transplant surgeries. It's just amazing what surgeons can do these days! It was a very tricky procedure though. Due to his past surgeries, (liver transplants/cancer), the diaphragm wall was very thin, thus allowing his stomach to break through and float up into his chest. They had to repair the diaphragm wall with mesh. There is a possiblitly that the diaphragm wall will need to be repaired again in the future. So far so good! No more tummy problems thus far!
About a month or so ago, he went back to see his Oncologist for a final CT Scan to make sure that his cancer had not recurred. Everything was PERFECT and no cancer cells were found anywhere in his body. The labwork also stated that there were no cancer proteins in his blood! YAY! The doctor said if it had not recurred by now that it was more than likely not returning at all!!! Double YAY!! Everything was starting to look up...his tummy was fixed, no more cancer...BUT THEN...
About a month before his one year anniversary for his 2nd liver transplant, his labwork became abnormal. His liver enzymes sky rocketed above and beyond normal and only got worse as the days passed. When several lab tests come back abnormal the DREADED biopsy is needed!! OMG, there are no words to express how much Casey hates biopsies. He totally freaks out. I don't blame him! You should see the size of that biopsy needle!! YIKES!! The results of the biopsy said that Casey was in rejection; meaning his body was rejecting the new liver. When this happens, a 7 day hospital stay is in order. They pumped him up with an incredible amount of steroids and immunosuppressive drugs via IV and then tapered the dosages down as the week went along. It was really nothing to worry about, except that the medications gave him HORRIBLE headaches that brought him to tears!!! No amount of pain medicine would alleviate the pain! I felt so helpless not being able to help him! I was already feeling pretty helpless not being able to stay with him at the hospital; but I had exhausted my sick time and vacation time with all his other hospital stays! :-( His labwork got better and better as the week progressed so they let him go home!!! But not without having ANOTHER dreaded biopsy to make sure rejection was gone! :-(
A week after he got home, he had to go back for follow-up labwork with his family doctor. His liver enzymes had gone up a tad bit but nothing to be concerned about. The transplant surgeon told him to go back for more labwork in a few days to keep our eye on it. The next labwork he had done was worse than it was when he was first hospitalized for rejection!!! OMG...will this poor man ever catch a break?!?!?! It was way too close to Christmas time to be having to be hospitalized again! Soooo...it's Christmas Eve and Casey has to go back for more labwork and another dreaded biopsy!!! After the biopsy, they gave him a strong dose of IV steroids in hopes that it would help his liver enzymes go down. He felt fine so they sent him home. YAY!!! We got to spend Christmas Eve with his family as planned! BUT, we had to go back up to the hospital on CHRISTMAS MORNING for more labwork and to let a doctor look at him because they were afraid it could be some type of virus. Go figure, the doctor got very very busy with a sick patient so we had to wait HOURS before he came to see us!! This was not the way we wanted to spend our Christmas Day!! The doctor finally arrived and looked him over from head to toe; he opened up his mouth and said "ahhhhhhhhh." But doctor had nothing! Biopsy results said it was NOT rejection! (YAY!) The only thing left it could be was EBV (Epstein-Barr Virus). This sounds scary, right? Well, it scared us to death! But good ol' google came to the rescue. I researched it and if that is what he had; it was nothing to be concerned about!!! EBV is a lifelong dormant infection in the cells of the body's immune system. Almost everyone has this; it just lays dormant in your body. This virus is what causes Mono. There is nothing you can do about it but treat the symptoms...with steroids and antibiotics! Thank God that this is all it was! We were already thinking it was rejection again and that he was going to need another liver transplant! There were all sorts of ideas racing through my little head! And I wonder why I am stressed and anxious all the time!
Casey is fine now!! He has been back on steroids ever since the rejection episode and he is gaining his weight back!!! YAY! He's almost at 200 pounds again!!! He's getting his cute little (big) butt back and he's got "guns" again! :-)
In the last post I wrote about Casey's stomach being in the wrong position and I had no clue what this meant. His stomach was literally up next to his heart!! We joke about this now; but it was not funny in the least back then. My poor husband would hold his chest and complain that his stomach hurt! We could not comprehend why he could feel his stomach up in his chest area!! After many tests, the doctors concluded that he had a Hiatal Hernia. Any time an internal body part pushes into an area where it doesn't belong, it's called a hernia. The hiatus is an opening in the diaphragm -- the muscular wall separating the chest cavity from the abdomen. Normally, the esophagus (food pipe) goes through the hiatus and attaches to the stomach. In a hiatal hernia the stomach bulges up into the chest through that opening. Leave it to Casey to get these off the wall sicknesses! Surgery was needed in order to repair the diaphragm and put the stomach back where it belonged. So back we go to our 2nd home, Baylor Medical Center, for about a week. The surgery went well and he recovered quite quickly. But he did mention that the surgery was so much more painful than his transplant surgeries. It's just amazing what surgeons can do these days! It was a very tricky procedure though. Due to his past surgeries, (liver transplants/cancer), the diaphragm wall was very thin, thus allowing his stomach to break through and float up into his chest. They had to repair the diaphragm wall with mesh. There is a possiblitly that the diaphragm wall will need to be repaired again in the future. So far so good! No more tummy problems thus far!
About a month or so ago, he went back to see his Oncologist for a final CT Scan to make sure that his cancer had not recurred. Everything was PERFECT and no cancer cells were found anywhere in his body. The labwork also stated that there were no cancer proteins in his blood! YAY! The doctor said if it had not recurred by now that it was more than likely not returning at all!!! Double YAY!! Everything was starting to look up...his tummy was fixed, no more cancer...BUT THEN...
About a month before his one year anniversary for his 2nd liver transplant, his labwork became abnormal. His liver enzymes sky rocketed above and beyond normal and only got worse as the days passed. When several lab tests come back abnormal the DREADED biopsy is needed!! OMG, there are no words to express how much Casey hates biopsies. He totally freaks out. I don't blame him! You should see the size of that biopsy needle!! YIKES!! The results of the biopsy said that Casey was in rejection; meaning his body was rejecting the new liver. When this happens, a 7 day hospital stay is in order. They pumped him up with an incredible amount of steroids and immunosuppressive drugs via IV and then tapered the dosages down as the week went along. It was really nothing to worry about, except that the medications gave him HORRIBLE headaches that brought him to tears!!! No amount of pain medicine would alleviate the pain! I felt so helpless not being able to help him! I was already feeling pretty helpless not being able to stay with him at the hospital; but I had exhausted my sick time and vacation time with all his other hospital stays! :-( His labwork got better and better as the week progressed so they let him go home!!! But not without having ANOTHER dreaded biopsy to make sure rejection was gone! :-(
A week after he got home, he had to go back for follow-up labwork with his family doctor. His liver enzymes had gone up a tad bit but nothing to be concerned about. The transplant surgeon told him to go back for more labwork in a few days to keep our eye on it. The next labwork he had done was worse than it was when he was first hospitalized for rejection!!! OMG...will this poor man ever catch a break?!?!?! It was way too close to Christmas time to be having to be hospitalized again! Soooo...it's Christmas Eve and Casey has to go back for more labwork and another dreaded biopsy!!! After the biopsy, they gave him a strong dose of IV steroids in hopes that it would help his liver enzymes go down. He felt fine so they sent him home. YAY!!! We got to spend Christmas Eve with his family as planned! BUT, we had to go back up to the hospital on CHRISTMAS MORNING for more labwork and to let a doctor look at him because they were afraid it could be some type of virus. Go figure, the doctor got very very busy with a sick patient so we had to wait HOURS before he came to see us!! This was not the way we wanted to spend our Christmas Day!! The doctor finally arrived and looked him over from head to toe; he opened up his mouth and said "ahhhhhhhhh." But doctor had nothing! Biopsy results said it was NOT rejection! (YAY!) The only thing left it could be was EBV (Epstein-Barr Virus). This sounds scary, right? Well, it scared us to death! But good ol' google came to the rescue. I researched it and if that is what he had; it was nothing to be concerned about!!! EBV is a lifelong dormant infection in the cells of the body's immune system. Almost everyone has this; it just lays dormant in your body. This virus is what causes Mono. There is nothing you can do about it but treat the symptoms...with steroids and antibiotics! Thank God that this is all it was! We were already thinking it was rejection again and that he was going to need another liver transplant! There were all sorts of ideas racing through my little head! And I wonder why I am stressed and anxious all the time!
Casey is fine now!! He has been back on steroids ever since the rejection episode and he is gaining his weight back!!! YAY! He's almost at 200 pounds again!!! He's getting his cute little (big) butt back and he's got "guns" again! :-)
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