Hi everyone! Just got off the phone with my Mom and have pretty good news. She's going home today! She had a colonoscopy and upper GI yesterday. Tomorrow she'll be doing one of those "swallow the tiny camera" things as an outpatient. BUT they already know what's wrong. Three years ago she had a twist in her small intestine, ended up having surgery and a temporary ileostomy. She got "reassembled" in July of the same year, after everything else had healed. Apparently they left part of a staple behind, and it worked its way into a neighboring section of colon. They saw it during the colonoscopy but it's "stuck" so they didn't remove it. Mom had angioplasty and 2 stents placed last November, and was put on a blood thinner (Plavix) for 6 months. The docs believe that the irritation plus the Plavix made her start bleeding. She's off the Plavix now, on iron pills, and they believe the staple fragment will just "work its way out." If it goes somewhere serious, they'll operate, but right now they're really rather not commit anymore surgery. Good deal, I'm thinking. She's prone to adhesions, so every surgery adds more risk for more stickies.
She's anxious to go home and get good food. LOL
Thanks for all the good wishes!!!!