Scar Tissue
Oct. 16th, 2022 02:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsSo I spoke with a doctor today and here’s what I heard:
The initial hematoma was definitely COVID-induced, but the hematoma wasn’t the problem that put me back in the hospital. It was the hemorrhaging that did that. The vessels that COVID attacked are the ones that supply blood to the first few centimeters of my lower intestine, the part called the duodenum. That weakened the duodenum but didn’t cripple it. The hematoma was a bit of a red herring; instead, my duodenum was slowly collapsing due to insufficient blood flow. When it grew weak enough, it could no longer retain its shape against the hematoma and collapsed fully.
That explains the week-long delay between the initial attack by COVID and the failure of my duodenum. With the hematoma now pressing against the duodenum, I couldn’t digest food at all; I developed bile reflux disease, which is why I was throwing up on such a regular schedule. So that’s where things stand now; the connection between my stomach and my intestine is a collapsed tunnel and may not be repairable, even though the blood mass leftover from the hematoma is clearly in retreat.
My doctor “Your case is very unusual, and it may take some time to formulate a plan, because I want everyone’s opinion, this one isn’t straightforward.” Her “guess” (her word) is that I’m going to need laproscopic surgery to bypass this section. They’re going to discuss stenting the duodenum to give it an artificial structure and then giving me proangiogenics (drugs that encourage blood vessel growth) to see if we can revive it to full function, but proangiogenics are controversial because if you have the tiniest of cancers they can really encourage cancer growth as well, and if that fails, it will be laproscopic surgery anywhere. So far, none of the labs have found any cancer markers in my blood. She also said it’s possible that the duodenum did heal somewhat, but it’s like scar tissue, tough and unflexible, and may not be revivable with a stent.
I do appreciate that in some sense I’m a zebra and this is a challenge for them. I hope it means they’ll do their best. I just want to get back to my life.
The initial hematoma was definitely COVID-induced, but the hematoma wasn’t the problem that put me back in the hospital. It was the hemorrhaging that did that. The vessels that COVID attacked are the ones that supply blood to the first few centimeters of my lower intestine, the part called the duodenum. That weakened the duodenum but didn’t cripple it. The hematoma was a bit of a red herring; instead, my duodenum was slowly collapsing due to insufficient blood flow. When it grew weak enough, it could no longer retain its shape against the hematoma and collapsed fully.
That explains the week-long delay between the initial attack by COVID and the failure of my duodenum. With the hematoma now pressing against the duodenum, I couldn’t digest food at all; I developed bile reflux disease, which is why I was throwing up on such a regular schedule. So that’s where things stand now; the connection between my stomach and my intestine is a collapsed tunnel and may not be repairable, even though the blood mass leftover from the hematoma is clearly in retreat.
My doctor “Your case is very unusual, and it may take some time to formulate a plan, because I want everyone’s opinion, this one isn’t straightforward.” Her “guess” (her word) is that I’m going to need laproscopic surgery to bypass this section. They’re going to discuss stenting the duodenum to give it an artificial structure and then giving me proangiogenics (drugs that encourage blood vessel growth) to see if we can revive it to full function, but proangiogenics are controversial because if you have the tiniest of cancers they can really encourage cancer growth as well, and if that fails, it will be laproscopic surgery anywhere. So far, none of the labs have found any cancer markers in my blood. She also said it’s possible that the duodenum did heal somewhat, but it’s like scar tissue, tough and unflexible, and may not be revivable with a stent.
I do appreciate that in some sense I’m a zebra and this is a challenge for them. I hope it means they’ll do their best. I just want to get back to my life.
