Friday, September 19

The PEG is indeed gone! After a few hours of waiting to be summoned, Raymond and I followed as hospital Transport took Jilly first to ultrasound, then to "Intervention" (not the TV show), where the doctors who actually inserted the PEG lurk. I watch Gray's Anatomy and even Hopkins 24-7, but I've never seen anything like this area.

Based on the level of pain Jilly was experiencing, I was convinced there was something wrong with the apparatus itself or with some aspect of how it had been installed--perhaps, as Dr. Kalva had suggested, with one of the stitches. Anything could make it hurt: changing the dressing, too much tape, too little tape, pulling the pajama top over it, even pointing toward it. I guess because the pain was the only symptom, the doctors were limited in what kind of painkiller they wanted to give her, so for the entire three hours she spent in that strange space Jilly was in excruciating pain.

After checking everything they could check and trying every solution they could think of, the doctors finally just threw up their hands and removed the device. One of them told us he'd never known any patient to be so sensitive to a PEG. The pain receded immediately. The bleeding that predictably followed was modest, at least as of last night, and Jillian was again ready to tackle one of those cans of Ensure augmented by a scoop of ice cream, plus some of the supper that showed up on a tray.

Unfortunately, the doctor preferred, after all this, that Jilly not leave the hospital for the evening as we had hoped. Ariane and Charles Reinhart had graciously arranged tickets for the three of us to see the Fall for Dance performance at City Center. Jilly was eager for Raymond and me to see Shen Wei Arts, a company she has admired and talked to us about for almost seven years. We arrived at City Center with moments to spare, and settled in for a wonderful evening. Thank you, Ariane & Charles!

Although the PEG incident cost Jilly a day of therapy sessions, all the other signs are good. The CAT scan showed that Dr. Kalva was right about the bump on the head, which is already smaller. So today we resume pursuit of our exit strategy.

Our best to all of you,

Ingrid