Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Prayers Appreciated!

I know many of you have already seen my post on facebook about my cousin Josh. Here's the back story:

Josh went to the ER last night complaining of severe abdominal pain. After running a few tests, he was found to have cholecystitis and taken to surgery. They removed his gall bladder which was very enlarged, full of stones and badly infected. He also had a hernia which was repaired at the same time. This surgery was done laparoscopically.

Fast forward to this morning: he was in a regular room, feeling a little nauseated and in pain but overall was doing well. Throughout the day, the pain worsened, his belly became distended, and he became short of breath. He was moved to ICU under the assumption that he may be septic, have internal bleeding or a pulmonary embolus. Shortly after moving to ICU, it was found that his hemoglobin had dropped from 14 (normal) to 11. It was decided then to take him back for exploratory surgery to find the source of bleeding or infection. They checked his H&H before going to the OR and found that his hemoglobin had dropped to 3, which is critically low. Last I've heard, he's received 5 units of blood, 2 packs of platelets and 4 units of fresh frozen plasma.

He is now out of surgery and back in the ICU. The surgeon was unable to determine the source of his bleeding, but packed his belly and stapled him back up. He is stable but in critical condition. He is on a ventilator and will probably stay ventilated throughout the night.

Please keep Josh in your prayers. I will update tomorrow when I hear from my family.

2 comments:

Mel said...

Prayers headed his way from the Jacobs!

Anonymous said...

praying for your family Hollie

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