Tuesday, July 14, 2009

After a very rough Sunday night, due to Tommy's bladder shutting down (it turned out to be a clot/obstruction where the bladder drains out into the catheter tube), the "second opinion" urologist agreed to see Tommy yesterday morning if I could get him over to his urology team's home office in Salisbury, Maryland. Thank goodness for that. The urologist, Dr. DeMarco, who is very good, got up to speed with Tommy's overall medical situation amazingly quickly. Just as Dr. Caruso had done with Tommy's difficult liver-enzyme problem, this doctor immediately laid out a treatment plan that was just what I had hoped for. Then, to allow Tommy's bladder to drain, he and his nurse, Jeanne, irrigated it using something Jeanne compared to a turkey baster, insterting its tip into the outside end of the catheter hose and sending up a stream of distilled water. Out came the bladder's contents, and Tommy didn't float away after all. Then Jeanne showed me how I can do the same procedure at home if his bladder gets stopped up again and handed me a turkey baster to take along. Now to the plan. This Friday, I will take Tommy to Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury for a renal sonogram and also some blood work. If all looks okay, then next Wednesday, Tommy will see one of Dr. DeMarco's fellow doctors, who comes to Millville once a week to see patients. Tommy will go in the morning. and then again in the late afternoon, for a "voiding trial"; the catheter will be removed in the morning, and then--it is hoped--by the time Tommy comes back in the afternoon, he will demonstrate an ability to send that urine out of his body through his own hose. Dr. DeMarco was careful to warn that sometimes, when a patient, in recovering his functions after anesthesia, loses the ability to control the bladder's functions, it never returns at all. But we have to try. In the meantime, Tommy (and I) had a much-needed good night's sleep last night, and things with the catheter went swimmingly while he slept.