New pain pump and feeding tube today

This is Haley, Amy’s sister. As usual, Amy had a good evening but a not so great morning. Still can't shake the fever. Her friend Paige spent the night with her and did an amazing job tending to her every need. Pain meds seem to be working, but she was hit with some massive pain due to bowel complications which put a strain and exhaustion on her whole body (which is running on 1.5 hours of sleep.) Amy still has a fever and the cause is unknown at this time. Fortunately, they will be starting her on pain pump that will allow her give herself doses of pain meds as she needs it. This will give the doctors a better understanding of how much pain relief she needs and how frequently. She will also be given a feeding tube that will bypass the pancreas, keeping it from becoming stimulated. This will make her feel a lot less hungry. (she hasn’t eaten anything except clear liquids in a week) At this point it is still unknown if she will be able to take fluid by mouth with the tube in place. Please be praying that Amy will still be able to drink water, because with a fever and not breathing well her mouth gets very dry. From an evaluation of her latest scan, it was found that the cause of her neck and shoulder pain is the fluid around her pancreas pushing up on her other organs. Originally, the doctors were worried about bacteria in her pancreas, due to its inflamed size, but on more recent scans they now can see that that’s not the case. So that’s great news! When we first heard about the necrosis it was a worry that it would cause other organ failure. But it was our interpretation from today’s conversation that this isn’t a risk factor anymore. A chest x-ray showed that her lungs are mostly clear.

The feeding tube will remain in place until the inflammation of her pancreas is down, even after she goes home. She will be in the hospital at least one more week. It’s a very slow healing process but we are taking it a day at a time.