Supporting Brian

Hey guys!! This is JoEllen, Brian's fiancé. This past Sunday (May 21st), Brian was complaining of intermittent abdominal pain. We didn't think much of it so he just took it easy for a little while and rested. The next morning he felt a little better but as the day went on, the pain started to progress. After eating a delicious spaghetti dinner, Brian's pain had become too much to bare. For those who do not know Brian, he fights through pain better than anyone I've ever met in my life. He will not show pain and will not take pain medications unless it's absolutely necessary. Out of no where, around 7pm Monday night, Brian asked me if I could take him to the emergency room. At this time, I began to really worry. This is not him. He's never in his entire life stated he's wanted to go to the ER. As soon as we arrived, they quickly took him back, did some blood work, and ran a CT scan of his abdomen. Not even 30 minutes later, the doctor came in and showed us the CT scan. His entire abdomen was lit up with fluid and gas in every little space. Doc diagnosed Brian with a small bowel obstruction. She became concerned when Brian notified her that he has never had surgery and does not have any kind of medical conditions. She immediately admitted him and had the nurses put in a NG tube (tube that runs from the nose to the stomach to suck out fluid from the abdominal cavity, most uncomfortable thing EVER!). Brian did okay for most of the night, despite the pain. The next morning, the surgeon came in and talked to Brian. He stated that if they can't unblock the obstruction by the evening, they are going to have to do exploratory surgery by Wednesday morning to find out the cause. Throughout the morning of May 23rd, Brian's pain became unbearable. It had gotten to the point where he was shaking uncontrollably and had sweat running down his face. The morphine the nurse gave him didn't touch the pain, so they had to give him something stronger. After giving him Dilaudid, he finally got some relief but the surgeon came in the room and said that they are going to go ahead and perform the surgery on him around 5pm because of the amount of pain he was in. They didn't want to wait any longer. After the surgery, the surgeon came into the waiting room to notify me that the surgery went well and they found the cause of the blockage. Thank goodness it is nothing major and was able to be fixed. He has a rare situation where the omentum (thin fat in the abdomen that lies between the intestines and abdominal wall) became connected with the lower colon causing the intestines to wrap itself around the thin layer of fat, causing the blockage. Brian has been doing okay since the surgery but has been needing Dilaudid every 3-4hrs to take the edge off of the pain. He will be staying in the hospital for a few more days until he can start eating again and pass stools. He is in need of help with the medical bills since he does not have insurance. We are not the type of people to ask for money, but there is no way we can pay these bills on our own... Please please please help us if you can! A tiny bit amount can go a really long way. Thank you for taking the time to read this!