Hello to all! These last two weeks have been difficult to say the least and it’s not even due to my personal mental health. As you can see in the photo, my husband Kyle was in the ICU at the hospital this past week. I wasn’t smiling in that picture due to joy, I was smiling because I was in shock.

Let me go back.

Monday, April 21, my husband was escorted to an ambulance outside of our home early in the morning and was later assessed at the Emergency Department and diagnosed with sciatica in his lower back. He was transported via ambulance because I couldn’t move him as he is 6’3″ and I am 4’11”. (Kyle -1 and Dani – 0). He got some muscle relaxers and narcotics to assist with his pain management and had a week off of work. At the ER, they did a CT scan with contrast and found nothing remarkable at that time.

We go home and I checked in on Kyle every few hours while I was at work. I worked a half day on Monday so I got some hours in and worked all of Tuesday. I noticed when I got home that Kyle was on the couch and he said his gut was in a lot of pain; I kept encouraging him to drink water and I asked him when the last time he went to the bathroom was and he said he hadn’t had a bowel movement since work on Saturday morning. I thought that was too long to go without using the bathroom, but he has had constipation issues with his epilepsy medication along with him taking these new narcotics.

We kinda winded down for bed and from the hospital, we had gotten a urinal for Kyle so he could pee without having to get off the couch. I woke up around midnight or 1am to use the bathroom myself and I found Kyle face down asleep on the floor in front of the couch. I yell out his name and looks up; he was asleep! He said he fell when trying to use the restroom and couldn’t get back up. His phone wasn’t near him and he didn’t shout for help because he didn’t want to disturb my sleep in the bedroom. I got him up and he tried using the restroom but couldn’t. Around 3:50am, I hear my name faintly being called and I get up and check on my lovey. He was face down but now laying on the couch and he said faintly, “Look…” and I looked at his urinal to see charcoal brownish black pee in it. He was vomiting the same charcoal looking substance up on himself. He complained of his stomach being a 10/10 pain. He finally admitted he needed to go back to the hospital. By the time I put some jeans on, he told me to call 911 which I did where they were promptly picked up my husband and stretchered him out to the ambulance and were concerned of sepsis.

I drove behind them awaiting our fate. He was promptly put in an ER room and was never left alone as he was put on oxygen and did a stat abdomen CT as well as CT’s on his whole body to find the source of the assumed sepsis.

They quickly found that my husband’s small and large intestine was filled with stomach content and feces and needed emergency surgery to empty his bowels. He was quickly wheeled away. I don’t even remember if I got to kiss him goodbye…

I called his parents; his mom lives in Alaska with his brother and his father lives out of county with his step mother. I asked Kyle in his septic state if he wanted to see his dad and he shook his head no. Despite what he wished, I called them anyways. I was assuming the worst out of this whole situation and I thought if I had a child and they were headed for ICU after emergency surgery, I would want to have the option to go see them if this would maybe be the final interaction I had with them. Once I worded things like this, his dad drove the hour drive north to be with his son and his mother and brother were trying to find flights to fly into Seattle as soon as possible.

That was Wednesday, April 23… two months to the day since Kyle and I were under the impression that his cancer might be back. It was bad, getting worse, and then now, unforgettable and numbing.

I don’t think I slept the next two nights because I didn’t know if and when I would be called to go back into the hospital. I was assuming the worst and both options appeared pretty grim.

The first surgery was successful, they emptied his stomach contents which was 2 liters full of crap quite literally. But there was no obstruction, he just physically couldn’t use the bathroom. The doctors and surgeons said it was the strangest thing because there was no tears or holes in any intestine but if he hadn’t given himself an enema the evening before in attempt to use the bathroom , the stool would have gone into his small bowel and that would have burst with how things were going which immediately would have put him in sepsis and would surely die.

Wow. I can’t believe I am writing this about my 33 year old husband, the man I have only been married to for only six months thus far. It’s still all surreal to me. (Spoiler: he;s laying right next to me as I write this, he is home thank Jesus). None of this has felt real…

Back to the story.

Day 2 in ICU which made it Thursday the 24, he was on a ventilator and heavily sedated… they don’t use the word ‘coma’ anymore but that was exactly what that was. He had an intubation tube down his throat because his incision in his abdomen was wide open so that they could do exploratory surgery day 2 and then close Kyle up once they find everything a-ok. And that’s what we did.

We waited. I waited with my mom, his dad, and my dad would come after hours to see Kyle on his way home from work. We FaceTimed with his mom and brother while Kyle was on the ventilator. They said they would be here on Saturday.

Friday they took Kyle off the ventilator because his incision was healing and they wanted him to wake up slowly, he had an ng tube draining his stomach contents out of his nose into a thing in the ICU wall and I had signed consent paperwork to put a central line in Kyle’s neck so his arms wouldn’t get so blown out from multiple IV’s. He doesn’t remember anything from Tuesday – Friday even to this very day.

We had the NFL draft on tv because it was all Kyle could talk about prior to his acute illness. Even though he couldn’t talk with us or communicate at that time, he could hear some things. So we thought it would be soothing for him to hear the Seattle Seahawks updates (his favorite team). Every time we would ask Kyle if he wanted to watch the NFL draft, his eyes would open despite the heavy sedation and he would look around and go back to sleep.

I had our pastor pray over him and the pastor used annointing oil on Kyle’s forehead in the shape of a cross. I don’t think we have ever prayed and really meant those prayers as much as we did in the moment praying over Kyle.

Saturday he got the ng tube out of his nose. His family flew in from out of town. He was awake and aware of his surroundings and apparently was trying to find where I was while he was at the hospital. The ICU had strict visiting hours and so I had to adhere to that and keep life afloat at home and ensure he and I had jobs to come back to once this thing blew over. He was moved to the general surgery wing where he proceeded to recover from not one, but two abdominal surgeries in two days.

…

He was discharged from the hospital on Monday the 28th. And as of Wednesday night, our sewer septic tank overflowed and we couldn’t use the toilets and sewage was coming out of the shower drain and a quarter of our house’s carpet is full of raw sewage so now we are couch surfing on my parents’ house sofas. Honestly I am so thankful that Kyle is alive and on the mend that I don’t even care that half of my stuff is ruined. It’s been a grueling two weeks. I have until the end of next week to take care of Kyle at home and then I have to go back to work. He goes back to work June 4.

There is so much yet so little to say right now, I am still in shock. All the post operation doctors appointments with Kyle are keeping us busy. I am happy and thankful I can be here with him at this time.

I am dropping the link so if you feel inclined to donate to Kyle and I or at the very least pray for us and send well wishes, that can be accomplished.

https://mealtrain.com/13e5vz

Thanks for reading.

Much love,

Dani