Amos’s parents made it here in the middle of the night. We got up and I asked Amos if he was going to work. He said there was no way he could. We fed him breakfast and he slept until lunch. I then had to spoon feed him lunch.  We realized that his stomach was distended and he looked almost pregnant with his growing stomach in contrast to his thin frame.

We knew the fluid that had been drained last week was accumulating again, but we didn’t realized how fast it could come back. Even on heavy pain meds, he was at his pain threshold and felt like he would explode.

We called the cancer center and his oncologist, but could’t get through to anyone. The receptionist said Dr. Kundranda doesn’t work there Mondays and there was no one who could help.

He didn’t believe the ER could help him but Sandi and I knew they would and we convinced him to go. He still listens to his mom.

His home health nurse, Margine, met us there. The doctors at Banner Ironwood diagnosed him with ascites, which means “fluid collecting in the abdomen.” They were wonderful and got him in for the draining procedure right away. He let us know we were right and thanked us for making him go in.

They drained about 3 times more than they did in the hospital last week. He has now had 3.5 liters drained from his stomach alone within one week with two procedures called abdominal paracentesis. They said he also has fluid that has collected again in the lungs, but that they would leave that alone since it doesn’t seem to be bothering him as much. They tested the fluid and found no infection.

We will try again tomorrow to get an appointment with Dr. Kundranda who will hopefully be able to schedule the procedure for a port that will allow his home nurse to relieve the pressure in his stomach.

His nurse is also getting a hospital bed and a wheelchair for him which should really help. He can’t seem to use walker very well anymore.

We came home around dinner time and had a beautiful family night lesson taught by Kirra before getting Amos up to bed.