Hope Larson

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On November 11, 2018 Hope started off her Sunday and was having a great day.  About 4 hours after eating lunch she began to feel ill.  Originally thinking maybe she had food poisoning or something like that she tried to push through at home thinking whatever was going on would pass.  By Monday morning, however, she was in an extreme amount of pain and getting worse not better.  She had been nauseated and vomiting relentlessly and so Bob decided a trip to the ER had to happen.  After arriving at GBMC the doctors ordered blood work and a CT scan.  The results from the scan showed she had obstructions in the upper and lower intestines and within the bowel.  


The doctor told Bob surgery was necessary and to expect her to be in surgery for 1-2 hours.  Bob had been up most of the night with her so he decided to take a quick catnap while she was in surgery.  He woke up and 3 hours had passed.  He immediately sought information and found that Hope's condition was much worse then they had thought.  Another 3 plus hours passed before Hope was finally in the recovery room.  The doctor told him that Hope's obstructions, scar tissue and intestines were in the worst condition he has ever seen.  He told them they needed to be prepared for a marathon - not a sprint - with her recovery.


Today is day 19.  Updates prior to today have been done mostly through facebook.


The doctor came today and shared with them that Hope's most recent CT scan unfortunately shows that another obstruction has already formed.  He told them there are other options - but none were good.  Best option is to pray, wait, and hope that medication induced stimulation of the bowel and intestines will, over time, loosen the current obstruction and keep others from forming.  The other options are surgery to remove a large section of the bowel/intestines.  This would more then likely leave Hope with a feeding tube for the rest of her life because she would not have enough left to allow her to maintain nutrition without the help of TPN.  The next option would be to place an ileostomy (a surgical operation in which a piece of the ileum is diverted to an artificial opening in the abdominal wall) - that might lead to a permanent colostomy - but would also require TPN (feeding tube) to be placed.  The last option would be an intestinal transplant.  These have not had great success and a very serious undertaking.  Needless to say Hope was ready to stick to prayer and patience in the hopes that things can rectify without this being an end to life as she has known it - and a life filled with feeding tubes and/or ileostomy.


Please feel free to leave a comment - but for sure say a prayer!