WHEW!

What a long night we had last night. (Thursday) I stayed home from work yesterday because I was feeling really sick, and possibly got the flu, and Matt was at school all day at the BYU Salt Lake campus. I received a call from Matt around 5 pm saying that he was having extreme abdominal pain. We thought that it could possibly be his appendix, or maybe kidney stones, but the pain in his stomach kept moving. It first started in the right side, and quickly moved to the left, and eventually ended up on his left side, parallel to his belly button. Matt ended up laying outside of his class on the floor, trying to help his tummy. He went back into class, interrupted his professor, and asked if 2 priesthood holders could give him a blessing. There were several who were willing, and several even offered to take him to the hospital. Matt received a blessing, and then headed home. (I know, he shouldn't have been driving, I agree, but he wouldn't let me come get him. Those stubborn Jones boys) Once he made it home, he laid down for about half an hour before the pain began to worsen to the unbearable stage. I immediately got him ready, and drove to the ER. After filling out paperwork, and waiting what seemed forever, Matt was taken back into a private room where they did blood tests, and a urine sample. We sat there for several hours, and eventually a nurse came in and gave him an IV, some morphine, and another pain medication to calm the pain. His level of pain was at a 10, and that is saying a lot. Matt is really tough, and can handle a lot of pain. Because of the pain meds, Matt's pulse started to drop drastically down into the high 20's- low 30's so the Dr ordered a EKG to check his heart. At this point, I was getting really scared. Dr's weren't giving us any answers (they didn't know themselves) and we had been waiting for a very long time. Again, the Dr came in, told us his heart was doing ok, and asked that we did an xray and CT scan on Matt to find out what was happening in his tummy. At this point we ruled out that it wasn't his appendix, nor was it kidney stones. The ER Dr. then assumed that it was something called "bowel obstruction" Meaning, Matt was not able to pass gas nor have a bowel movement. His stomach was extremely bloated, and he said that it felt like a lot of pressure from gas that he wasn't able to get out. The CT scan and xray confirmed that this was indeed what Matt had. We asked the Dr how Matt could possibly have this problem, when at 6:00 ( just before we went to the ER) Matt was able to have a bowel movement. The Dr. explained that bowel obstruction is common in patients who have had previous abdominal surgery, which Matt has. When he was 12, he had Nissin surgery, where the Dr went in, and wrapped his stomach around his esophagus, to stop acid reflux. Apparently, the scar tissue from the Nissin surgery can cause blockage in the intestines, and therefor creating a bowel obstruction. By the time we received all this info, it was about 1:30 in the morning. The Dr. wanted to keep Matt over night to make sure that the obstruction passed through, otherwise, he would need to have surgery to have it removed. The hospital relocated us to a bigger room on the "surgery recovery" floor of the hospital. Finally, around 3 o'clock in the morning, we were finally settled down enough to sleep a bit. Matt received his last dose of morphine, and we slept soundly for about 4 hours. Nurses began filing in and out checking Matt's vitals, and making sure that he was doing ok. around 7:00 in the morning, Matt was finally beginning to pass gas, and soon after, had a small bowel movement. We were so excited about this, we were ready to go home, but the Dr. ordered another xray to make sure that the obstruction was completely gone, and to much of our disappointment, it wasn't. The Dr. ordered that Matt didn't eat or drink anything just in case he needed to have surgery, also because she didn't want him adding more to his tummy, that he wasn't able to get out. Poor Matt hadn't eaten since 4 pm the day before, and was really hungry. Fluids were still being pumped into him through the IV, and eventually the Dr came in and said that he could be put on a clear diet, meaning only broth, jello, apple juice and Italian ice. If all went well, and Matt was able to have another bowel movement, as well as not have any more pain from the dissolving obstruction, we had the go ahead to go home. We waited several more hours, and around 2:30 Friday afternoon (today), Matt was discharged, and we were able to go home. Matt is currently doing well, and is resting. He is still on his clear diet for the rest of the day, and slowly he can get back to eating normal foods. Dr. told him strictly, no heavy or greasy foods, and absolutely NO Chinese. So yes, that is how we spent the beginning of our weekend. It wasn't fun, it was completely exhausting, but we are extremely grateful that Matt is doing better and that it didn't end up being something much much worse. Thanks again to all those who kept us in your prayers the past 2 days. We have truly felt them, and feel extremely blessed to have such great families to support us.