Son is at the Hospital,

[joseph]

Maybe someone has experienced this. Justin who is c5 began having bad spasms this mourning in his stomach region. The spasms became frequent and painful like someone was pulling or punching him. We went over some things we've learned, did a bowel program, nothing seemed to help. I called his rehab center and they said take him to the hospital. We've been there since from 10am. They ran xrays and cath scans and nothing except when ever they upped the pain killer it stopped. So they decided to keep him overnight for observation. We've all had a pretty lousy day and still don't know what is wrong. I'm hoping its some form of a stomach virus so when it ends the spasms will stop. Has anybody ever had anything like this? http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/frown.gif

[rbyrd49100]

Just wanted to say I'm sorry your family has had a bad day at the hospital.....
not like you haven't had enough of those already eh? http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif
I really hope it's all nothing and your son is home soon!

Russ Byrd

[floyd]

hi

im also c5 and one day my stomach started doing exactly the same and no one knew was going on. eventually i came to the conclusion its bad bladder spasms, for it i take 20-30mg buscopan with some pain killers which seems to work. if its really bad i take oxybutin chloride 5mg which really knocks it on the head. one side effect is a really dry mouth which just makes you drink more......which is good anyway.

hope this helps
floyd

[Scorpion]

It sounds like it might be a UTI, but I'd also check blood for an infected appendix. I'm no doctor, of course, but like Dr. Young says, all our ailments aren't directly related to SCI.

~Rus

"Life's a bitch, but I love her."

[Sue Pendleton]

If pain killers stop it have them check for the easy and obvious first. Using an ultrasound look for bladder and/or kidney stones. If everything else comes back negative then maybe look at his gallbladder. I asssume they took a KUB xray to rule out a blocked bowel? This is an easy test, nothing gross to drink.

[marmalady]

HI, Joseph, Sorry to hear about Justin; I'm going to copy your post over to the Care forum, so the SCI nurses can add their suggestions, too.

Hope everything goes well today; I'll be thinking of y'all.

_____________
Tough times don't last - tough people do.

[joseph]

It might be what you had Floyd, because they checked everything else.He's a little shaky holding down food and they think it might be a virus in his stomach. This has never happened before so we are stumped.Justins home now.We got home about 1pm and we're all drained. This is the first time he was sick enough to bring to emergency since he got home from rehab 2 and half years ago.And like you say Russ we've had alot of these before, the only difference is its at our home.Life is certainly unpredictable. When he gets hit with a cold, life becomes more miserable multiplyed. But thank God no colds since last Jan.Propolis plus bee pollen seems to be keeping him free of colds. Thanks to all.

[joseph]

How frequent are your spasms that you have to take that stuff?Weekly, monthly? The pain killers definitly helped them to subside. I guess we'll see where he goes from here.

[floyd]

it happens quite frequently for me, just sometimes its alot worse than others. sometimes its so bad it looks like someone is pulling my stomach from the inside, really tightly.

floyd

[marmalady]

Hi, JOseph, glad to hear things are sort of back on the level. You might want to make a follow up appointment with Justin's physiatrist, just to go over what happened, and see if he/she has any suggestions. Hope all stays well!

_____________
Tough times don't last - tough people do.

[joseph]

Sounds very much the same. I hope it's ending and not coming back.It's been 3 years and all of a sudden this. Keeping him all drugged up is not where we want to go.I guess we'll see.We don't have a physiatrist, so I'll have to look into that. It seems like we don't have anybody in this area that knows squat about what SCI folks go thru, but thats a good suggestion Jackie, thanks.

[cheesecake]

There is a doctor Debra Burnell who is a physiatrist in washington DC. Another really good physiatist is affiliated with Adventist Hospital in Silver Spring. Her office is in DC also. Both are down to earth and listen well. DC isn't too far away.

[joseph]

DC is a bit far for going to on a regular basis, maybe 1 time a year. What's a physitrist focus of medicine? We've never seen or been referred to one before. Do you have a Phone# on the Doctor from DC? I was given the name of a good neuroligist very close to home, a DR. Katherine Hammock.So we'll be seeing her next week. Thanks