Wagging Tail-582

This is sort of a long story so be patient.

Dad felt cold for some days even though the house is like an oven.

My nose told me something was up. I’d have given him my coat if I could!

Big ears also sensed something strange was going on. She hasn’t a great snout but man those ears are like sonars.

On Friday morning Ma took him to have his blood work done for his regular check up scheduled for tomorrow.

All went well.

Well that was until we got the results. They came in just as Ma got home from work. Everything looked great with lipids and minerals and all those good things. EXCEPT his hemoglobin was extremely low. Ma was pondering what to do when the doctor who monitors clinical chemistry at the laboratory called.

He said get Dad to the emergency room immediately for a transfusion. So off they sped leaving the monster and me to our own devices.

They took Dad immediately and pumped in some of the red stuff.

He needed two units so had to stay overnight to get the second.

They then decided since he was at the hospital they’d do an endoscopy to see if he was loosing blood in his stomach. So he stayed yesterday too.

The endoscopy results showed nothing strange. That’s good news!

So now the dilemma is where did the blood loss come from. We know it’s not the upper GI and we know from September it’s not the lower GI so it must be somewhere in the middle.

The only way to find out is have him swallow a camera. That would mean another two days fasting!

Fortunately this can be done as an outpatient.

So Dad is back home again. They’ve stopped his anticoagulants so he will have less chance of bleeding and we’re going to monitor his hemoglobin over the next days to make sure it’s stabilized.