Eric Tapley

My partial intestinal obstruction is improving, but I’m still not out of the woods so they are transferring me to a different floor (where they keep the patients with intestinal problems). I will probably not be able to find another open hotspot, so I expect this will be my last post for a while. For the latest news and information please call Kate. I’ll post again as soon as I’m out.

At this point there are a couple possible courses of action:

1. Medical treatment for my intestinal obstruction followed by a return to the low-fiber, low-residue diet once the obstruction has cleared. Then I’d go home until my surgery on June 29th.

2. Keeping to a liquid or soft solids diet with the surgery moved up to next week to reverse the ostomy and clear whatever may be causing the obstruction.

There are a few possible causes for the intestinal obstruction, including an adhesion or scar tissue on my small intestine from previous surgeries, a twist or kink in my intestines from the way they resettled after surgery, Crohn’s disease, or something else. The doctors are running a variety of tests to try and figure out the cause before deciding on the best course of action to take.

More Information:
Intestinal/Bowel Obstructions
Crohn’s Disease