Northern VA: Inova Fair Oaks rocks

[pendell]

My wife was admitted to the hospital with acute pancreatitis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancreatitis) on Sunday Morning at 3 AM. It took this long to get her body in shape for the look-see.

They discovered that material my mother described as 'sludge' had completely blocked the duct leading from her liver to her intestine. This meant that the liver could no longer eliminate waste from the bloodstream, resulting in increasing toxicity, resulting in ... nothing too good, probably in a matter of days.

The good news is the blockage has been successfully cleared, and an -ectomy has been performed to ensure that this particular problem will never recur. Dr. R. Allen Blosser of INOVA Fair Oaks did a -scopy (ERCP) on my wife today at noon.

So I get my wife back -- and not only get her back, but she should be healthier than she's been in years, now that this chronic issue has been cleared up. We hope, anyway.

I find this worthy of comment because this is the second time we've had to go to the hospital for this particular complaint -- once in 2003, once in 2009 -- and our experience at Fair Oaks has been immeasurably better than it was at the other hospital the previous time. If they'd botched it, I'd have had the lawyers on 'em. Since they didn't screw it up -- in fact, did a far more excellent job than the other guys -- I thought the least I could do was give 'em some free word-of-mouth. And so here we are. Thanks for listening.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Perenelle]

Thats great. Hope your wife is feeling better.:smallsmile:
I used to live about 10 minutes away from that hospital. They were superb. I had ear problems when I was younger and had two surgeries there. Fair Oaks had some wonderful people. Glad you liked it too. :smallsmile:

the school system in that area of Northern VA is amazing too, if I might add. (unless its changed in the last four years since I lived there.)

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Just goes to show sometimes a second opinion is a good idea. Great to hear she'll be doing better.

[Zeb The Troll]

That is fantastically wonderful news, P!

I hear their commercials all the time, but it's always better to get a personal referral for places like that.

Just to make sure I've got the story right, your wife was admitted for one problem, and while they were fixing that, they found this other 'sludge' problem? Or are the two things related in a way that I'm not seeing?

[pendell]

Actually, Zeb, the two problems were one and the same.

Pancreatitis is what happens when the pancreas malfunctions for one reason or another. If you follow the wiki link in the OP, it is rated on the Ranson scale of 0-8, where 0-2 have a mortality rate of 2% while on the upper end of the scale -- 7-8 -- the mortality rate is 100%.

Now, Pancreatitis is usually caused by A) gallstones or b) alcohol. My wife doesn't drink, and she doesn't have a gall bladder since 2003, so the doctors sort of scratched their heads and said 'huh? What's causing this?'

Given that we now had a history of this sort of thing, Dr. Blosser felt a little bit of probe exploration was appropriate, so he went in and had a look -- what was causing the pancreatitis was this liver blockage. So the one was causing the other. Clear up the blockage, pancreatitis goes away, blood returns to normal.

And so he saved my wife's life.

And so I'm a very happy man today. :yippee:

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Megaduck]

Yay on your wife! I glad she's getting better.

I also like Inova Fair Oaks. I live about 10 min away and need to go there about once a month for blood work.

[Zeb The Troll]

Actually, Zeb, the two problems were one and the same.

*explanation*
Okay, I got it now. I looked at the wiki link but my eyes glazed over trying to make heads or tails of it. I got the part about the normal causes, but missed the connection that in this case it was neither of those.

Any idea what caused the cause? That doesn't sound particularly normal either.

[pendell]

Okay, I got it now. I looked at the wiki link but my eyes glazed over trying to make heads or tails of it. I got the part about the normal causes, but missed the connection that in this case it was neither of those.

Any idea what caused the cause? That doesn't sound particularly normal either.

Howdy Zeb, just saw this. I've been taking a few days off. Now that Susan's recovered, I've been taking out my frustration on Volgin (boss in Metal Gear Solid 3).

Not entirely sure. I hypothesize a combination of poor diet and genetic factors. I know that my wife is now on a new diet which requires limited intake of starch, fat, etc.

Respectfully,

Brian P.