This is the series of emails I sent to family and friends during Jamie's first surgery and during his recovery in December 2009.
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December 2, 2009
Update 1
Just left Jamie to the care of the fine medical staff at Forsyth Medical Center. They should soon call me to say they've actually started the surgery.
The surgical waiting room is full of noisy people, but at least it has free internet access. Thank you so very very much for helping us get this awesome new laptop. It will certainly help me pass the hours during surgery and help Jamie pass the hours of just being laid up in bed. I'm planning on watching a movie while I wait.
I'll probably send hourly updates since someone will call me hourly to update the progress.
-Beth
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3:30pm Update
Jamie's surgery started around 1pm. So far we've had two calls from the operating room and the nurse says he's doing very well. I wish I could just go to sleep and wake up when it's over too! Not much else to say right now. He could possibly be done in about an hour. Then he'll go to recovery for a while. I'll get to sit with him once he's awake and alert enough. The crowded noisy waiting room thankfully cleared out after a while and is much more bearable now.
I'll send another update in an hour or so!
Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.
-Beth
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6pm Update
Jamie's surgery finished shortly before 5pm. The surgeon came out to talk to me and said things went smoothly.
We're in a room now, unfortunately not on the second floor where we were before with nurses that we just adored. But I'm sure we'll get the same amount of care.
He is in quite a bit of pain at the moment -- definitely ranking his pain as 10 of 10. Poor guy is getting hit from the front (surgical site) and the back (doesn't like to be in bed for so very long). It'll be a long night.
Mom and I are famished and are going to head downstairs to find some grub and hopefully let Jamie doze into la-la-land for a little while.
More later...
-Beth
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9:30pm Update
According to the nurses we should be up and walking around by 4am. YAY! That's a good thing. His main nurse also gave him the enthusiastic go-ahead to sit up in the bed, especially if that would help his back pain. His back is the main complaint at the moment. Earlier he ranked his surgical site pain at just a 3, but ranked his back pain at a solid 10. The nurse said they might have had him laying funny on the operating table. Once he is able to move around more his back should relax more and not hurt him so badly. The nurse is going to give him a dose of Ativan in an attempt to help relax his back muscles. If it wasn't for the back, he'd be doing pretty good.
Mom went back to our house a little while ago, after we took a quick trip down to the cafeteria for much needed FOOD.
Hopefully tonight will go as smoothly as possible.
-Beth
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December 3, 2009
Morning Update
Jamie was able to catch several 10-minute dozes from about midnight until about 5am when someone came in to draw blood. His pain levels have evened out this morning. He's feeling slightly more discomfort in his belly and less pain in his back. That's probably because he's been moving around a bit, changing positions on the bed and sitting on the edge of the bed. It's good for his back to move around, but it's making his abdominal area sore.
His surgeon's physicians assistant came in early this morning to give him a quick once-over and to answer his questions about how the surgery went. I think I forgot to mention this earlier, but they discovered that a small portion of his small bowel was stuck to his large bowel so they removed that portion and sewed his small bowel back up. It shouldn't be a big problem, but they will be carefully monitoring him to make sure that small bowel correction heals and doesn't leak.
Right now there is no indication that they won't be able to go back in later to make a pouch out of his small intestines to eventually reconnect the plumbing. But, the PA did say that they really don't know one way or another until they actually get in to create the pouch. The main issue with being able to create the pouch is being able to get blood supply to the small intestine for the pouch. Everybody has one vein that goes from the heart down to the gut and it needs to be long enough to reach where they need to connect it. If the vein is long enough, they'll be able to create the pouch.
Today's goal will be walking around every four hours or so. We need to get the guts awake so that hopefully he can start a tasty liquid diet tomorrow. Walking around will help the guts wake up and will limber up his back. He has also been given one of those breathy things. I have no idea what they're called. It's to help him take deep breaths.
I think right now he'd be happiest if he was wheeled down to the cafeteria and put in one of their walk-in fridges for an hour or so. He is soooo hot (and I do mean that in all possible ways). I'll gladly bundle up to give him a room that is as cold as possible.
Mom will be here soon to keep us company.
More later!
-Beth
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Bedtime Update
After two long shuffly walks around the floor, several shuffles to the bathroom, and lots of sitting up, Jamie is understandably tired and we're going to have an early night tonight. I am planning to go to work tomorrow since we just work 8am-3pm on Fridays and I really hate to take a full 8-hour leave. Yeah...we only have to work 6 hours on Fridays, but if we're not there we have to take a full day, 8 hours of leave time.
Hopefully tomorrow someone will have a listen to his belly and declare that it is awake and he can finally get some water and other liquids in his system.
I'm sure Jamie will sleep much easier to night and probably for longer than 10 minutes at the time.
I'm signing off for the night to zone out to Iron Chef. :)
Until tomorrow!
-Beth
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December 4, 2009
Friday Morning Update
Jamie had a pretty busy night last night. There were probably more people in and out of the room between 11pm and 7am than had come into the room all of yesterday during the daytime. His PCA pump (the one that lets him push a button for an extra little dose of pain meds) went on the fritz twice in the middle of the night, complete with annoying alarm. Luckily, he wasn't in enough pain to care too much that he couldn't push the button. Lab techs came in twice to draw blood. And he said it felt like someone came in almost every hour during the night to take his vitals. I think he might have had his vitals checked all of three or four times between 7am and 10pm yesterday. No real reason for all the activity because he was doing fine.
The surgeon's PA came in shortly after 7am this morning to check on him. He felt Jamie's belly and it was soft, which is a very good thing. He said Jamie could probably start on liquids today. Then the surgeon came in about half an hour later, felt his belly again, and said the same thing. Mom came in, I set Jamie up with the computer on the bed table, and then I skiddaddled off to work at 8am.
Around 9am, Jamie sent me a message to say he had jello and apple juice. A few minutes ago he told me the food lady was bringing him a whole pitcher of sweet tea. How nice! A little Styrofoam cup of tea doesn't last very long. If he handles the liquids well today, hopefully he'll be able to have some soft food tomorrow or some food he could actually chew. I think he prefers food that requires chewing. I know I do!
More later!
-Beth
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Friday Night Update
Not much new in our world. Jamie spent most of the day in the chair by the bed, which was good for his back. He took two long walks around the floor. Thankfully, much more of this floor of the hospital is open to use for walking. The second floor where we were a month ago was home to the locked psych ward, so we had very little walking room.
Hopefully, his IV and pain med pumps will behave themselves tonight and people won't come in every hour or so to bother him.
Jamie had breakfast, lunch, and dinner today. He's on a clear liquid diet at the moment. He handled the food very well, no nausea. He really hopes that the surgeon or his PA will be by early tomorrow morning to put in an order to move him up to the next diet level.
Now we're going to get settled in for the night and zone out to some Friday night tv.
See you in the morning!
-Beth
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December 5, 2009
Saturday Update
Jamie reached a major milestone today: Food to chew.
The doctor on call stopped by before 7am. He felt Jamie's belly and asked how he had handled the liquid diet yesterday, then ok'd him for real food. However, when the food guy dropped off his tray, it was grits. Not really food, plus Jamie doesn't eat grits. Apparently, the food department was just told to bump him up to full liquids instead of real food. When his nurse came in, we asked her if there was another option for breakfast besides either grits or oatmeal (he had oatmeal last time he was here and said it tasted like they put batteries in it...ew). She said she would check, and gave him a vanilla pudding cup in the mean time. A few minutes later he got a tray with eggs, sausage, and a muffin. It might as well have been Christmas morning in this room. He was soooo happy.
Mom showed up a little later. We weren't really expecting to see her today because the weather is a little nasty. We're currently having misty rain, but later this afternoon and into this evening the temperature will drop and the rain may turn over to snow. Mom and I went down for lunch. When we came back, Jamie had devoured his lunch tray.
The nurse changed his IV from his left hand to his right hand. Now he has to relearn how to deal with his tubes and IV pole when he has to move around the room.
We went for a long walk around the floor. The walks are really helping his back and working his abs, which makes them sore, but is still good for them.
Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!
-Beth
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Saturday Night
Well, we probably won't be going home tomorrow. Earlier this evening Jamie went to empty his colostomy bag and noticed the contents looked a little different. Not being able to distinguish colors all that well, he asked me if the contents were the right color. I said no. We got the nurse and she affirmed that he had a bleed of some sort. She notified the doctor on call. The doctor called for a blood count. Jamie's 4am blood count was 12, and his blood count later this evening was down to 10. We're not sure what's bleeding or what is causing it. Jamie has been on a blood thinning medication to help prevent blood clots in his legs. Needless to say the doctor put in the order to not give him blood thinner tomorrow.
Otherwise, he's still doing ok. His abs are sore, but only when he moves around. His back is back to normal, for him. His IV was changed from his left hand to his right arm. He took two walks today, and had real food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We shared a pudding parfait after I went down for supper. It was tasty. :)
I'll send an update in the morning. Please keep Jamie in your thoughts and prayers.
-Beth
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December 6, 2009
Sunday Update
The bleeding has slowed down or almost stopped now. Jamie's 4am blood count had only dropped slightly from his blood count at around 10pm last night -- not enough for anybody to be the least bit concerned about.
He was able to get a little longer of a nap last night before waking up and trying to go back to sleep. The lab tech who drew the 4am blood work was the same lab tech who drew his first blood work the last time we were in the hospital, and he remembered us! He said, "I think I've drawn blood on you before." I looked up and said, "Yep, about a month ago." Then he exclaimed, "Ya'll've been here a month?!" I laughed and said, "No, we came back."
The weather is better today. It's very very cold outside, but we didn't get any snow. Mom did say that when she looked out at the road this morning it was very icy, so she stayed at our house until about noon for the roads to de-ice.
We're about to go for walk #2 today. Our goal is to have four walks by bedtime. Jamie likes to get out and about.
More later! Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, they worked!
-Beth
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Sunday night update
We got four walks in before bedtime. Jamie's resting comfortably in bed at the moment with some graham crackers and applesauce. Earlier he was able to wash his hair in the sink, which I'm sure felt really really good. We're not sure if we're going home tomorrow, but we can always hope.
Thanks so much for all the prayers and thoughts between last night and tonight. They really worked!
The nurse from last night is Jamie's nurse again tonight. We've tended to like his night nurses alot, even when we were in the hospital last month, and are kind of sad that we don't get to see them for the full 12 hours of their shifts, since we're asleep for part of it.
We hope everybody has a good night. :)
More tomorrow!
-Beth
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December 7, 2009
Monday update
Well, we didn't go home today. Maybe we'll get to go home tomorrow. Jamie got his IV disconnected, but he still has the needle in his arm for one IV medicine (anti-inflammatory that has done very well for his back) which we think he'll get the last dose at midnight. He said it was weird to do our walks without having to push on an IV pole.
Thanks for the thoughts, prayers, emails and calls!
-Beth
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December 8, 2009
Three Words
WE CAME HOME!!!
That is all. :)
-Beth
