Rearrangements

Last Friday's procedure to re-arrange my bowels ended with me still having an open wound for a belly. The wound is bandaged, but they hadn't sewn the abdomen back together so the wound could start to close. So I spent the next 2 days in bed, waiting for Monday when they said they'd stitch me back up.

Monday went to Tuesday. Tuesday morning brought the disappointing news that they weren't going to take any action until Wednesday. Wednesday came, and I got brought down to the OR. At this point, I hadn't left the bed since Friday, as the only things between me and disembowelment were gravity and a thin plastic bandage.

There was some hemming and hawing from the anesthesia crew about me seeming out of breath (I wasn't) or febrile (99.3 isn't that far from 98.6). They proceeded to put me under for my 4th procedure since arriving. The next thing I recall hearing was something about it not all being done, and thought 'No - Keep going - I'll go right back to sleep'. After that I fully came to and was wheeled back to my room. Smiles all around, things had supposedly gone great.

Karen came to visit and then looks at my belly - 'Looks the same to me'. Then she gets a voicemail from the doc - They weren't able to try to close me back up at all. They had noticed a few small issues with my small bowel and addressed those. The intestines are still acting like 10 pounds of shit that won't stuff into my 5 pound sack of an abdominal cavity.

I've got no mental fortitude for this news. Waiting since Saturday, waiting expectantly since Monday, and my 'big day' Wednesday is more or less a complete wash. Me and my 1000 yard stare ask Karen to leave. The end of my 27th day here is spent binge-watching the entire Chernobyl HBO mini-series. Horrifying scenes of slow death due to acute radiation poisoning provide some positive perspective.

To figure out how many days my hospital stay has stretched to, just add 17 to the current date. So by the time you read this on Thursday, I will have started my 28th day here. This neat trick will work until the end of August. After that, we'll change over to rounding by weeks.

So - They still need to sew me up. Solid food since admittance is 1/2 slice French toast and 1/3 turkey sausage patty. High phlegm production plus NG tube from right nostril into stomach makes conversation laborious. Sleep is rare. On the plus side, I don't have headaches or a cold. My current bed is mostly comfortable. My pain is well controlled. Despite my frustrations, I believe in the team of doctors I've got.

Just gotta keep going. ~Ed