Wound Video

Based on popular demand, I have uploaded a video of me changing the dressing in my stomach hole. Watch at your own risk...it's pretty gnarly but fascinating. It's not particularly bloody. There's a hole though, after all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpy1C54cifM

How My Incision Celebrated Harry Potter (Disgust alert)

Yesterday, the skin around my incision was looking a little red and swollen, but I wasn't sure if it was infected. When I woke up this morning, there was no doubt. {Gross alert} My superman pajamas (they weren't saving anyone today, clearly) had ooze stains and the ooze kept coming. Luckily, it's a week day, so I could go to my surgeon's office for a visit with Nurse Lois Anne. She told me that about 50% of patients' incisions become infected if they are stapled because bacteria can grow in the cavity inside. It's worth stapling wounds for the 50% who don't get infections. Essentially, I have an abscess draining to the outside. Yeah, great. My nurse cut my incision open, which actually didn't hurt that much considering all the other ordeals I have been through; about as much as it hurt to have my staples taken out. Then she drained the pus and washed it out. I didn't look because I was getting pretty revolted just thinking about what she was doing. When I looked over and she was coming at the incision with a numbing shot, my deep dislike for needles took over for a second and I almost ran away. Next comes the bad part. Lois Anne taught me how to "pack" the wound. I have to fold up a 2x2 inch gauze sheet and stick it in the incision with the end of a pair of tweezers. The purpose of the gauze is to absorb the drainage from the wound cavity, which is one to two inches below the surface. Besides the ooze and blood, for me, the gross part is that there is just so much space in that hole. So I have to keep poking the tweezer in there (with some force) until almost the whole gauze sheet has disappeared. Every time I have to change the wound, I have to pull the top of the gauze sticking out of my stomach and keep pulling until it all comes out. It's like a worm or something. I will have to do this twice per day for many weeks to come. Since the wound will heal from the bottom up, eventually there will be nowhere for the gauze to go, and I will be able to stop. The bad news for my scar is that it won't be so pretty! But I guess the worse it looks...the more bragging rights I have and ridiculous stories I can come up with? You can probably tell that although I can deal with lots of pain or time in the hospital, wounds are not for me. By the end of my "packing" tutorial, Lois Anne and I agreed that I probably shouldn't pursue a career as a surgeon. Darn it! I'm really not surprised that my incision decided to act up today because I know it just wanted to join in on the Harry Potter fun. It was getting jealous of all the attention being bestowed to Harry Potter and his scar. Maybe Harry and I could trade scars for a day?

What do I do now? + Surgery No. 2 Pictures

I'm out of the hospital! I got out yesterday and I spent a great day with my cousins. I got to take a nice shower (I'm really good at delaying hospital shower requests. Nurses can be persistent but I just do not want to know what kind of other operations or diseases people in those showers have had, no matter what disinfectants they may use. Sorry!). Interesting fact: doctors paint iodine on before surgery to reduce the risk of infection. Since I'm still recovering, I get tired easily and suddenly, but the thrill of being better usually overcomes the urge to nap. I walked a couple blocks with no trouble this morning, more than I could hope for just out of the hospital!

My main problem is getting up after I've been lying down. Since the stomach muscles required to get up are a bit much for my incision, I have a rolling method that is slightly ridiculous but effective. I am taking Percocet (oxycodone + tylenol; ask me for a review of narcotic drug classes and I can fill you in, or read a previous post about pain medications) around the clock because my incision starts hurting otherwise. Gradually I will decrease how many I take at one time and the frequency. I am going to the bathroom many times a day, but that is totally normal right after surgery and over time it will decrease. As it is, with no pain, I could deal.

I miss the nurses from Floor 5 North of UCSF! I got to know most of them and they took such great care of me. They also made me feel glamorous by telling me often how great I looked (aka: you are looking better than the other patients on this floor...the octogenarians).

Today I encountered an unsettling feeling: What do I do now? For the past couple years, I have always had a goal associated with my disease. It was usually among the following: get through today; get through this week; get through this semester; make it until surgery; make it until the next surgery, etc. Now I just have seemingly infinite time ahead of me. Suddenly the mentality of not being able to do certain things and limiting my expectations is gone. I am no longer a sick person; I'm a recently sick and recovering person who has no idea what to do other than read scifi books. So...I registered for the GRE. I got physical disability accommodations for extra bathroom breaks. This will give me a goal. Plus I have lots of time to study, if you haven't noticed. I didn't expect to have trouble adjusting to being normal but I guess that any adjustment, even if it's one for the better, can be troubling and simply take time. Once again, I have to welcome the change and resist the fear of the unknown future.

Now what you have all been waiting for:

Staples!!! And that's all the evidence of six feet less of intestine in the world.  It's slightly orange from  the iodine. 

This is pretty terrib...ly funny! Drunk leering pregnant lady recovering from a colectomy?

Sleepover buddy

My family breaks me out of the hospital

First meal out of the hospital

Can I Stay or Can I Go?

The doctors can't seem to decide. Until noon today, I was all set to go. IV sites have to be changed every 72 hours and my nurses told me that the fact I had been given a 24-hour extension on my IV meant I was definitely going home. Just kidding! When the surgical team came in this morning to take out my staples, they informed me that the surgeon on call had decided to keep me for an extra day in case I got dehydrated. I feel fine so it's frustrating (but my family is going to a birthday party tonight so I'd be more annoyed otherwise). I can see why the doctors need to be cautious, especially considering how they let me out too early after the first surgery and I landed in deep trouble soon after. Today they did tell me that if I really really wanted to go home today I could, but they were looking at me like I would officially be an idiot if I did that. So I'm still here.

As for the staples, they have been replaced by long clear strips of tape. I didn't want to look at them being taken out, but my friend Anthony did, and he said that it was impressive how easily they came out from their size and how firmly they were stapled in. The tape will gradually curl up and come off, and is mainly for cosmetic purposes of my scar. Of course, I am super concerned about having the prettiest colectomy scar ever seen, so I will take good care of the tape. I don't want to look at it, much less scrub it. The doctors told me not to scrub my incision and I looked at them like that was the worst idea ever. They said, "Well, you'd be surprised. Lots of people try to scrub." There's still a chance my incision could become infected but it's unlikely.

Aside from my frustrations, I have been feeling better than I thought I would. This recovery was relatively easy in comparison and I think I could be out and about in not too long. My incision definitely hurts, but it's nothing like a blockage or an obstruction. Let's hope that I really do get out tomorrow!

It's all relative

I feel much better today and I have passed some significant milestones. Walking around is much easier and less painful. It also really helps diffuse stomach pains from my digestive system waking up. This morning I started going to the bathroom, the normal way, after that silly bag business for two months! It's so nice to feel like a human being again, not a poop bag lady (to put it bluntly).

The doctors unplugged me from my IV pole because I have proved that I can drink enough liquids on my own. Now I can move around freely and jump from my windowsill to my bed. Just kidding.

I am now on pain pills instead of liquid painkillers. Although pills aren't as strong as liquid painkillers like dilaudid or morphine (which I was on until this afternoon), they last longer in the system as long as they can be absorbed well enough. After I had been drinking liquids and keeping down jello, my doctors moved me to pills, which I prefer, because liquid painkillers make me feel pretty strange and they wear off quickly.

My surgeon said I could switch to a full liquid diet today, so milkshakes and pudding should be allowed, but somehow it didn't get put in writing so I am still eating jello. They only seem to have three flavors here: lime, lemon and orange.

In other news, they took off the bandage of my stoma incision site. I was expecting something circular maybe, considering how my stoma was circular, but of course it isn't. It's about two inches long and has four big staples attaching the two sides of the incision. If I leave the hospital on Saturday, I will probably have to come back in next week to have them remove the staples, but if I leave later, they will remove them before I leave.

I'm still getting used to having everything back where it should be. Now that I don't have my external bag, I realize how much it sucked. It truly was inconvenient. I'm so glad they could put me back together. Now I can wear all those short shorts I was missing out on in the beginning of the summer. I am really looking forward to getting out into the real world.

I am now both okay and coherent!

One day after surgery, I am already doing much better. I am no longer overwhelmed by words (my solution: misspell them) and I have a pretty good idea of where I am: the hospital. But actually, recovery this time around is much easier and I have learned many things.

My actual surgery was longer than expected because my surgeon found quite a bit of scar tissue behind my stoma and at the end of my upper intestine. That probably explains why I had a bazillion blockages - the scar tissue blocked up the food passage. My surgeon cut the scar tissue, but it is likely to form again over the years. While this means that I am more likely to get blockages or obstructions than other people with my surgery, it still doesn't mean that I will be likely to get blockages. As long as I don't have more than two blockages or obstructions per year, they won't do surgery again to cut the scar tissue again. Each surgery carries risk with it and sometimes trying to eliminate scar tissue just creates more of it.

I didn't move at all until this morning, when I tried to take a walk. It didn't work out so well, meaning that I stood up and felt so nauseous and dizzy that I sat right back down again. I had started to turn white and my nurse was just staring at me and telling me I wasn't breathing correctly (no duh!). I was upset because I am accustomed to succeeding just by trying hard enough.  Just standing up made me so exhausted that I slept for an hour. Well..then I had some jello (and only one day out of surgery!), which gave me enough strength to go on a walk a few hours later. It hurts my right side quite a bit to walk, the side where my stoma RIPs and my scar now resides. Later today I took another walk and I went two entire laps around the floor! The more I walk, the sooner my digestive tract will "wake up." It's been asleep since yesterday morning, and I can't leave the hospital until it starts working again. One interesting thing is that doctors still do not know why the digestive system "goes to sleep" and later "wakes up."

I found out that my wound from the stoma was stapled. Based on how it looks during surgery, the surgeon will staple it or leave it open and pack it with gauze (kind of gross). The point of leaving it open is to avoid bacterial infection if the patient looks like he or she might be prone. Luckily, my surgeon stapled me, so it won't be as icky. I have been known to faint from the sight of my own blood!

Last night my mom slept over with me in the hospital and I am pretty sure she took some embarrassing pictures of me making unladylike-drugged-out faces. Today my sister and her boyfriend came to visit, and tonight my dad is coming to stay over.

im ok

i woke up from srgert and im ok. i sleep and then open one eye and sleeop.cthis surgery is easier.  but im still tired. i vant see my  stkma holwm bwcayse there is a bandage. it hutys so much

Surgery #2 in Sight (Graphic stoma picture alert. Beware)

Tomorrow, at a whopping 108 pounds, I will head to the hospital for my second surgery, when the surgeons will put my stoma (the cuff of my upper intestine stitched to my stomach) back inside and reconnect my digestive tract. I am pretty excited to get rid of my stoma, as much as I love it (not).

Today I have been on a jello and popsicle diet. This morning, just for fun, my upper intestine decided to have one last blockage. After I had thrown up enough times, I felt a little better. Still, I've been told before that I should go to the ER if I throw up during a blockage. I spoke with my surgeon and she told me that if I could manage to keep liquids down, I didn't have to go (otherwise, dehydration would be a problem). And in the event I did, I should skip the ER and check right in to the hospital, where I would stay until surgery. As usual, I drank a lot of water, and since I'm not supposed to eat anyway today, I was already on a liquid diet. Luckily, my upper intestine quieted down and I got to spend the day sleeping instead!

My recovery process in the hospital will probably be like this: Tuesday and Wednesday I will be on high levels of pain killers so I won't remember much. Hopefully I can get a morphine post in there. Thursday I will be given control of my painkillers, which will be at lower levels, and I will be given jello to eat. Friday I will move on to pudding and cream of wheat. Saturday I will be given plain foods like plain pasta and plain turkey. I will probably leave the hospital Saturday, Sunday or Monday. 


Important items I am bringing to the hospital:
-Game of Thrones: the book..so excited!! I've been saving it
-Bop-it
-Growable cat
-Phone so I can call people and have memorable conversations with them that I will not remember
-Camera so that I can document my scar from day one
-Toy truck
-Superman pants for good luck
-Computer so I can watch movies, such as Planet Earth (the snow leopard chase scene is out of this world!) and write posts under the influence for posterity
-Sudoku
-Crossword puzzles


Here is a picture of what my stoma looked like a couple days ago.

This is not a parasite from a scifi movie. Also, the shadows are from a tree shading the window. 

The white powder is stoma powder, which I put on the skin around my stoma because it gets really irritated. The lower intestine takes out digestive enzymes, and since I don't have my lower intestine anymore, whatever comes out of my stoma essentially eats my skin if it touches it. I have to be very careful to place the adhesive bag in the right place, or else my skin hurts whenever I move. You can see that the color of the stoma is pretty similar to the inside of someone's mouth. Any guesses as to why? The same tissue lines the entire digestive tract (mouth included). RIP Stoma, it's been a wild ride!