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!