Well, IRP is feeling pretty good. She will be starting the Spring 2014 semester tomorrow in the college’s “late start” classes. One of her two classes is on-line, so she won’t be wearing herself out.~~TSG
Archive for January, 2014
school tomorrow
rough night
Yesterday, they began weaning IRP off the pain and anti-spasm meds. Unfortunately, she was not ready for this step. At about seven o’clock, she began having horrible stomach spasms. Tears were streaming down her face and she was trying hard not to yell. She was mostly losing the latter battle. TBF had been going to go home to get some studying done, but he would not leave while IRP was in pain. We did not get things sorted out until after ten. IRP is back on all the medications and we will speak to the doctor this morning about what we can do to control her pain better.
We got a little sleep, but I anticipate that IRP will spend most of the day resting. She wants to go walking now while she feels relatively well. We will do that as soon as she is given her antibiotic and the anti-coagulate.~TSG
rapid progress
This morning, the doctor took the bandage off the mid-line incision in IRP’s stomach. He had used the incision line that was already there and just had to lengthen it a bit. We appreciate very much that Dr.B has tried, wherever possible, to use existing scars to place incisions instead of making new ones. Since IRP is young (22), she is very worried about such things. Fortunately, TBF (the boyfriend) does not care about such things and has spent a lot of time up at the hospital helping IRP in any way he can.
IRP is also being allowed to eat soft foods. Considering the amount of time it took us to get to this stage after the last operation, this is really rapid progress. IRP has been up walking already this morning. The pain is also subsiding. This is really good since she has almost reached the end of the amount of Demoral (the pain medication that works best for her) that the hospital can give her. After six tonight, she will not be able to have anymore. Hopefully, the on-demand button and the anti-inflammatory will be able to keep her pain under control after that.
Thanks to everyone for their concern.~TSG
recovering
IRP is feeling much better. She has been walking several times today and has progressed to clear liquids. The doctor’s assistant was in and said things had gone so well that the ileostomy might be reversible in as little as eight weeks. As you might imagine, this cheered IRP up considerably. Thanks to everyone for their prayers and good thoughts.~TSG
So, today IRP had yet another surgery. This was to reconnect her rectum to her large intestine after last year’s “blow-out”. It appears that the doctor who corrected her Hirschprung’s failed to get all of the affected area out. As a result, IRP suffered a ruptured bowel and spent three weeks in the hospital recovering from that and the resulting massive infection. A colostomy also had to be performed at the same time to give her time to recover so that we could decide what would need to be done next. I did not post about this and other events at the time they occurred because I was just so shocked and angry. We almost lost her!
The surgery today went well, but IRP has another temporary ileostomy. The doctor who reconnected her said that he had tested the repair and the reversal of the colostomy and no air came through either. He probably could have not done the ileostomy. However, due to what happened last time, he was not willing to risk a recurrence. He would rather take the conservative approach since another rupture might mean that IRP would have to have a permanent colostomy. Although many people live with this, we do not want IRP to have to do so if it can be avoided. Any prayers or good thoughts you care to send our way will be greatly appreciated.~TSG
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