So, I was looking at Jared’s posts from when I was gone and thought some people might like more details about what actually happened to Christian.

Monday: We arrived at 5:30. Surgery actually began at approximately 8:45 am. Every hour the doctors called me to let me know things were going well. About 11:30 Jared got there and we waited. Finally at 3:00pm the doctors appeared. The first sign I saw was one of the docs gave two thumbs up. They reported that all had gone well. No use of the intestine. They were able to get things hooked up without it. We got to the room and rested the rest of that day.

Tuesday: The day was spent resting. We were up and walking the halls by noon. The doctors and nurses were impressed and cheering Christian on. The measure of a person after surgery is when they pass gas. I swear we tried to get those intestines moving. We went to bed pretty early. We were up a lot with pressure checks and just restlessness. No pain medication.

Wednesday: We noticed Chrsitian’s breathing was a bit labored. Put him on a oxygen monitor. Midday the resident noticed his abdomen was getting distended. We got up to walk but he wasn’t feeling good. By the end of Wednesday, things were not going well. We were supposed to go home, but there was definitly a problem. His belly was getting harder and he was brething heavier. They finally put him on oxygen. That night he had and xray and blood tests. They were concerned his abdomen was filling with one of three things: blood, urine or lymph fluid. The xray showed something, but they still weren’t sure.

Thursday: We were up and ready for an ultrasound around 9. Christian’s belly was like a small pregnant woman: hard and no belly button. (I was a wreck, by the way. I felt very alone, but was trying to be supportive and encouraging.)We got the ultrasound and it confirmed the presence of a belly fully of fluid, pushing the gas in his bowels upward causing the breathing issues. The blood tests showed that it was not blood or urine, so most likely, lymph fluid. The doc said what probably happened was a lymph pathway was nicked in surgery, but not noticed. This is not totally unusual. The unfortunate thing is it didn’t show up until about 24+ hours.

I was really needing the see Jared and the kids. He had been trying to come down, but Riley got sick along the way. Finally he just came anyway.

That night at about 5pm Chrstian went in for a peretoneal drain. A small tube was inserted in his abdomen to release the fluid accumulation. Jared and the kids arrived at about 6pm. When he came up to the room at 7:30, I had Emma and Riley snuggled up in my bed, (read really uncomfortable thin mattress) watching “Elf”. He was pretty groggy but happy to see everyone. About 1000 cc was drained in just a couple of hours.

Friday: Sometime in the morning Christian started to feel naseated. He threw up a couple of times. They gave him some anti-nausea meds which did a total of nothing. He kept throwing up. We tried to sleep and did for about 3 hours. At 1:30am he threw up again - a lot! I was tempted to keep it to myself becuase I knew the outcome. The nurse came in and when I told her she was not happy. She said they would have to put in a NG tube. At 3am they came back and tried to insert the tube in his nose to his stomach to drain off the bad stuff making him puke. The first tube was too big and they got it in wrong. He was gagging and spewing like crazy. I was crying…it was HORRIBLE! They pulled that one out, then had to do it all over again. A kind nurse saw my pain and rubbed my back. I couldn’t tell you now which nurse it was but I will always be grateful to her. He sort of slept, but no more throwing up.

Saturday: Pretty much just sat and watched TV. Chrsitian didn’t want to talk. We had several family members visit which was better for me than him I think.

Sunday: A lot better. Still no food, still had the tube in hs nose, but the drain was helping. Jared came and played games with him. I went over to the mall and looked through glassy eyes at ovepriced clothing. I came back a couple of hours later with a book for me (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) and a joke book for Christian. It was a great break. I spent the reat of the evening reading.

Monday: 8:15 we turned off the NG tube and spent 4 hours with it off to see if he was going to throw up anymore. He didn’t. By 1pm the tube was out. The drainage from the belly tube was decreasing, a good sign. He was begging for food by now. At about 3pm he was allowed water and ice chips. Finally juice and jello by the end of the day.

Tuesday: By now Christian is starving. We had hoped he would be upgraded but by 11am they were still saying clear liquids. We had put a piece of tape on his jammies that said “Feed Me”. The staff was quite amused. They called the doc and decided he could eat real food for lunch. Of course his mind was ready, but his body wore out pretty quick. He took a nice long nap. By the end of the day the drain was almost empty. We had turned the corner, as they say.

Wednesday: The doc showed up at 7:05 and took out the tummy drain! YAY! Only the IV left to take out. The first time in 5 months Christian is tube free! He officially releases us to go HOME! So, we wiat 4 1/2 hours to get the paperwork and get out of there. By 12pm we are on the road! Home at 1:30…thank God. What a ride.

So, hopefully this wasn’t too tedious, but thought some of you might want the tid bits and besides, it was therapeutic for me.

Shalom

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