Bobbie had a pretty rough night. Lots of pain, but whenever the morphine kicked in, she seemed to be able to drift off to sleep for a good 20-30 minutes at a clip. She laid fairly motionless, which is to say in the same position, from pretty much the time that she got to her room until they inclined her bed to a 30 degree angle at about 4am. Even after that, she remained on her back in pretty much the same position until this morning. Not that the position changed much this morning, but she was moving her arms and head a little and she even bent her knees up for a bit to try to help ease some of the pain. She was pretty much out of it until about 6am when she woke up and was fairly coherent until around 8am and then again from 10-11am.
The surgeon who assisted in the procedure came by this morning at about 10:30am to check up on her and recapped the surgery for us again. As it turns out, we either heard wrong, misunderstood or were explained to incorrectly what actually took place. They actually removed two sections of small intestine totaling about 2-2.5 feet in length together and containing a total of 6 tumors. They left 2 tumors behind that were close to her stomach that they felt could be likely be addressed through an endoscopic procedure. 2 of the six which were removed, the two that were likely causing her abdominal pain, were larger ones that were causing her intestine to telescope upon itself (think folding a pair of socks when you tuck them together). She said that her hospital stay specifically related to this surgery would probably be in the 7-10 day mark, but it all depends on how her personal recovery goes. The brain portion will be addressed once this surgical team has classified her in hospital recovery period complete. It's amazing what they can do with the human plumbing. They are going to have her get up out of bed and walk and sit in a chair today at the very least. Bobbie is, of course, terrified due to the pain she is experiencing just lying still. I inquired as to the importance of this activity and it is three fold: 1) to enhance circulation in the legs to avoid clotting risk, 2) to reactivate the portion of the lungs that collapses while under anesthesia and 3) to help stimulate the colon back into action following its shutdown during the surgery. Lastly, the switched her over to a constant morphine drip to help get the pain to manageable.
Bobbie is sharing a room with a woman who is hard of hearing and spends a pretty significant amount of time on the phone with someone else whom appears to share her auditory condition. Not so much fun when you are trying to sleep, rest & recover. On the common area side though, she had a similar surgery. As explained by her, she had her large intestine removed such that her small intestine now connects directly to her rectum. I'm pretty sure there should be a colon somewhere in there, but I didn't want to press the issue. Also on a lighter side, Bobbie is not allowed to have any diet (IV only) until she "passes gas from her bottom", so every medical person through that room over the next couple of days is basically going to ask Bobbie if she has farted yet. Killian would love it. I have no choice but to instruct him to ask mommy that every time he speaks with her on the phone. Once she does the deed, she will be able to have the stomach suction tube removed from her throat/nose and, I believe, initiate project clear liquids diet.
So, that's pretty much the status as of now. I left the hospital at 11:30am with her mom keeping company to come home and get a shower, some lunch and maybe a nap before heading back out. She's definitely not going to be up for visitors today. Tomorrow is still up in the air. It just depends on how she does through the day & night. She has her cell phone in the room, but I left the ringer off. So, feel free to call her and leave a voicemail if you like. She will return and make calls when she feels up to it. Also, she has her laptop at the hospital and they have wireless networking, but I don't at what point she is going to feel up to getting online. Point being, also feel free to drop her an email or a facebook message and she will get it somewhere down the line.
Thank you to all for the thoughts, words, prayers and in some cases actions thus far.
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