...and waiting...

Called home health today. The wound vac company is still waiting for some information from the doctor. The nurse is going to call and bug them tomorrow for me. Mom and Amanda are going to go have lunch with my grandma tomorrow and i would like to go but i will probably have to stay here and wait for them to get their act together..... I almost wish i didn't like my doctor because his staff has a hard time getting everything done...

still waiting

Merry Christmas to anyone who reads this

we are still waiting for the wound vac to show up. If i don't hear anything by noon i will start calling people again. Beyond that there isn't much to report about my health so will just tell the world about my Christmas.

Drew told his parents Friday i wasn't feeling very good so they decided to bring part of the lunch to us so Saturday night we went to church and then my sis and i did a few things to make today a little easier. Today we got up early and did stockings. Santa forgot about me so he just collected random things and put them in. I can't complain too much, i think i got more stuff then anyone else. Drew gave me a popcorn popper and a gift card so i can finally go get curtains for the living room and from my sisparents i got a new pan set and comforter among other things. After gifts and breakfast with the parents we had church then lunch with both sides of the family. Drew parents gave us some random but awesome stuff. Lets just say we are stocked up on wii games for awhile. The rest of the day has been spent hanging out playing games and doing a little baking and a lot of eating. It has been nice to feel good when i didn't think i would....it has been the best first Christmas being married to drew!

We are still waiting on everyone to get the correct information. I think home health has everything they need but the company who supplies the wound vac is still missing something. We are hopeing all is in place by tomorrow but the said they would come out Sunday if needed....merry Christmas!

Things went really well. He was able to get the plug out. There is a small chance he cut some of my intestine but all is good so far. I was left with a hole a little larger than a quarter and about an inch deep. Home health is going to come out and put a wound vac on it tomorrow. It will put a little suction on it and help it heal a little faster as well as keep it cleaner. The pain hasn't been bad at all. I took some pain med before i went to bed last night but i don't feel much different then when i got a drain check.

Surgery set for the 21st. I will go home that night and all they are doing is taking the piece of plug out.

Saw the radiologist already and we are killing time before we have to go see the surgeon. It is looking like the hole in my intestine is closed and the drainage i am getting is from the remnants of the plug causing an infection. The only way to get that out is to operate so we will see what safar wants to do.

Still feeling good. I go see the radiologist and surgeon next Wednesday. There is a chance we may try the plug again but it probably be after the first the year.

Still Good

I'm still feeling good. Drew has a friend from his church in Columbia who's granddaughter has been through a lot of the same things. The difference is she is 1. Right now she has an infection and they had to put her in a drug induced coma. They were going to pull her out of it today but her oxygen levels weren't high enough. Please pray for this special little girl and her family.

So this is what is feels like to feel good

After being out of the hospital for over a week now I am still feeling good. The wound I have had on my belly since April is finally healing to the point I just change the bandage once a day to keep the tape from getting too sticky and I think this is the longest I have gone without a tube or antibiotics in a long time. I will go back and see the doc at the end of October but I don't think he will have anything to do. We have decided to stay with the same surgon even though he messed up to avoid more confussion over my case. We are hopeful that I will be able to have my final surgery by the end of December

thats more like it

Surgery went well and my bag was already filling up when I woke up. I just had water and an italian ice last night but this morning I got a regular breakfast. I am still in some pain but I think that is from throwing up so much yesterday and the fact I had two surgerys in less then 48 hours. I should be getting out around noon and they will aslo be pulling my central line before I go.

update

They did close the wrong side and I am going down asap to have it fixed....oi

I knew it couldn't be that easy.

Wednesday morning I woke up feeling great and ate a full breakfast. Unfortantly my bowl had not woke up yet so all that food just sat in there untill after lunch when I threw up. I am still haveing really bad cramping and throwing up everything, even juice. The took me down to do an x-ray with contrast to make sure they didn't close off the wrong end...

surgery

Melissa had her surgery today. It was a long wait. Surgery was suppose to be at 2:30 but two cases ran long and they got behind. She didn't go into surgery until about 6:00. Everything went well. The surgeon was out to talk to us in only about a half hour. They stitched the back side of the stoma closed. He did say that she will probably need major surgery when they get rid of the bag, such as going in and cleaning out her insides(the abscesses). Hopefully she will get to come home tomorrow.

Surgery scheduled

Melissa's surgery is scheduled for Sept 20 at 2:00 pm. They are going to staple the distal side of her stoma closed. This is the least invasive surgery they could do. She will need to be at the hospital earlier because the interventional radiologist is also going to do a drain check earlier that day. It will be a long day.

She is feeling pretty good. She sees the infectious disease people next week. they are the ones prescribing antibiotics.

Amanda has spent a lot of time helping her since she is not suppose to do heavy lifting and it hurts to do much bending. That will come to an end when Amanda leave Sunday. Thank you Amanda.

Getting better

Melissa had a couple of bad days last week but the weekend was good. She just gets tired if she does too much. She went to see the interventioal radiologist today. He pulled one drain and put a smaller tube in the other one. He says everything is looking good. I'm sure being on IV antibiotics doesn't hurt.

He did tell Melissa that he had talked with the surgeon and he(surgeon) wants to stitch up the distal side of her stoma. Melissa will get official word of this on Wednesday when she see the surgeon. No idea at this time when it might happen.

Melissa has her appitite back and seems to eat almost constantly. She has put back on a couple of pounds.

Coming Home

Melissa is coming home today. She will come home on IV antibiotics but will be able to do them herself since she has a hohn line in her neck shoulder area.

The report came back on the sore by the stoma, it is just a sore that can't heal because the scab keeps getting torn off when she changes her bag. She had biopsies done yesterday which made for a long day. She was taken down at 9:30 and didn't get back into the room until almost 3:00. She was also given 2 units of blood last night. That didn't finish until 2:00 am this morning. Hopefully she will not have any problems while she is home.

Melissa move to a regular room on Sunday night/Monday morning. She started having some problems with nausea along with the pain. They seem to finally be able to keep both under control.

She has several teams of doctors coming in to see her: General team, surgical team, GI team, Intervention radiologist, Invectious Disease team and now a dermatology team. She at times is one popular lady. She was NPO today and finally got to eat and drink after 4 pm even though they did no test. They did do a biopsy of a sore she has right by her stoma. Initial results should be back tomorrow. IV antibiotics are suppose to change to a once a day thing and the ID people are fine with her going home with that. Right now the doctors are collecting lots of info so on Monday when the colon-rectal people get together to discuss their difficult patients, Melissa will be one of those discussed.

She thanks you for your prayers.

After 22 hours in the ER they finally got me up to the admit holding area until they can get me in a real room. I am still having a lot of pain and I spiked a temp of 103 last night and no one really knows why. There really isn't much of a plan yet but things are starting to get rolling. I have 4 or 5 teams of doctors on my case now so it is a constant stream as one rounds by themselves then come back later with the rest of the team. Currently I am on two IV antibiotics as well as some fluids. Tomorrow I am getting a Hohn line put in (basically a PICC but in the chest). My new surgeon is also suppose to be sitting down with my interventional radiologist to look at all the scans and pictures they have taken since the beginning. They are thinking I am probably going to have to have surgery but not till next week. Dr. Safar (the surgeon) is adding me to they Monday morning meeting where all the colon rectal people get together and discuss their complicated cases so he doesn't want to do anything till after that in case someone has a better idea. He said until then they will do a bunch of studies/test so I'm ready to go when they do decide what to do. Since they are putting in the hohn I can go home when everything is stabilized so probably in a couple of days.

As I write this Melissa is on her way to the ER. Friday she went to see the same doctor that she had seen last. They found a new abscess (it is not related to the other one that they know of)and inserted a drain. They said the other one is shrinking. She was in some pain, although manageable, after it was done but came home. Tonight after supper, she started running a fever of 100.4 and was in severe pain. Drew called the doctor on call and he even knew her case. He thinks that they might admit her and start her on antibiotics.

Troubles again

Melissa is having problems with the plug. Last week she had an x-ray done and her abscess is active again. They think that the plug may have been put in only to the abscess thinking that was the bowel. The interventional radiologist told her that her x-ray was one of the hardest to understand he had seen. She is going back to have a CT scan with contrast done on Friday. He is also talking to the surgeon to try to figure out what should be done next. She will have a period of time she feels well and then will start feeling bad. That is when the abscess is filling up and starting to cause problems. Then it will drain and she will feel better. They have put a drain in the abscess so that is helping some, I think.

The Plug is in

I went to STL on Wednesday and had the plug put in. They used so much sedation that I didn't feel anything and I didn't hurt much after either. I have also been having problems with a blister like thing next to my stoma. I've had it before but it was cased by stitches that didn't disolve like they should. On the way to stl I called my doc's nurse and left a message for them then called again and left a message with the person that answers the main line. Drew then called again while I was getting the plug placed and got to talk to her and she knew nothing about any of the other calls. She did get me in to see another surgain if we could get there by 3:30. They way it worked out was they woke me up fast, got me in a chair, handed me some juice and pushed me out the door to make the other doc before he left for the day. Lets just say I liked him so much I think I may have a new surgan. He thought it looked like something, called a GI doc from across the hall in and she looked at it and they agreed on what it is. They want me to take oral steroids for it but they are worried it will interfer with the healing of the plug so they gave me a cream for now.

Now I am hurting a lot but nothing a pain pill can't solve. The biggest problem is I am still having some drainage but there is a plastic disk that sits on my skin and the drainage is under it so I can't clean it and it is causing irritation. He said I can expect some drainage for awhile but as it heals it should decrease. This is only the second one that he has ever done so it is hard to say exactly how long it will take but we are hopeful that it will work.

Melissa went to Barnes West County today to have a test done that shows where the drainage she is having is coming from. There are two tracks that meet up and come out one hole into the intestine. One is a straight shot and the other zig-zags. Because the glue didn't hold they are looking at using a plug which is made specifically made for each use. It takes two weeks to come in so if it happens it will probably be the first part of July.

We were only at the hospital an hour. She was having a little pain from the procedure but she did take over driving home in New Florence on to home.

Wow we are a little behind

I went and saw the doc on June 2nd and found out he thought I had already got the glue thing done. Since I had not, he sent me up to the hospital. They pulled the JP drain and the small wound drain and filled them up with glue. They also pulled my central line for me. It was pretty painful and I hurt all night and it started leaking again so I went back on the 3rd. They refilled the wound with glue but it leaked by the time I got home that night. It is still leaking but for a while I thought it was leaking less. The next step with be to insert a plug if it doesn't stop leaking on its own. The only problem is it takes two weeks for it to come in, hopefully by then we will have the switching of insurance figured out.

Incase you are wondering I had very little problems with the wedding. Yes, I was very tired by the end but felix didn't show, nothing leaked, and if you didn't know I was sickly I'm not sure you could tell. The only problems were things I forgot to pack, like my medical sissors and tape. I've also had problems in the last couple of days keeping a good seal on the bag so I've had to change it a lot. Things will get better as the wound heals and I can use more tape.

So long for now, my husband just woke up from a nap so it is time to get the day started:)

Melissa had an appointment at Barnes West County yesterday. They injected contrast in all her drain tubes to see where everything is and how things are doing. No offical word yet. BUT it sounds like there is still communication between the bowel and the abscess. If so things are healing slower than they hoped. No word on when they might do the fiber glue thing into the drain hole.

Melissa is feeling good.She just gets tired really easy. We had two back to back days of ging and she is worn out now. Today will be a day of rest. This is how she will regain her strength tough is moving and moving and moving.... She is also eating well. She just moves slowly and even slower when she gets tired.

Realized it had been a while since we have updated. Melissa has been home just over a week now. We did take her to the ER at Barnes downtown (what an experience) on Friday night. Her stoma is eating the tube that travels down it. Mostly it means that her intestines are working the way they should. Melissa called and talked to the on call doctor. She expressed enough concern that Melissa felt she should have it checked out. We left about 6 PM Friday night and got home at 6:30 AM Saturday morning. They didn't do much but take out 2-3 cc of saline and pull the tube up and then put back in the saline. The doctor gave her a syringe so she can do it herself at home.

Home health care dismissed her today since she is doing most of her own care and there is not anything they can teach her. She could probably teach some of them. She still needs to have certain levels monitored through blood test because of being on meds and having blood clots in her arm. She also has her central line in still and needs that dressing changed once a week. We will have to find out where she needs to have that done.

Melissa does tire easily but is taking some short trips out and about. She is also eating well although we think she is still losing a little weight. Her stoma is higher up so she has little intestine for digestive purposes. She will get to try on her wedding dress for the first time Tuesday. Each day she is trying to do a little more which is good since the wedding is only 4 weeks away now.

Great News

Melissa is coming home. She is apparently feeling so well that the doctors thought she needed to be home. She does have to go back next week to have a procedure done but that is no big deal.

Good News

Melissa is feeling better. Thursday they let some saline out of a tube that is down her stoma and that let the nausea go away. Today the doctor let her pull her other tube since it was not draining very much. She has been off all antibiotics since Wednesday. They also put in a new central line on Wednesday because they were worried about the one that was in becoming infected. On Monday they are going to put something called fiber glue through the drain in her surgical wound. IF it works on what they hope she will get to come home on Monday.

Apparently she is very bouncy now. She called home to find out where I had put some info and then got up and got it on her own even though Drew was there. She is also complaining about the food. All good signs.
I don't know if she will post from the hospital. There have been some difficulties with getting on the blog and facebook.

Thank you for the support and prayers. They do mean a lot.

The doctors had a test run today with contrast going through a tube in Melissa's stoma. They filled her full. Basically they found out what we already knew. She has a fistula between her intestine and the abscess. It is allowing poop to travel out through her drain and surgical incision. Because they have inserted two new tubes they are at this point blocking things off and hopefully allowing things to heal. She is still having some problems with nausea but did get to eat a liquid supper tonight. Those who know her know how much she likes that. NOT!!!

At Barnes Jewish

Melissa is now at Barnes Jewish West County. We took her yesterday afternoon. It took until late for them to get anything started but when they did they started happening quickly.

Since last night they have drawn blood three times, done a chest x-ray, and done some other things you might not want to know about. She is going to see Dr Fleshman today but last night saw one of his fellows and then another this morning. The Infectious Disease doctor has also been in.

We will try to keep the blog updated as we know something.

Thank you for your prayers. They do mean a lot to us and is what keeps us going.

Good news is Melissa is getting stronger and moving around better. I won't say the bad news is but just the news is that they took the wound vac off probably to stay and are wet dressing the top of the surgical wound and dry packing the bottom section. The top part is looking nice and is healing well. Her belly button just looks funny now. The bottom portion is not having as easy of a time. It still has a tube coming out to drain stuff but is also leaking stuff from the wall of the cavity. Melissa discovered that yesterday so the doctor hasn't seen it. Because it is dry packed when it becomes saturated then she has a mess. That happens at least three times a day if not more. She is becoming very frustrated and discouraged. Last night we we were ready to leave when she discovered that things needed to be cleaned up. Luckily we were still there to get her supplies. Melissa doctors were gone yesterday but Drew and Melissa did talk to the on call doctor about going to see some one at Barnes. They called her surgeon to give him the heads up and stranglely enough her surgeon and the doctor that she would see are both at the same conference and can talk about her case. Hopfully that will happen soon.

Melissa had problems today with her bag leaking. When she changed it then she found that it had leaked under the tape for the wound vac. Then it was decided that the wound vac was not doing its job. What was needing to be sucked up was too thick and clogging things up. She now has a bag over that wound and needs to make sure and spend more time sitting up. The doctor thinks that if she sits up more then she won't have stool flowing out through her wound.

The doctors now say that because of these problems she will not get to go home until next week.

The doctors are starting to talk about Melissa coming home by the end of the week if she does well on oral antibiotics. they switched one IV to something that has a pill form to see if she can tolerate it for a couple of day and then will try the pill form. Slow but sure. Her wound vac was changed today. Still putting out a lot of junk. They have taken her off her continuous pain meds and lengthened the time in between when she can get a dose and have put her on pills. The pain pump was not working as well so she had built a tolerance of it.

She is getting stronger and had a good Easter weekend. Her in-laws to be brought Easter dinner in. Although she couldn't eat much she still enjoyed something besides hospital food.

Her CT scan didn't show anything new. We did find out that the partially inflated lung was due to having the central line put in. A chest x-ray Sunday showed that everything is alright there.

Family and friends came to pray with her Monday night. She didn't go downstairs because she couldn't stay awake after having meds to help with the wound vac change in the afternoon. Thank you for all your prayers. There is NO WAY we could have gotten through all this if it wasn't for God's help.

I spent Thursday night with Melissa because her wound vac leaked. They were not able to get it going and so just packed the incision for the night. It could have got real messy but didn't. Friday she had a CT scan to find out where all the drainage is coming from. After that they hooked her back up to the wound vac at her request. They were willing to let her just do the packing to cut back on tape. She thinks the vac will be less messy. Also one of the central line ports failed. She does have two others so she is still ok with that. They are able to draw blood so she doesn't have to be stuck, giving her a chance for her arms to heal.

I did talk to the nurse about the CT scan. They said it showed a lung not inflating all the way which I am not surprised since she has not been moving around a lot in a couple of days. It also showed a leak which we knew she had. We will get official results today.

Meanwhile we are taking her supper from a family get together. Something different from hospital food although it is good too. They just don't vary the menu. Of course they don't expect most people to know they are repeating so much.

Family and friends are getting together Monday night at 7 PM to pray for Melissa at the hospital. If you can't join us remember us in prayer at the same time where you are. Thanks.

Melissa now has a new cental line. She quickly blew the two IV lines and then they couldn't get another one in. Even the house nurse tried and had no luck. She did not have the wound vac changed yesterday because she had no pain meds. It was changed today. Painful but not quite as bad since they let her take the tape off. They are still pleased with how well it is healing.

Melissa is having her picc line pulled tonight. Her arm has swollen and is hurting a lot. They have started two new IV lines to take the place of the line. It is not heperin she is getting in the belly,but something else to help with her not getting anymore blood clots.

A New Wrinkle

Again time has passed quickly. Saturday was a very bad day for Melissa. She had the epidural pulled. There were no pain meds in place for when it wore off. It took a while to catch up then. Dad and I stayed until midnight. She was finally falling asleep then. Sunday was a little better. She walked and sat in the chair quite a bit. Today they changed the wound vac. It is a very painful process. The doctor is pleased with how it looks. The wound care nurse says that the top part looks like it is getting small enough that it won't need the sponge much longer.

The new wrinkle is Melissa has a small blood clot in her arm around the picc line. They will increase her dosage of heperin into her belly. She never sems to do things the easy way.

Thank you for your prayers. I don't think we could get through this without God's help.

Melissa is finally back in her room. She is really tired and sleeping a lot. She had the dressing changed today and that took a lot out of her. The epidural works in some areas and not in others. It is trying to settle in her right leg. She has a lot of lines and tubes still connected although she is not continously hooked up for vitals now. She is still running a fever, feeling nauseos and her heart rate is a little high. Melissa found out today that the wound vac will stay in place for at least 3 weeks. Should make things interesting.

Melissa had surgery Monday. It was about 2 1/2 hours long. They found a tiny hole where she had surgery last time. They stitched it closed but did give her back the illiostomy. They feel that she needs to heal before putting pressure back on that part of the bowel. They will wait 6 to 9 months before they reconnect her. They also did something new during surgery. They gave her an epidural which will stay for up to 5 days. This will help the amount of pain meds she has to take. She hasn't got up to walk yet but probably will soon. They are giving her two units of blood. She is also running a high fever.

Although these things are expected they are still worrisome. Please continue to pray for healing and that the Lord guide the doctors.

This and That

Sorry about not keeping the blog up to date. Melissa is having some problems with either her computer or the Wi-Fi in the hospital. It has been hard to get on.

Her records were sent to the GI doctor at Barnes. He said that this area is not really his area of expertise but he thought she needed surgery. He did forward her records on to another GI doctor. Melissa's surgeon would like her to see another surgeon at Barnes. He is trying to make arrangements. If he agrees with him, Melissa may have surgery next week and have the illostomy bag back for a length of time.

She is not having a good week. Blood counts did come up but she is running a low grade fever. She is also in a lot of pain, part of which can be withdrawal from the pain meds. Her drain also fell out this morning. A wonderful nurse, Cheryl who we call the stoma lady helped her to fit a bag over the hole that was left so it is not so messy. Melissa knows she has been in the hospital too long when even the transport people stop and ask about how she is doing. Many of the staff have said that they are praying for her.

She did have a couple of good things happen today. A package came from a friend and she recieved an e-reader already loaded with some free books and personlized with Drew and her picture. Melissa also called the cell phone company after I talked with a friend. They gave her extra minutes to help out. We were almost out of rollover minutes and if she has surgery we will quickly go through what is left. This will help alot.

Day 50 In the Hospital this year.

It was a busy day for Melissa. She went to CT and they tried to put a drain in but it was to small for one. They did get some air out and just enough fluid to culture. The doctor thought it was funny that there was mostly air and Melissa told him it wasn't funny since he wasn't the one getting poked with a needle.

This afternoon she had a scope done of her j-pouch. They said it looked good, just a little red but that was normal since it was healing from surgery.

Drew called Barnes Hospital to get a doctor's name. They called back quickly and are willing to look at her records to see if they have any ideas. We hopefully will send them Monday and he can look at them Tuesday.

Please pray that the doctors can find the problem of the infection so they will know how to treat her. It also would be nice if it was simple to treat. I know it is all in God's time but I am getting very impatient.

Melissa was moved to the surgical floor today. When she went in they did not have a bed so she ended up on the cardiac floor. She is back in her home away from home.

She is in pain but has lengthened out the pain meds a little. The nausea seems to have stopped for now. She just doesn't feel like eating.

Today they did an echo cardiogram because her blood pressure was low and she had run a fever all night. They were worried that the VRE had gone to the heart but everything looks good. They told her she has a good heart. But then I could have told you that. We thought they were also going to put an another drain in today but that will happen tomorrow. They think there is an air pocket right beside her intestines which has been there all along, same shape and size, they just thought it was inside the intestines. She may also have a scope of the lower intestine done to make sure there are no problems there.

If they don't find anything they may do surgery on Monday. It sounds terrible but we pray that they find something so she doesn't have to go through another surgery. It would be a major surgery and she might get the bag back if they have to do the surgery. The doctor has already booked the operating room but says he has plenty of work to do if he doesn't have to do her surgery.

Back in Hospital

Same song, different day.

We took Melissa to the ER last night about 10PM in pain and nauseous. They kept her because the white cell count had gone up some more from Monday. They did a CT scan last night and said it looked the same as the last one that was done.

This morning the wound care nurse came in and put a mini illiostomy bag over where the drain comes out her belly. Hopefully that will help in the drainage. She is still in some pain.

Please pray that they will find the right combination of meds to work on her.

Melissa came home Monday March 21. She came home with her PICC line in. She is taking one IV antibiotic and two oral antibiotics. She also has in the wound drain that she has to keep track of what is coming out. She has finished all meds as of Saturday. She gets tired very easily but is trying to gradually increase her activity. It was a major accomplishment for her to put away a stack of t-shirts.

She went to see the surgeon today and he was pleased with how she was doing. Just a few hours later she is running a slight fever. The home health nurse comes tomorrow to check on her and to change the dressing on the PICC line. That has to be done once a week. She was definitely exhausted today. We left a 9 to get her breakfast and be at the hospital by 10:30. She didn't see the doctor until 2:00. Then we ate lunch and shopped at Wally world. She finally just had to go sit in the car and let me finish.

Continue to remember her in prayers. She still has a ways to go.

Good News....maybe

Today my white cell went down to 7, a very good thing. This morning I had a CT scan and a drain check where they shot contrast through my drain while running continuous X-rays to see where the contrast went. It was interesting to me because I could actually watch the screen and see my insides. Between the two test it showed that the pocket of fluid had collapsed but there are two holes that the contrast went through and into my intestines.

Tomorrow I am getting a surgical drain put in down in the operating room. It is set for 7:30am so they will probably come get me about 6:30. The doc thinks that the drain I have isn't always draining right. It keeps getting clogged or at least slowing down causing my white cell count to go up and me to feel awful. Then when it gets to flowing right again and I feel good for a couple of days until it clogs once again. The larger drain shouldn't clog and will be easier to take care of, he even thinks it might help me get home a little sooner. I'm just glad we are finally trying something new.

Well....

I'm back on for once. I've been having good days now, sometimes up to two in a row, but it keeps ending with pain late on the second night and on the next day. I talked to the on call Doc who has been seeing me when my doc isn't around. He said my white cell was back up to 13 so he thinks it may be possible that the drain works properly for a few days then gets a little backed up then starts working again. I may have to go in and have them replace the drain I have for a larger one.

Still in isolation

Melissa is still in isolation. (Love the yellow gown and blue gloves) She is having some good days although Wednesday night was a crash and burn. Thursday wasn't any better. She is off the TPN now and will lose the saline solution tonight if she could eat supper and keep it down after the CT today. The CT looked good and she will not have to have another drain put in. It doesn't mean she'll lose the other drain though. They are still not talking about when she can go home yet. We would really like her to not break her old record of 28 days straight in the hospital. The doctor had started her taking 2 pills and 2 IV antibiotics but today put her back on all IV antibiotics. Her spirits are pretty good. We always look around us and find someone who is worse off than us. Today a patient went home that had been in the hospital 5 months- through all the holidays. At least Melissa was at home even if she was not in tip top form.

Into isolation

Melissa has VRE and so is put into isolation. That is one way to keep her private room. Don't know what the plan is but it had been to have another CT scan done on Friday to see if things are healing. The drain is working and collecting icky brown stuff.

VRE is bacteria that is resistant to a antibiotic she has been taking.

Melissa had another CT scan done on Monday. The air pocket had gotten bigger and so they decided they could put a drain in. She has that in and it is draining fluids. They are doing a culture on the fluid to try to identify any infection. They also added three new antibiotics to what she is taking. Her white cell count had gone up after the weekend so they are hitting it with everything.

Today, Tuesday, was a day to see if things are working. She had a good morning except for being sleepy (who sleeps in a hospital). This afternoon she became nauseous again and couldn't eat lunch. She also was in some pain. She was able to finally eat some supper. When she can eat with some regularity she will be able to get rid of the IV nutrition stuff. They had hoped to do that today but that didn't happen.

They do think that Melissa has a very small leak someplace. They are hoping to collapse the abscess with the drain and by taking the meds it will seal and heal itself.

Thank you so much for your prayers. Please continue to pray for the doctors to understand what needs to be done to heal Melissa and that she will heal completely and gain her strength back.

Melissa had the CT scan done on Friday. They found two small abscesses. They can't drain them so she will be taking antibiotics to hopefully heal them. They are talking about doing another on Monday to make sure things continue to get better. One good thing is that the swelling looks better.

No idea when she may get to come home. Although she is now eating they still have her on TPN, lipids (both for nutrition) and the normal bag of fluids you usually get. No wonder she is always headed for the bathroom. She is still in some pain. It is getting better, but can hit with a vengeance.

Tonight she was having a hard time staying awake but she apparently had been awake most of the day. Hopefully things will continue to improve.

Melissa is feeling a little better. She is still in some pain. Her right lower area of her stomach region is tender to the touch. She was actually hungry tonight and got to eat real food. Drew brought her cheddar bites and a lemon slush. She also got a tray of hospital food. She ate some of each. After midnight it is back to a liquid diet so she can have a CT tomorrow. They are hoping that they can find what is going on in her gut. She will be here through the weekend at least. She is still receiving TPN(nutrition) and IV antibiotics

Melissa is still feeling pretty rough. Her temp is down now but she is having problems with severe nausea. Even food smells can set her off. She is receiving all nutrition by IV but really doesn't feel like eating or drinking. She is also still in pain although that is not as bad as it had been. They still do not know what is wrong with her.

The anti-nausea and pain meds make her sleep a lot. She would rather sleep than hurt.

On the bright side, her belly is healing nicely from the last two surgeries. Now just to get the rest of the tape residue off.

Please continue to pray that the doctors are able to find out what is wrong and can help Melissa feel better.

Melissa had a CT scan done today. Good news-No abscess. Bad news-The intestines are swollen and inflamed. Now to figure out why. She also had a picc line put in today. The doctor said she is in this for the long haul. She is feeling absolutely miserable-severe pain and nausea along with her back hurting. She is getting pain meds and anti-nausea stuff.

Back in Hospital

I though I was done but...
We took Melissa to the ER late this afternoon(Sunday) because she was having severe abdominal pain. Melissa and I both thought that she really had the flu, since I had been sick with it a couple of weeks ago and the symptoms were very similar, but she had spiked a temp of 101 so decided after talking to the doctor on call to go to the hospital just to be sure. They did blood work and a CT scan. White cell count is up and the scan showed air in the abdominal cavity. Definitely more than the flu. They couldn't be sure if the air was in the right place so they wanted to do another one tonight where she had to drink the dye. Unfortunately she was not able to keep the dye down so they are waiting until Monday morning to do the test. She is getting pain meds and anti-nausea stuff. Her surgeon is calling in the infectious disease doctor she saw a couple of years ago, her GI doctor and perhaps a couple of more to see if there is something they are missing such as perhaps her immune system is compromised so she is not healing right.

Please pray that the doctors are able to figure out what is going on with her and help her and get her on the road to recovery.

Round 7 (Unless I have miss counted)

Who knew when I first started this I would be having 7 surgeries instead of the 2 I was suppose to have. This last one has been the hardest for sure. The doctor blames the large incision and taking out more intestine. Yes, that part really hurt but I think the hardest part was the emotional part that caught up with me. I was suppose to be done with all of it and be completely healed by now, I was told that the pain I was feeling was normal, and I was afraid of taking too many pain meds. Then my world where I was recovering came crashing down and I had to go through with yet another surgery, more pain, more drugs, and the realization I had been going through pain for nothing when food passed through that part of my intestine. One thing is for sure, the doc is learning to listen to me when I say I hurt.

I have made it! I am feeling better everyday, it is getting easier to find comfortable ways to sleep and sit, and I'm eating more and more every day. My biggest problem right now is gas and keeping my attention starved cats from trying to sleep on my belly :) I'm still on an antibiotic and will be going to the doc next week to have everything checked out. Hopefully all is well because my wedding dress is in and I have a lot of stuff to get done for the wedding, not to mention a wedding to go to in March.

SHE'S HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Melissa came home late this afternoon. She is enjoying her recliner. They took out drains, pic line and staples before she came home. She is eating better and has a new outlook on life.

Thank you for your prayers. They are much appreciated.

This is my last post. I will let Melissa carry on when she feels like getting on the computer.

Melissa's Mom

Doing Much Better

Melissa is doing much better. She is weepy but I think part of it is from coming off the narcotics. She only used the pain pump 3 times yesterday and none today. She is using some souped up ibuprofen which is helping the pain levels more. She had Drew wash her hair today and is walking much quicker than she had been. She lost one drain today and is going to ask about having the other one pulled because it is hardly draining anything. It is so good to see her doing so much better.
The doctor told her that she may come home at the first of the week. She hopes his first of the week is Sunday.

Melissa is still in the hospital. They gave her some meds to wake up her bowel and that seems to be helping. Her white cell count must be a little high. They want to do another CT scan to see if the drain is in the right place. They have also given her some new pain meds because the other is not working as well. We don't know who reads this but we ask for your prayers. It is hard to see her feel so bad. Thanks for caring.

It's a Broken Record

Melissa is still hurting. Yesterday on the CT scan they found a pocket of fluid. They went in to drain it and will culture it to make sure there is no infection. They also put in a wound drain so now she has a matching pair, one on each side. She is starting to look better. She spent most of the afternoon sleeping because of the pain meds they gave her to do the procedure today. At this point we are only guessing when she will get out of the hospital.

Melissa had another CT scan done today. She is still in a lot of pain. Her bowel has not woke up yet and the doctor doesn't understand. We would like to hear her farting and would rejoice over that since that is the first sign it is waking up. We should get results tomorrow.

Rough Day

Melissa received two units of blood on Friday and didn't move around much because of being so tired. Saturday was a rough day. No one could please her. Her back hurt and she could not get comfortable in the bed. She can only sit so long in a chair although they finally were able to find her a reclining chair. They had been at a premium because of the snow storm because they sleep better than any other chair in the place. Hopefully things will get better. Her blood counts are up and white cell count down in the normal range. She is walking and gradually lengthening the distance. She really is a trooper. Two surgeries in three weeks will get any one down. Please keep remembering her in your prayers. We do know that they help.

Another Pic Line

Melissa is having a pic line put in as I type this. She needs to get blood and they were not able to get a new IV line started. She is very sleepy and falls asleep even getting a drink. The doctor also said she is stoned so they have dropped her pain meds to only on demand, where before she was getting a continual dose plus the on demand doses before. The doctor is pleased with her progress but when I said she had turned the corner he says she just has the corner in site.

Melissa walked 4 times yesterday. She is having some problems with fever but they think that will get better. All labs are getting better. On paper she looks real good. She got to take the bandages off her incision. She has 22 staples so really had major surgery. There is a lot of pain still especially when she is up and moving. Her bowels still haven't woke up from surgery. They say that takes 4-5 days and she is only at day 2 after surgery. At least the bag didn't come back for a visit.

Melissa is up and walking. She has already been up twice and is ready again. All in one shift. She is hoping that will help with some of the pain. The nurse told her that she is making her job easier because she is willing to walk. She is still in a lot of pain but is not using the pain pump as much. Her sense of humor is starting to come back. She is still not interested in eating but has started enjoying her apple juice.

Melissa is in a lot of pain. She has a pain pump for the first time. They haven't gotten her up yet, probably tomorrow. She will be here about five days. Maybe we will be able to get home safely by then. She really hasn't gotten but a glimpse of the snow since about ten this morning.

Surgery

Melissa had surgery today. They removed about 6-8 more inches of her intestines because they were gnarly, irritate and stiff. The surgeon thought that perhaps this section had been damaged during the original surgery and had had a blood clot on it. They also drained the ovarion cyst. She will be in the step down unit tonight. Drew and I haven't seen her yet.

Back in the Hospital

Melissa is back in the hospital. She finished the antibiotic on Friday. By Sunday afternoon she was having pain which by this morning was pretty intense. She had blood work and a CT scan done. It showed that there is still infection there. She will get IV antibiotics tonight. Tomorrow they will possibly go in and see if there is a leak where she was stitched up. At least she came in ahead of the weather. The surgeon is even spending the night since he is on call.

Pain pain go a way...

The CT went okay but I had to drink the contrast :( If I didn't like red kool aid before I really don't like it now.

Turns out that I have a huge cyst on my left ovary. I also have some inflammation where they closed my illiostomy so the digestive track is a little small there. I'm on an antibiotic now so that should take care of the problem. I'm not sure what will happen with the cyst. I've been getting them off and on, sometimes they are more painful then other times.

And now I want to cry

I've been in a lot of pain the last few days. It comes and goes in intensity but it is always there. I keep telling myself that I have been out of surgery for less then two weeks, it is suppose to hurt.

Today I went to see the doc. He took out my stitch and said the incision looked good. He thought my pain is normal and something I was just going to have to tough out but decided to send me over to the hospital to have my white cell count checked just to be on the safe side. Unfortunately he was wrong, the cell count came back high meaning I have an infection somewhere. I have to go early tomorrow morning for a CT then if the abscess is back they will drain it. I have a feeling it is so I will probably spend the weekend back at Boone. I'll make sure and take my computer just in case so we can keep this thing updated.

In case you didn't know it, I am home and have been since Thursday. I haven't been able to get online until now.

Things are getting better and I am having to go to the bathroom less but I am still having a lot of pain. I think it is mostly caused by gas. I will be going to see my doc Friday and he will take the stitch out then.

I intend to make my first trip to Wal-Mart tomorrow so we will see how that goes. Keep praying for me, it is going to take a while to get back up to par. Sometimes it is frustrating but with God's help I will make it.

I had a lot of pain last night. It seems like about two hours after I eat I have severe pain. The doc said it was normal to have cramps when stuff starts hitting that J pouch for the first time and that it will get better. He thinks I will do much better today but wants to keep me another night. I'm really not surprised.

Today started out on a clear liquid diet but quickly got better when I found out that the doc said I could advance my diet so I got pudding!! For lunch I got soup then they brought me another try and I think I ate too much. I ended up in a lot of pain and feeling like I was going to trow up. I ended up feeling better a little later so I was able to eat dinner but I tried to take it a little slower this time around.

The doc was very happy with my progress, I've never seen anyone so happy about me passing gas. I'm still in pain but it is mostly when I am moving around so it is manageable. The doc thinks I will be ready to go home tomorrow but knowing me I will need one more day, we'll see.

Felix is gone!

I'm out of surgery and still groggy. The good thing is that I'm not in a lot of pain. I should be able to eat a little bit tomorrow, but for now I'm on a clear liquid diet.

And then things got better

The CT from yesterday came out perfect and I will be having my surgery on Monday the 10th. I'm so excited!!!!!

The good, the bad, and the painful

About a month ago I ended up getting an infection beside my stoma. I saw the stoma nurse and she gave me some cream for it and by the time I saw the doc the next week things had cleared out enough that he found a left over stitch and pulled it out. Things had cleared up so I stopped using the cream. Then last week I noticed not only was that place back but I also had a place coming up on the other side of the stoma. I started using the cream but things weren't getting better. I changed my bag Sunday night then Monday morning I woke up to it leaking so I changed it again. I knew I needed to either call the stoma nurse or the doc but I was waiting for the mail to come because I had used my last bag and my supplies were suppose to be in that day. While I was talking to mom and telling her what was going on it started to leak yet again. I called the nurse, took off my bag, put a towel over it, and made a flying trip to Columbia. My doc ended up seeing me and dug around thinking there was another stitch causing this infection as well. He found nothing but it hurt...a lot. He isn't sure what is going on but said the one sure fire way to fix it is to remove my stoma. Sounds bad right...nope, it is the best news all day. To remove my stoma means getting my reconnection surgery. I jokingly said I would do the surgery tomorrow (Tuesday) if I could. He said he couldn't get me in that day but maybe Thursday then he winked at me as he walked out the door. I had the required CT done while I was there and now I have to wait and see what the results are. I am praying that everything comes back clean and I can get this over with. Unfortunately the rest of my day wasn't so good. The stoma nurse helped me get the bag on before the CT but it didn't get a very good seal because I had to change it later at Drew's house. Then I hand to change it again when I got home and then again later. In a 24 hour period I had to change it 6 times. Every time I take it off I feel like I am ripping another layer of skin off and the adhesive remover I use burns. It is bad enough that the next time I change it it will probably bleed. I feel like it almost had to get this bad so that I can go ahead and get my surgery. I will live, I will heal, and this way I will have more time to rest up before I get really busy with wedding stuff.

Stay tuned, I will post my results from the CT when I know them.