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.