I got an early call this morning from Shawn. He is at the beach with Courtney. He called to check on me like normal but he tried a couple of times before he was able to reach me (I was napping and the phone was on silent). I called him back and asked if I was ok or if there was any news from the doctor. I asked him if everything was alright and he told me he had a bad dream so he wanted to hear my voice. He told me he loved me and I told him not to worry and to enjoy the beach.
Do I have to stay in LGH until you have to go ti Pittsburgh? No. Once they get me stabilized here at LGH I will be able to go home.
What is the "diagnosis"? I have a bowel obstruction in the area of my stoma (where my intestine is protruding out to empty in my ostomy bag). The intestine appears to have adhesions located on the outer wall which is potentially squeezing it so that it is partially closed off. There's also a chance that it is just trying to expand in size naturally but it is telescoping on itself.
What would the surgery fix? They will do laparoscopic surgery if at all possible but we won't know that for sure until the doctor starts operating. He will scrape the scar tissue (adhesions) out and if necessary he will re-section my bowel (cut out the kinked portion and re-attach what's left)
Will this affect me being officially listed on the transplant list? While the doctor is performing surgery he is going to take the liver sample he was going to do in August. They can use that biopsy to compare to March and hope that it will give us enough data to petition the insurance company to officially approve the transplant.
How extensive is the surgery? The surgery will be a few hours long. I will be hospitalized for 7-10 days depending on my progress. After being hospitalized I will have to stay close to the hospital for a week so that they can monitor me on an outpatient basis.
If you have any other questions about it, don't be afraid to ask. I will be more than happy to answer them.
Besides that, I had surprise visitors over lunch. Amber stopped with the twins on her lunch break. Colin was here already and he was hungry so we all went to the cafeteria and they ate. They hung out with me for about an hour and then left so she could go back to work. Colin headed home early this evening because he needed to mow and do laundry. About an hour after Colin left Greg stopped in to see me. We chatted for a little bit about my health, Colin, Greg and Greg's family. It was nice to have a new face to break up the monotony. Mom stopped in after work and brought me new pjs, a sign that says "You are my sunshine", a plastic shower caddy to put all my crap in and candle. She left around 7:00 to get some work done at home.
While mom was here the pain management doctor stopped in to talk to me. He gave me a pain pump to try to keep the medicine in my system. I have had the pump hooked up for about two hours now. It seems to be working a little. My in site is really irritated now too so the iv team has to come to my room to take a look at it which usually it means I need a new peripheral iv site. Yay! More needles!
I'm exhausted again so I'm going to call it quits for the night. Have a good night! Send lots of prayers!
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