Surgery

Please note: I wrote this to record my memories. It's what really happened to me, so some parts might be a little gross. :) You've been warned!

This has not been our ideal summer. I went into summer vacation knowing about my upcoming surgery. I've mentioned this before, but in case you don't know: I have Crohn's Disease. I've had it for almost 11 years. When you have an auto-immune disorder, you learn to tolerate chronic pain. In fact, you begin to think that particular pain level is the norm. Unlike some people, my life has not been severely disturbed with Crohn's. Sure, I've had to take lots of medicine over the years. At one point I was on about 21 pills, then I had 4 hour IV therapy treatments every 6 weeks there for awhile, and most recently I've had 2 monthly shots into each leg. The time had finally come to explore surgical options. My body had been on the newest, latest breaking, expensive medicines and it was no longer working. With an auto-immune disease, you are constantly fighting a battle against medicine because your body works at attacking the help that comes in. It can become quite tiresome and frustrating trying to find something that will work and then hoping that your body will continue to accept the medicine and not build up antibodies to it. I never let my Crohn's slow me down and even a few days before my scheduled surgery date, I was still trying to convince myself that I was alright and didn't need to have anything removed. That's just who I am. :)

Anyways, we met with a couple of different surgeons and settled on one in Nashville. My mom works with this doctor and he is known for being one of the best in the Nashville area. We were able to steal away to the beach for a few days as soon as school was out and really enjoyed our time away. I had to start my prep the Sunday that we were at the beach. That meant no food!!! At the beach!!! I was on a clear liquid diet for 5 days before surgery. I don't think that I will ever eat Jello or Popsicles again! On top of the liquid diet, I had to drink 1 bottle of  magnesium citrate the 3 days leading up to surgery. It was horrible! I had to go this route because my body can't tolerate the other prep that most people get - you know the gallon jug where you have to drink 8oz. every 10 minutes (or something crazy like that). I don't make it past the 2nd cup....

We made all of our arrangements for the kids and took off to Nashville the Wednesday before my surgery (Thursday). Joshua had plans to go camping with my sister-in-law, Aunt Tara (the really good cook that has an awesome cooking website - you should check her out). On the ride up we noticed that Joshua started with a dry cough again that wouldn't stop. Jason had just recently taken him to his asthma doctor and she specifically told us to call if he started coughing sooner rather than later. So we did what the doctor ordered and put in a call a few miles outside of Nashville. By the time that we had arrived at the hospital, I was on the phone with the nurses and nurse practitioner back home. The short of this story is that Joshua needed to be on a rescue medicine and his normal nebulizer medicine immediately, which was back home. We were short on time and couldn't find a medical speciality store to purchase a new breathing machine. We quickly made plans for Jason to drive back home and then come right back and for Joshua to stay with a family friend who could carefully attend to all of his medical care.

After our little detour, we settled in to try and sleep when Jason got back up in Nashville at 11:00pm. My surgery went really well. They said that as soon as they opened me up and touched the diseased area of my intestine, that it just started gushing blood and that I definitely needed to have this surgery. I am very fortunate that I did not have something major happen to me before surgery. They went in to remove 12 inches of my intestine and reconnected it with titanium staples. I was sewn up with dissolve-able stitches and steri strips. My recovery in the hospital was slow and long. I ended up with a surface level infection at my incision site. One of the resident physicians came in that morning and opened a small portion of my incision back up to let it heal properly. PAIN!!! I thought that they would just stitch me back up, but at that point they informed me that I would now have to heal from the inside out.

I had finally made a turn around when the infection started to drain out. I ate my first meal the Thursday after surgery. I had been on clear liquids from the Sunday before surgery - a total of 12 days!!! Finally on day 9 I was discharged from the hospital. After being stuck about 27 times with needles, we were excited to be heading home!

The drive home was really painful and when we got home my home health care nurse was there to pack and dress my wound. Jason took a shift of my wound care and became my nighttime nurse. To this date, we are still packing and dressing my wound. It has yet to heal completely and close. I'm still about an inch deep, but am making some progress. Jason has done so much to help me through all of this. My home health care nurse still comes out to the house on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Jason changes my dressing both morning and night and he's done this since we came home on June 11th. I'm feeling really good now and am hopeful to really see how this surgery will help me out in the long run. Everyone that I've spoken with that has either personally had this surgery or knows someone that did, tells me what a world of difference the surgery made in their lives. I am really excited about that!

I received so many phone calls, visits, meals, and cards. I am so thankful for my friends that surrounded me in prayer as soon as we heard the news. I'm thankful for the laughs that were shared when I quickly texted that they were going to "remove a foot" after meeting with the surgeon. Fortunately, I am getting better each day. I'm taking the slow route, but hopefully things will be back to normal before too long.

As if we didn't have enough going on this summer, the excitement doesn't stop there! More to come...