Recovery Update

Well, Nate came home from the hospital last Sunday. And today I'm writing this from his new hospital room, across the hall from the old one.

On the 14th he had surgery to fix the crazy little end-of-small-intestine-to-end-of-colon connection. While they were at it, they found that where the small intestine normally hooks to the colon, it was so inflamed that it was basically blocked off. So they took out about 4 inches of small intestine and 4 of colon and connected the healthy stuff together. And as a bonus, the part of the intestine that they removed included his appendix. So that's a possible crisis averted. He ended up with an impressive scar (I'd guess about 5 inches) and a jp drain to show for it.

We came home the following Monday (the 19th) and sweated/cried/rejoiced our way through a tough week of progress. About Tuesday or Wednesday the drainage started looking weird (think mud), so we called the doc who asked us several questions and determined it was fine. Then things got bad on Thursday. Blame it on the hard-earned cheeseburger and onion rings he finally got or not. He started getting pretty nauseous, and then he started to look pregnant, or in his words, like an Ethiopian. That's right, bloating. And there was a lot of pain. And the drain did not smell pleasant. So he started throwing up and we started freaking out. Our kind bishop and one of his counselors came over and found us pajama-clad and hysterical (okay, so maybe I was the only hysterical one). They gave us blessings and told us to call them any time. I called the doctor again, and he said to schedule an appointment for the next day in the morning.

So Nate threw up all night and didn't sleep a wink and we headed back to the ER this morning. Nate had a fever above 102 and was just writhing in pain.

After several tests, he went in for surgery #2 this afternoon. Apparently because of the Crohn's and the steroids he's taking to control it (which weaken the immune system), the new connection between the small intestine and colon hadn't healed properly and had sprung a leak and there was an abcess. So they went in and hopefully got it fixed. I'll spare you the gorey details. There's a lot of inflammation from the Crohn's too. The doctor says we're looking at about another week in the hospital for recovery, and then another difficult surgery in sixish months to put things back together again.

I am relieved that the pain Nate will be in when he gets out of the recovery room will be manageable pain that we've made it through before. That stuff today was scary. Morphine didn't even cut it.

We're weary for sure, but surrounded by people who care for us and would do anything to help. We feel so blessed to have wonderful family and friends and faith that are carrying us through this tough time.