New name for the surgery

Trying to look on the bright side and be optimistic, I've invented a new name for the surgery I have to have: it's a Chutzpectomy.  You can figure out the pun.

Good news: no blockage. Bad news: Gall stones

The MRI showed that I have no bowel blockages.  Hooray!

But it also showed that I have gall stones.  Dr. Mowschenson says this is most probably the cause of the pain, and he wants to remove my gall bladder.

Yikes!  More surgery.  Big questions of whether to go through with it, when to do so, and how to schedule Hebrew classes this fall, not knowing how I'll feel or what recovery will be like.

Hopefully the surgery can be done laparoscopically, but if I have many abdominal adhesions from my complete colectomy (2003), surgery would be bigger and require longer recovery.

It's a challenge to get myself back into proper mood for big Sukkot party tomorrow.

MRI Enterography

Tomorrow I have my first MRI -- enterography, which means they'll take pictures of my guts to see whether any partial bowel blockages have built up.  If so, it would explain all the agony I've experienced in the last few weeks, almost every time I eat.  Have been on a low-fiber diet for one week; it seems to be helping (less pain), but is a bummer in the middle of harvest season and the Jewish holidays.

I had previously understood that MRIs are dangerous to people whose bodies contain metal.  My leg is still full of hardware, which has always stopped the docs from wanting to use MRI on me.  When scheduling this enterography they asked whether I had any metal in my body; of course I said Yes.  Titianium? they asked.  No, stainless steel, I answered.  Oh, that's fine.  Titanium would be fine, too.  So which is the "bad" metal?  I don't know.

I'll receive the results of the MRI enterography in a few days.  For now, feeling a bit nervous about my guts!

Jpouch Feels Much Better; So Do I

My jpouch definitely feels better having had the exploratory surgery last Wednesday.  I measure this by pain (gone!), urgency (greatly diminished), and frequency (way, way down).  In fact these were all true starting one day after the procedure.  I attribute this to the antibiotics, which I'm still taking.  I've been using the steroid suppositories twice a day for several days now, which must also be helping a lot.

Less pain means, of course, less pain.  I finally stopped taking the serious pain killers, and have even reduced the amount of Advil I need.  Less urgency means greater peace of mind, less running pell-mell through the house risking stubbed toes, upturned furniture, and the like.  And lower frequency means more sleep!

I can actually begin a project, or an email, or a conversation, or dinner, and feel confident that it won't be interrupted every 20 minutes.

And when my jpouch feels better, I feel better!

Sore Throat is the Worst, then Leg

My neck and hips were hardest struck by the drug the anaesthesiologist pumped into me (unnecessarily?). Yesterday I couldn't lift my head or my left leg.  It was really hard to get out of bed!  All day yesterday I had to use my hands to lift my left leg up onto the couch, the squatting platform, the chair, etc.

This morning I felt encouraged by waking up with much less pain in my neck and hips.  Decided to see if I could get through the day with just Advil.  Was okay for a few hours, but then the wicked sore throat came back with a vengeance. So I'm back on Dilaudid (twelve times stronger than morphine!) for now.  The irony of taking pain killers to treat side effects of anaesthesia has not escaped me.

Until today, the sore throat's been worst on the left side. I figured that was the side they jammed the hardest with the (unnecessary?) breathing tube. So I'm surprised to find the right side of my throat hurting most now. However, My Landlord the Doctor informs me that this is not uncommon. She also warned me that the sore throat could continue being this bad for another week!

This post doesn't really seem to be about my guts, does it.  Well, in other complainy news, my left leg is horribly swollen; haven't seen it this bad since the leg micro-surgery last summer. With the current hot, dry weather, my leg should be nice and unswollen today.  I fear side effects of the ciprofloxacin I'm taking for pouchitis.  Heading for my Normatec "leg pump" shortly.

Post Op Report: Jpouch pain overshadowed by anaesthesia screw-up

Well, I survived yesterday's procedure. The worst part was getting beaten up by the anaesthesiologist. At least that's what it feels like. He actually called me on the phone today to apologize! And tried to explain what happened, 'though not to my satisfaction. So, for the moment, any jpouch discomfort I might have is hugely overshadowed by pain in my throat, neck, shoulders, wrists, hips, and knees. It's rather scary, even though these symptoms will supposedly ease up within a few days.

As for my jpouch, it has pouchitis. So I'm taking antibiotics (Cipro). Dr. Mowschenson also found a lot of inflammation, which we're going to "hit hard with steroid suppositories." Starting when I receive them in the mail, within next few days. Then I report back to his office in two weeks to see if it worked. That's always the part I dread most -- the office visit and its rectal exam.

Jpouch Surgery Tomorrow

It's been many moons since I wrote here; since then I moved to Lincoln, MA, plus many other changes. Lots of stress in the last few months, taking its toll especially on my jpouch. Often too scared to eat, I've lost about ten pounds since last summer. Life in the bathroom is too long and too painful; I finally contacted Dr. Peter Mowschenson, and tomorrow he operates on me. It's "exploratory," but I'm pretty sure I know what's wrong: too much stress! Will be interesting to find out what his diagnosis is. Mowschenson is the surgeon who originally removed my entire colon back in November 2003 -- he saved my life! He's also the creator of my jpouch. I consider him the expert, will try to do whatever he recommends. But if he agrees with me and tells me the main thing is to make my life less stressful, I will need suggestions about how to do that!

Meanwhile, I have discovered that I can swim an Ironman-length swim very easily! It's 2.4 miles (that's 170 lengths of my 25-yard pool) -- first time I tried it was about two weeks ago. Coach Bill says my time (1:23:39) was "very respectable." I didn't even train for this, it was a sudden inspiration. Last week I suddenly felt inspired to do it again, and it was just as easy as the first time. And my time on the 2.4 miles was only 25 seconds longer, which barely counts.

If I could find the time to swim more often, even just the plain ol' mile I used to do, I'd probably be less stressed. But here in Lincoln I'm further away from my pool, find I'm going less often. There are pools in Concord I could join; I should probably look into it. But I like the social aspect of the Mount Auburn Club, where I've been swimming for ten years and know a lot of people. With all the other changes in my life I'm dealing with, I'm not ready to change pools.

I'm very scared about being in the hospital again, under full anaesthesia, with results yet unknown. Even though I've been through this before, and it's a lot less serious than losing my colon was, just being in that environment triggers many awful and painful memories.

I hope Dr. Mowschenson can find an easy solution so that I can resume eating enough to gain back some of the weight, feel healthy, sleep better (fewer trips to bathroom during the night), and get back to enjoying a leg that's much less painful than a year ago. (It's still not quite healed, but that's a story for another post.)