Surgery Scheduled for November 9, but could be sooner

My surgeon, Dr. Peter Mowschenson, was busy in the OR all day today, so he wasn't available to help me get onto the OR schedule in October -- yet.  So I took the first opening I could get through his office: 1:00 PM on Tuesday, November 9.  Seems nice and far in the future, way too early to start worrying.  But not too soon to start planning!  So I need to find help with

1. Moral support & hand-holding on November 8
2. Ride to hospital on November 9
3. Someone to hold my hand before and after surgery
4. Ride home on November 10 (we hope!)
5. Friendship and camaraderie Nov. 10-17
6. Meals, chores, errands, etc., Nov. 10-17

I don't even know what I'll be able to eat during that first week.  Maybe I can find out, and make things ahead of time to keep in the freezer.  I guess I should get started, especially since the date of surgery might get moved up much sooner.

Comforting thought

Today a friend told me that when doctors speak to their patients about upcoming surgery to remove gall bladder, it's typical for them to say they plan to do it laparoscopically but that things could change mid-procedure.  I found this extremely comforting, even though I know that in my case Dr. Mowschenson could very well run into a belly full of scar tissue.

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.