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Hi everybody! Got the husband home on Monday night and of course since it was sooner than I thought, I had to do all kinds of crap yesterday to "get ready" for him. He has given permission for me to talk about things in more detail so I thought some might be curious. It is a bit graphic so there is your warning.
A few months ago he had a routine first screening colonoscopy - they found a couple of polyps and got one out ok but the second was pretty flat and they only got half of it. Pathology said they were precancerous but no there yet, so we were supposed to go back in a month and do the up-the-butt procedure again to get the rest of it out. When we went back the guy sort of forgot why we were there and didn't read his own notes - just thought we were there for a general follow up, I guess. Anyway when I said weren't you going to schedule him for a second removal he seemed to be caught so off guard that he kind of freaked out and sent us to a surgeon for a second opinion. It was weird, but the surgeon turned out to be really good with her advice and the whole discussion. It was decided to have a partial colectomy - remove part of his large intestine. Pretty drastic, but as she said, if the remaining polyp material turned out to be cancerous the surgery would have to happen anyway.
Thursday we had to be at the hospital at 5:30 in the morning which entails us getting up at 3:30 - when you are on crappy insurance you don't get any extra nights in the hospital, I guess. At least we had coverage - no way we could have afforded the medical expenses we incurred this year. (OK I am not going to get sidetracked into that rant, I am so disappointed in the way this country treats its poor and even middle class and wonder WHEN we will ever begin to care about the well-being of people a little more than other country's resources, religions, or systems of government?)
Of course there were odd little mix-ups almost every step of the way - all adding to a somewhat typical man's anxiety levels. There was some kind of monthly "drill" that day that the scheduling person forgot about, so it turned out we didn't actually have to be there until 7:30, then the surgeon had trouble wrestling with his parts - the GI guy had tattooed the spot where the remaining polyp was but his written notes were bad and it wasn't where he said it was - she had to take out about half of the colon rather than the 1/3 that was planned (that all sounded - and still sounds - so drastic but apparently taking a large piece is standard, plus you can live just fine without a colon and a partial works about as good as a whole one.) Then after he was out and up in his room nobody called me and the receptionist in the family waiting lounge forgot to tell me for over an hour...(and the chairs in there SUCKED!)
Then his first shift of nurses were really bad - one would come in and tell him all this shit (while he was still really out of it) and then another one would come in right behind the first and tell him something totally different, then 20 minutes later they would actually do some totally different third thing. It was not a calming post-surgery evening.
Of course the food sucked but the first 24 hours were liquid anyway so it was kind of strange that when he started having some "function" return, they kept asking if it was liquid or "formed" - duh, you need something there to form, idiots.
Anyway, and MFM I know you will appreciate this, he referenced you several times when his gown left him "exposed" :rofl: - he never got (or wanted) his sponge bath but you know we both were thinking about you then too. His main bothersome side effect of laying around for all this time is some, er...uh...swelling - he as some big ones, if you catch my drift. Everybody said it was normal, and that he could ice them or prop them up with a towel (!) but if anybody has any advice (maybe not medical, but athletic? :rofl: ) I think he might appreciate it. He is up walking every hour or so, but no where near the 3 to 5 miles he was doing up until last Wednesday. Poor guy. No lifting anything over 10 lbs for 6 weeks, no work, no driving, no strenuous exercise but the surgeon said everything should return to pretty much normal in about 6 months.
ooo! plate of shrimp! - while I was writing this the surgeon just called with the last pathology report - he is clear! No cancer! WOOOO!!! Thanks so much for all of your good thoughts and vibes - I think they worked! :yourock: That was the last "stress" hurdle, the rest is just recovery now. He is so relieved.
:party: :woohoo::toast: :bounce: :applause: :toast: :party: :woohoo: :applause:
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