Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Not for the sensitive stomach

We have met with the surgeons and ET nurses so far and are waiting to get in to see the GI and Intestinal rehab people any minute now. It was a very eventful morning...Alex had a granuloma on the side of his stoma that they "excised" right there in the little appointment room. We thought it was just part of his stoma, but it turns out that it was extra tissue that was doubling the size of the stoma (or what we thought was the stoma). The granuloma was harmless tissue that just built up as things healed, but was not supposed to be there. So, they removed it! Just like that. Numb him up and snip it off! I, of course, watched the whole thing...fascinating. A few minutes, lots of blood, and some silver nitrate later and he was all fixed up. The ET nurses said this is fairly common and often gets mistaken for part of the stoma (even by other nurses), so it was good that we were here for follow up for them to catch it.

We will find out more about what medicines Alex will be on at this next appointment with Dr. Shen. Then intestinal rehab will hopefully let us know the results of a series of nutritional blood tests they ran on the day Alex discharged from the hospital.

No comments: