"Devine" Intervention

Just spoke with Dr. Devine....everything went great! He was able to get through the adhesions from previous surgeries fairly easily and did not see anything unexpected. He actually said from a Crohn's standpoint, he looked pretty good other than the one area in the duodenum! He did perform 4 stricturoplasties on 4 areas of small bowel that were significantly narrowed. This is where he cuts the area and stitches it back together so it is open widely for material to pass through. Dr. Devine said the surgery would have been much shorter had it not been for that part of the surgery.

Dr. Devine also said we would be taking things very slowly for the next few days. He will stay on his TPN, waiting until Sunday or Monday to try liquids for the first time. This is when he may start to get nauseated, depending on how he tolerates the liquids passing through the new anastomosis (connection). From there they will just slowly increase his diet until he is tolerating soft solids well. At this point, they will decide if he is able to stop the TPN and get enough of his nutrition orally.

Prayer requests now include LOTS of praise for a successful surgery!!! Also, quick and thorough healing, management of any pain, and (heck, let's go for it...) NO nausea. Thank you so much to all of Alex's prayer warriors out there. You are all so dear to us and essential to Alex's healing!