Healing Rain

It's another rainy day in Cleveland, OH. People are beginning to get nervous that weekend firework shows aren't going to play out as planned.


Alex had a good night last night after he got settled into his room. The doctor came in a few minutes ago and said he looked much better than he expected for what they put him through yesterday. The composite closure (closing the area with his own tissue in place of the mesh) takes a lot of abdominal manipulation during surgery. His left side is hurting a bit more b/c they had to do a lot more releases on that side. They are making some changes in his pain medications to try to make him more comfortable. He has about 3 ft. of colon left and we will start looking at reattaching after the baby arrives. His Chron's is considered a little more severe than they thought previously b/c of the presence in the small bowel (that was a bit of a surprise). However, the strictures were isolated to about a 8in-1ft. section and all strictures were resolved without having to remove them.

Right now we are waiting on the enterostomal nurse to come and fix him up with an abdominal binder so he can venture out of bed and to the doorway. Then we will venture to the hall and so on and so on. Hopefully we'll be able to make a loop around the nurse's desk by the end of the day. He is not very excited about these excursions and I am always trying to find the balance of nagging ball-and-chain/walking drill sargent/spirometer nazi and understanding wife considering the amount of pain he's experiencing. It will make him heal so much faster and be safer for his lungs, heart, etc if he is as active as possible as early as possible. TPN will start again tonight and run for 24 hours, then cycled back to 12 the next day.

Prayers of praise: Dr. said the "angry" area of colon was much worse than anticipated, but after calling in his senior partner for help, they were able to clean the area up and hand sew things back to very healthy rectal tissue with lots of success; no nausea yet; no loss of small bowel; loop ileostomies that will be easy to close when it comes time; successful removal of all foreign material (mesh and clips) and closure with his own tissue with minimal tension; GI sounds already!; loving and supporting family and friends.

Prayer requests: Nausea to continue to stay far, far away; pain management; tolerating any upcoming diet increases to lead to eventual d/c of TPN; oxygen levels to improve so he can get off oxygen; minimal pain and maximal strength for walking; healing, healing and more healing of composite closure and incision.