Tag Archives: colon

The stolen colon, that is.

A groggy, sleepy day

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Hey guys, I just wanted to check in real quick. It has been a rather long 30 or so hours, here. Surgery seemed to go well yesterday. They were able to do everything laparoscopically and didn’t have to make any extra incisions. I remember waking up about 8:00 last night, once I was set up in my private room! That’s a little unusual for me, since I usually remember waking up in recovery, but I don’t remember any of that.

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How I spent most of today.

After getting all settled in last night, I actually got a decent night’s sleep. Of course I was woken up about 3 or 4 times, but still, it was one of the more restful nights I’ve had in the hospital. Today I’ve been pretty groggy. I think I went a little too far with the morphine pump! But seriously, I’ve spent most of the day sleeping and resting. My poor husband just sat here all day while I slept and didn’t do much else. I haven’t gotten much down today, so I’m gonna spring for some chicken noodle soup tonight and hopefully that’ll go down right.

I’ve had a decent amount of pain today, but it has been manageable. Jarrod did help me get up a couple of times and take a few steps around. I think by tomorrow morning I’ll be a little better suited to move around. As you can probably tell by this post, I’m still pretty out of it today, so hopefully I’ll be able to give you more of an update tomorrow. Thank you all for your encouragement.

Ode to a rectum

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Today I say farewell
To a part of me that hasn’t felt so swell.
I had hoped we could “live and let live”
But it seems that’s more than it could give.
For months it continued to hurt and bleed
So it’s time to go our separate ways, indeed.
I pray this will put it all to rest
So I can go on feeling my best.
‘Though I’d prefer to avoid the knife
I know this is the sure way to go on with my life.
Right now I’m nervous, even a little scared,
But I’ve got my hope in God, so I am well prepared.
Right now my feelings are all over the spectrum
Thus I write this final ode to a rectum.

Surgery day

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I’m feeling pretty good this morning. I do have a few knots in my stomach, but anytime you know you’re going to have surgery, no matter how major or insignificant, it’s a little nerve-racking. Plus, I’m hungry and am not allowed to eat anything this morning and can only have clear liquids for another hour. (I may have snuck some cream in my coffee this morning, but shh… don’t tell anyone!)

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Ready for surgery #2

Jarrod and I will be heading over to the hospital in a couple of hours. We are supposed to arrive at 11 a.m. to get ready and the actual surgery is scheduled for 1 p.m. Even though this isn’t quite as big of a surgery as my original one, I’m thinking this one is still going to last about the same amount of time, which was 4 hours.

The big “What Ifs” today are going to be if he can do this without an extra incision. He may be able to take care of everything without one and I’m really hoping for that because it’ll just make the recovery a lot easier. But that’s one of those things that he’ll never know until he gets in there and sees what he can do.

Another “What If” is the rooming situation. Of all of my trips to the hospital, I have never once been on the GI floor at UNC. I would love the opportunity to be there, simply because the nurses are much more familiar with your situation. I had some nurses after my last surgery that didn’t seem to know what to do with me. Also, I’m praying hard for a private room! It was pretty rough last time with my rooming situation, but I suppose at the same time, it really pushed me to want to get discharged even faster!

I also just want to send out a big “Thank You” to all of you out there. You have been so supportive the past days and weeks and it makes everything that much easier to face, knowing that I’ve got such a strong support behind me. I know several of you have asked to be kept updated, so I’m going to have my husband updating on my Facebook page, so you can follow along there. And I will look forward to seeing you all on the other side!

Summer break

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Today is my last day of work for a while. I feel like I’m leaving permanently, but it’s really only for a few weeks while I’m recovering my next week’s surgery. My co-workers were sweet enough to bring me a “Good Luck” cake and flowers. (We look for any excuse to bring in cake or dessert around here.)good luck cake flowers coworkers job friends stephanie hughes stolen colon crohns ostomy blog

I’ll be heading up to Virginia tomorrow and back on Sunday, just in time for surgery on Monday. Then I’m going to have a few weeks of not doing a whole lot. I hope I can get home by next weekend from the hospital and start the recovery process back in my own house.

While I never look forward to surgery, I have to say, I’m kind of excited about having some break time. Especially since I have once again overbooked myself recently, I think that some time off will do me good. And having that time off during the summer is just an added bonus.

And last night, my mom and I worked hard to put together 5 freeze-ahead meals in less than 4 hours! So Jarrod and I should have some easy dinner options that we can just stick in the oven and not have to worry about putting anything together.

I’m not quite sure what to expect coming out of this surgery. I’m actually a little concerned about the recovery and that it might be worse than my last one. Going into my first surgery, I was feeling so bad that I immediately was feeling better afterwards, even as I was recovering. But this time, I’m already feeling good, so I do worry that I’m really going to feel the recovery more this time.

But still, I’m just going to be glad to have this over with and behind me and be able to look forward to never having surgery again!

The plus side of not having a colon

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I am still 25 days away from my surgery, but I am already set to go for it. I mentioned the other day that I went to see my surgeon to have had my pre-op appointment. I had the appointment on Tuesday since it was the last weekday I will have off from work before the surgery. It was interesting being back at UNC Hospital on the one-year anniversary of my original surgery. I was already being sentimental that day and it just brought back even more memories.

The point of this appointment is just to go over the paperwork necessary for the surgery,unc hospital health care chapel hill surgery memorial stephanie hughes stolen colon crohn's ostomy blog to make sure that the patient has a full understanding of the procedure and to go over what the patient needs to do in the days leading up to the surgery and on the day you actually go in for it. I pretty much knew everything already, since I spoke to my surgeon about in back in March when I went in for the pain issues I was having around my stoma. I was already thinking about it at that point, but it was once my eye issue sprung up that I made to decision to go ahead and book the surgery.

I’ve been well aware of what this surgery consists of for a while. I knew right after my first surgery that it was something I was going to have to have done at some point; I also have a friend who went through the same surgery just about 6 months ago, so thankfully I had someone to talk to about what to expect. It was also nice to go through all of those details with the surgeon, as well.

The recovery is about the same as my last: approximately 5-7 days in the hospital, but probably only 4 weeks total to be back to normal. I did find out one new thing about the recovery this week. The reason they keep you for that long in the hospital is to make sure that my ostomy will start outputting again, even though they won’t actually be doing anything with that part of my body. I asked why and they told me it’s just from the trauma of surgery and also from the anesthesia that it’ll shut down for a bit, which sadly means that I’ll probably be stuck drinking chicken broth again (and honestly, “broth” is much too good of a word for it.)

I’m having this surgery 2 days after my half-marathon and just one day after making the trip home from the race. I’m so thankful to not have any real prep that I have to do for this surgery. The plus side of not having a colon is no more bowel cleansing! I should actually get a call that Friday, once I’m already in Virginia, to find out what time on Monday my surgery will be. I’m hoping for early so I can have it done with and start moving on.