Deb's Diary

This is Alden for the report after surgery.  The surgery is complete, and it could have gone better.  I am going to give the facts that I have, and try to be somewhat detailed for the people reading this that like to know exactly what is going on.  The overall news is that she has had multiple complications, and recovery time will be much longer than we had hoped for after the initial surgery.  It's hard to get doctors to put numbers out there, but one doctor mentioned it will be no less than 10 more days in the hospital.

The infection and problems were caused by a hole in the colon.  Based on the fever starting Saturday we guess that it has been leaking its contents into her abdomen since then.  The doctors reported that it was quite a rough situation in there, and they were very surprised Mom was not complaining more than she did was about her levels of pain.  There are multiple complications that can arise from the bacteria  in her abdomen, so pray that the complications are minimal.  The surgeon had to remove 2 ft of her colon because of the stool material in her abdomen. That 2 ft was in the area of the highest amount of visible foreign material.  Right now they have not reattached those sections. The nurse said it was probably clamped, but she has no more stool material in her system so that is fine.  They will hopefully be able to reattach it during the next surgery.

They worked hard to clean her up as much as possible, and will have to go back in to check on things, and potentially clean more, in 2 days.  Since they are going to go back in on Tuesday, they choose to use a "vacuum seal" to close her incision, instead of the typical sutures that would be used. 
Because of the way they have the incision closed, and because of the colon being clamped, or unattached, Mom is sedated and on a breathing tube.  She will be so until the next surgery/surgeries are complete, or potentially for a few days following the surgery planned for Tuesday.

Surgeons removed the port they planned to use to administer Chemo to her abdomen, to protect again further infection, and installed another port to administer fluids to her over the coming days. 

Only immediate family is to visit her until she is conscious again, and ready for visitors.  Unfortunately we have no idea when this will be, but I know someone will definitely post on this blog when she is ready for some friends and family to come help encourage her through this.  Doctors said her number one threat is still the cancer, and that this whole setback is unfortunate, but we will overcome it.  We know that Deb is a tough women, and she will handle her current set back as good as anyone in the world could do.

We still have no reports from the pathology lab about the spots and tumor removed during Thursdays surgery.    Hopefully that will come Thurs or Fri.

We have all confidence that she will continue to fight and that she is in good hands, but please continue to keep Deb in your thoughts and prayers.  We will update the blog as much as possible as we are now back in a constantly changing situation.