Joy Is Back On-line!

[Guest guest]

Since Joe has been very sedated for the last three days, I have

finally gotten a chance to somewhat catch up on my rest (after being

up most of the night on both Wednesday and Thursday evenings). Joe

had a third surgery early Friday morning to remove infected tissue in

his abdomen. This tissue was probably infected as a result of the

leak in his stomach and his body just walled off a pocket of infected

tissue and the J-P drain couldn't drain the area. After they cleaned

out the area, they put Joe on a respirator because they were worried

that he might develop pneumonia. He wasn't breathing deeply right

before the surgery, mainly because it was painful to do it. They

have been giving him medicine to make him sleep all the time, since

being on a respirator is uncomfortable when one is conscious and

could be breathing on one's own. He can be awakened, and he can

follow directions and help the nursing staff turn him, but he goes

back to sleep immediately once they are finished working with him.

He does recognize me when he is waked up, but I don't like to keep

him awake, since he would be very uncomfortable if he stayed awake.

I called the nurses' station this morning and spoke with his nurse

about his condition, and Dr. Devoney(sp?) called me back. He said

that Joe's infection hasn't been cleared up from the surgery he had

on Friday morning, and he wanted to take him to the O.R. today and

cut out some more infected tissue today. I asked him how all these

surgeries were affecting his heart, and he said that Joe's heart was

holding up very well. He said that leaving the infection in there

would be much more risky as far as his heart was concerned. I asked

the Dr. if it would matter to Joe at all whether I was there with him

just before his surgery, and he didn't think so, since Joe wouldn't

even remember this period at all. From what I have been told, when

he wakes up from his lengthy sedation, it will be to him as if he was

waking up from the third surgery, since his going to that surgery

would be the last thing that happened to him before they sedated

him. The Dr. has instructions to call me at the hotel room and let

me know how the surgery went.

Anyway, I finally had the opportunity to set up my computer in the

hotel room and see if I could find a local phone connection for our

primary ISP here in the Portland area. We were connecting on

CompuServe on Joe's computer, but I don't have it installed on my

computer and don't really know how to get it set up. So I logged on

using our San ev1 access number and searched ev1 for a local

phone access. I was in luck! There is one in Portland. Since this

ISP is a Houston, Texas based company, I was really surprised and

pleased to find a local access number for Portland.

I haven't yet had an opportunity to read all the back messages for

Joe and me, but I have read many of them in the book that Rabecca has

put together for Joe and me. (Thank you so much, Rabecca!) And,

thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers for Joe and me over

the past couple of weeks! I went out and rented a wide-body

wheelchair for a month for myself yesterday, and tried it out at the

hospital last night. It worked wonderfully, and I think that it will

help me a lot with my joint pain.

I may not have lots of time to respond to everyone's posts, but I

will read as many as I can and also try to keep you-all informed on

Joe's progress! Again, I really appreciate all of your encouraging

posts and your thoughts and prayers for Joe.

Joy (Joe's Other Half!)

Pre-Op Age: 48 BMI: 48

Dr. Welker

Date to be determined--

(Waiting for insurance submission/approval & for Joe's recovery)

http://www.duodenalswitch.com/Patients/Joy/joy.html