Re: Steve's Baaaaack!

[Guest guest]

At 11:50 AM -0400 5/7/01, kathysyear2001@... wrote:

....

Well first I am glad to hear you are home Steve, and doing fairly

well.

Thanks, Kathy. I only regret that you were not there a day

ahead of me as originally planned.

I prayed for you

throughout the week and was anxious to hear about your

surgery.

Lots of positive energy must have been coming my way. 3-1/2

hours, WOW!

In some ways I am

glad to hear that not everyone has it a little rough, b/c

if I do I don't want to sound like a baby. LOL

Believe me, it was ROUGH. Nobody seems to talk about how

rough it was, maybe so as not to scare others off. One gets over

it, but it is really bad. Audra had a tough time of it, too,

though perhaps not all the same problems as I had and others that I

did not.

Wow that potassium

thing sounds awful.

One of the worst pains I have ever had. On a scale of 1-10,

it was a 14.

Did Dr. E do your

leak test? I was a little confused about that from the

email from Virginia.

Virginia did not really understand all the nuances.

Apparently, Dr. E. did leak tests during the 3-1/2 hours of the

surgery itself. My guess is that if all went well inside and

there was no real stretching of the ileal limb to get to the stomach,

etc., and if the leak test he did on the OR sufficed, then it was

probably safe to forego the next-day test in Radiology. Also, he

had heard from me how I was dreading the ordeal and how I had planned

to take Virginia along to intercede for me with the radiologist rather

than risk belting the guy if things got rough.

How are you

tolerating the pain now that you are home?

Piece of cake. No pain meds needed. Any pain id a

dull ache when I first stand up or when I cough, which is frequently,

because I seem to have caught a head cold in the hospital.

How are the liquids

going down?

OK, but I can teka only a litle at a time and have not been

ingesting sufficient water. Barely a liter/day, when 2

liters/day are needed.

How is your wife

holding up through it all?

She's a rock. I can't say enough about how well she had

taken care of me and catered to my every whim. She just went out

and got gourmet chicken noodle soup and put it through the blender to

make a delicious porridge for me--first real food since the

operation. That plus my first shower today, and I feel like a

new person. Yesterday I walked around our cul de sac, and will

do it again today. And, Isabelle is there rooting and supporting

every move.

Take care of yourself and don't push it a bit ok?

OK. Let's hope you can make it for June 7th.

--Steve (still 2 lbs HEAVIER than when I went in and feeling like

Willie the Whale)

Kathy

June 7

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