Kandy Bleil Reporting In

[Guest guest]

Hi, Everyone,

I flew home to Missouri yesterday (Tuesday 8/1) and am soooooo glad to be here.

I got to sleep on my

own bed - and boy, did I!

I appreciate everyone's prayers and concerns. I'll write later with a full

account of my experience -

but to summarize . . .

I feel good, but fatigue very quickly.

I still have a leak. Dr. Rutlegde assures me (as did everyone else I asked on

the matter) that it

will heal itself in time. I have a drain which is inside at the leak site. I

can perform an informal

grape juice leak test (think about it) occassionally to see how things are

going.

I have a feeding tube through which I receive high-calorie supplements - how's

that for irony - but it

is providing the nutrition my body needs to help it heal itself.

NG tubes are not fun - avoid one if you can. Be thankful it isn't a given with

Dr. Rutledge's surgery

- because it is with many other WL surgeons.

The nurses in the pediatric ward are the very best! My experience in the

general surgery area after

my original surgery was well . . . not as positive. Sweet talk whoever you need

to, to have them send

you to peds after your surgery!

A leak is a serious complication, but if you become one of the unlucky 1% of Dr.

R's patients who end

up with one, don't panic! He's had one more patient to experiement upon in this

condition and I think

he managed my care just about perfectly.

If you want to respond to this email, please email both to the list and to me

privately (something

about 600 emails to sort through). I'll try to post the whole saga for anyone

who cares to read it in

a day or two.

Oh yeah . . .

MGB 7/12/00

368/346 - down 22 pounds (water and muscle - NO DOUBT!)

Glad to have had such a good experience in Durham

And Glad to be HOME! :-)

Kandy in Missouri