Update on Joey

We've been busy lately. Stage 1 of his surgery is done. (Yep, he ended up needing the 2 stage surgery after all.) His surgery was scheduled for 12:45pm on Thursday. He had to be there by 11am. We got there a little earlier than that because he was REALLY nauseous at home  and just really wanted to get in for some medicine. They got us in within 2 minutes. They gave him some Zofran that he put on his tongue to dissolve. He couldn't have anything to drink. It helped a little, but didn't last long. His surgery got moved back. The surgeon was held up and there was one patient scheduled for surgery ahead of Joey. I ended up leaving the pre-op room at 3:30 when they were about to take him back for anesthesia.

So I'm waiting in the waiting room. Just worrying and trying to stay calm. The surgeon came out at about 5:15pm and let us know the news. First, he said that Joey's case was the worst he's ever seen. At that point, I had to sit down to hear the rest. He said that Joey's rectum was completely embedded in his pelvis area. It was on top of his bladder. So no wonder Joey had been having so much bladder pain for the last week. Since last Saturday, he's been really nauseous and sick to his stomach. He's felt really crappy. Then the doctor said that he had to stop cutting because if he would have kept on, he would have ended up cutting into his bladder. His colon was really inflamed. So he called pathology in to do a biopsy of it right then and there. Luckily, it came back negative for anything. *sigh of relief* The doctor said that he removed about 8 inches of his colon. They didn't put it back together. They decided to give Joey's colon a break. Give it some time to heal and soften back to normal. They had to revert his colon and give him a colostomy bag. Joey really, really did not want to end up with a colostomy bag, but it really is for the best right now. His body needs time to heal.

The surgeon said they really don't know how long he has suffered from diverticulitis. He said his colon looks like he has had multiple bouts of diverticulitis. Heals, flare up, heals, flare up, etc. It never was able to fully heal. So he technically just kept getting worse. The scary thing is that his rectum could have eventually gotten so inflamed and hard that it exploded. Luckily, they pushed his surgery up instead of waiting until June 7th. The only reason they did that is because of the Gastro doctor who called the hospital to get him in earlier.

So he will have the colostomy bag for 4-6 weeks. Then they will go back in for stage 2. That will involve putting his colon back together minus the part they removed. He's still in the hospital now. He was told that he may get out today, but he's not now. His body is producing too much green bile right now. It's making him really nauseous and he's in a lot of pain. They're trying to keep him up and walking.

I'm ready for him to be home, but I know he's getting the care he needs while he is in the hospital. I know that he needs to be there right now. I am hoping that he has an easy recovery from here on out. I pray that his 2nd surgery goes well and he heals easy from that, too. I am just ready for all of this to be behind us and for my husband to longer be in the pain that he has gone through since February.

So that's the update on us.