Greetings everybody!
I had my second, and final surgery this past Wednesday (1/16) at Rush. So far everything has turned out absolutely fantastic! I really couldn't be happier with the way things are going for me physically right now. All my expectations of how I would be feeling at this point don't even come close to how good I feel.
My surgery, which began around 11 a.m., took down my ileostomy and hooked my small intestine up to my J-Pouch, allowing me to go to the bathroom like a normal person again. The whole procedure took about an hour and a half.
The very first thing I did while in the recovery room immediately following the operation was lift up the blanket and look down at my belly to make sure there was no longer a bag down there. That was my number 1 fear going into this surgery, that I would wake up and something would go wrong causing me to still have my ostomy bag. Much to my approval upon peaking, there was nothing but a couple of bandages! I was so ecstatic! The nurse from the recovery room called my mom at this point because she wanted to let her know that I immediately had checked to see if I still had a bag and when I realized I didn't have one anymore, I emerged with the world's biggest smile on my face. The whole time I was laying in the recovery room I had an overwhelming feeling of happiness. I had just gone through a 90 minute procedure, but yet I had felt better in that moment than I did at any point in the past 14 months. Following the first surgery I was thoroughly depressed with everything that had happened to me, after this one, there was nothing but joy. I finally felt like I was able to be excited at the prospect of physically getting through a day again. I felt great.
That joy wasn't exclusive to myself, once I headed up to my regular room, my mom and Aunt Sue both remarked how great I had looked already just hours after the surgery. I told them how I was just happy, felt great, and that already my outlook was so much better after this surgery than the last. The Phlebotomist (the nurse who draws blood for those of you that haven't had 9 or so hospital stays in the last 14 months) came into the room on Friday to draw blood, and she was amazed at how good I looked. She had drawn my blood many times over the past year and was just taken aback by how much healthier I had looked than any other time she had ever seen me. She told me that I looked absolutely amazing and that I "even look cuter too." At first I thought this to be impossible because really I'm incredibly attractive, but then I realized maybe she does have a point, over the last year I was all skinny and pale and grey looking all the time, perhaps now I was starting to turn the cuteness corner.
On Friday morning the remarkable happened: I called my mom at about 6:30 in the morning to let her know that I had just farted for the first time in 3 1/2 months. This was huge. The moment, not the fart. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to be at family functions and to have Uncle Tom fart and various cousins try to outfart him, and to not even have a chance to be apart of that is just devastating to one's psyche.
I left the hospital on Sunday afternoon and am now at home recovering nicely. The doctor left the wound open on my body in order for it to heal. So, I have to pack the wound twice daily, morning and night, in order for it to heal and prevent infection. It's a pretty sweet wound. Basically, it's like a second belly button, it's just a hole in my belly where the ostomy used to be. It's like somebody took a spoon and just dug out a piece of my belly. I have attached a picture of it in case anybody was really curious as to what it looks like. The packing of it isn't very fun as it hurts to take the gauze in and out of the wound, but my mom and I are getting the hang of doing it.
I was sent home on pain medication, and only pain medication. Once I run out of it in a couple of weeks, I will then be on ZERO medications. That's right a big fat ZERO. This is amazing to me as I have been popping pills like a junkie the past 14 months. I was taking 30+ pills a day at one point and now I'll be down to ZERO pills a day. Incredible, incredible feeling. Not to mention that it is cheaper to take ZERO pills as opposed to 30 a day.
As of right now I am just reteaching my body how to use the bathroom again. I had expectations of how hard that would be before surgery, but really I think I'm getting the hang of it quite nicely. It has come a lot easier than I expected. Right now really the only area of pain I have is in and around the wound. Other than that I'm really feeling quite good. I also have put on a remarkable 10 pounds since surgery! No longer will I be able to eat like a pig and lose weight. I will hopefully be able to fit into my clothing again shortly. Really I can't say enough how much better I feel already. I am excited that the worst is far, far behind me. All I have are brighter days from here on out. Assuming I don't suddenly have a setback, everything is going great. I feel like I can FINALLY get back to being my old self. Soon the time will come when I will be able and willing to go out and do things socially again without the fear of my body letting me down. It is a great feeling. My body will continue to adjust to life without a colon of the next year or so, teaching itself how to adapt, and after that I will be as adjusted to it as I will ever be. I still have a little bit of a road to hoe, but hopefully now that I don't have this bag anymore I'll have a couple of hoes to ride as I do it.
Thanks again to everyone for their continued support. It has gotten me this far, and the end is in sight! I appreciate it and I love you all. Even the ones that I don't love, I love you too.
Thanks,
Tom Meersman
P.S. I realized I didn't have the picture of my wound on the computer yet, so this picture of Michael Dukakis will have to do for now. If you really want to see my hole, let me know and I'll send you the picture at a later time.
 |
|
michael-dukakis.jpg
18K | |