I have a hole in my belly, and my sister is stuffing it!

I went back to see Dr. Wolf, because of the belly fluid problem. Also, because of my abdominal pain. He said that I probably have a low grade infection. McDreamy opened me up and then he poked around inside my belly. This is how it went.

"I'm going to try and draw out fluid with a needle first." I looked at the needle, which was HUGE, and asked if it would hurt. He told me that it wouldn't because I was numb from the surgery. Sure enough, when he poked me with the needle, I felt only the pressure, but no pain. There was also no fluid. So, he had to go to the next step. He asked the nurse to hand him a knife, which had a pretty purple handle. And then he reopened about 1.5 inches of surgery scar. He looks at me, and asks if I can feel it. I can't. By now, I had my hands behind my head and am watching the whole thing. He sticks his finger in, trying to find out if the surgical site was separating. Imagine my surprise if I were to wake up a little too close to my intestines in the middle of the night. He couldn't feel any separation of the surgical wound. And still, I couldn't feel anything. Amazing. So then they packed my now open belly wound with gauze. It turns out they shoved a good 8 inches of gauze into my belly. How do I know this? Well, Lori, my brave sister, has to change my dressings once a day for a week. When she began pulling it out, it just kept coming, like a magician's handkerchiefs. I'm on antibiotics now and have an appointment with Dr. McDreamy Wolf for next week.

Today, I had a taste of some delicious crab cakes my nephew, Elijah, sent to me from the east coast, where he lives. I'm looking forward to eating a whole crab cake when I am feeling better. YUMMY!

Mom is going home tomorrow, hopefully. The weather is getting frightful this weekend, but she has studs and a purpose. I still need help getting up (now, because of my abdominal infection/pain), but she raised me to allow sharing. She needs to see all her grandbabies at Christmas. Lori will be helping me out, and I may be staying with her for a few days after mom leaves. My hope is that the soreness wil go away quickly, after starting my antibiotics.

Here is something very cute and adorable. My 13 yr old neighbor, Christopher, came over today asking if he could mow my lawn, which is currently under 3 inches of snow. How cute is that? He would have mowed it nicely too!

I miss everyone: family, work, friends. I'm very happy right now. My nephew, Jason, just graduated with his Ph.D. in Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space science from U of Michigan this last week. My niece, Channi, just graduated with her Bachelors in Special Education from BYU - Idaho this past week as well. My other nephew, Kevin, will be receiving his Masters in Accounting from Boise State University this next week. Best of all, I just had Verizon Fios installed for digital TV and internet. So, while I exist in pain these days, they are also happy days. I'm so proud of everyone.

The one and only name is Trogdor

When the surgeon discovered he couldn't remove my primary site carcinoid, my sister suggested to everyone that we name it. My nephew Kevin finally came up with the one and only name today. Trogdor, which is very fitting, being something a person wouldn't normally want in their body, but it remains the uninvited guest.

I got a call from several friends in Idaho today who reminded me that I hadn't updated the blog since 12/5/08. I sit here this evening attempting to do just that.

Earlier this week, Sunday, I took a shower. When I got out of the shower, I looked down at the rug and noticed a fluid leaking from my belly at the surgery site. "Oh... this is not good", I repeated several times, trying to figure out how I could put my shirt and sweats on while holding a towel to my belly. As soon as I accomplished this, I left the bathroom, to find my mom. "I'm leaking mom!" I thought I was going to bleed to death. I wasn't, but I thought I was. So I pulled up my shirt and took the towell away long enough for my mom to see this stuff squirting out two inches from my skin. So, we got out stuff together, and on the worst day of the year, we headed out to the local ER. Some of you may already know what this is, but I learned yet another piece of anatomy. Serous fluid builds up in the skin tissue following a surgery. This fluid is normally reabsorbed by the body, but I had earlier leaned against the sink kind of hard, causing a hole that this stuff began to leak out of.

By the time an NP saw me in the ER, I had soaked through three hand towels (folded) and the leak had stopped. She told me what this was and to keep it safe and clean. After 48 hours, it finally stopped for sure. I know that four of my nephews and at least two of my nieces would have said "Cool!" Youngsters are gross like that. :)

Right now, my stomach is so sore that I feel like I did 1000 crunches, only without doing the crunches. I think I was a little too active today. On December 26, I have an appointment with Dr. Patil, my primary oncologist. On January 2, I start my sandostatin shots, in the bum once a month. There are supposed to be no ill-effects from them. When I had my surgery, Dr. Wolf took two biopsies, one of the primary site and one of a spot on my liver. Both tested out to be carcinoid, which is good. That means, no chemo for sure.

I'm safely home

I came home this afternoon with mom and Lori (Friday). We got my prescription of Oxycontin and mom got me a meal of yakisoba and gyozo. Very yummy, although it will fill me up for at least four meals. For dessert, I had a Diabetic Bakery sugar free German Chocolate cake, which made me smile.

I still walk like a bent-over old lady, but have a cane, so at least I won't fall on my face. I appreciate my sister keeping the Blog updated for everyone, and I certainly appreciate everyone's responses. I was surprised to learn that we were going to name "it". But name it we must. I'm still waiting to hear from Kevin.

I had several people come and visit me in the hospital, which made me glad I could wash my hair. They also made my days much happier. St. Vincents is a good hospital and I had one of the really good updated rooms, but it all doesn't mean much feeling lousy. The staff truly helped me through a tough hospitalization. My stomach is sore when I move, but feels ok as long as I'm still. I have to run a few little errands tomorrow, but am hoping to use one of the store electric carts.

I really lost my inhibitions re: my body while in the hospital. I was always ready to show someone my wound/staples, but as I was gladly pulling up my gown, they were diving for a blankie to cover my "nethers" with. Those silly people... :)

Well, I'm tired already, and so will sign off. I don't have my usual sense of humor, but I have an excuse.

Thank you everyone!

love Colleen

Hospital Fashion Show

Today when we went to visit Colleen she showed us the funniest card, then told the funniest story, I'll share. The card had a cartoon picture of three people with hospital gowns opened in the back with bottoms hanging out. The front of the card said,
"Hospital Fashion Shows"
Next Thelma strolls the surgery floor with confidence in this 'sassy' bile green evening gown.
(inside it said) Hope to see your sassy butt out of bed real soon.
It was from some some para-legal friends.
Her story - Earlier today an angel at the hospital washed her hair for her and gave her a brand new straight out of the package hospital gown. She helped her into it and got it all snapped up on the shoulders. Colleen was feeling pretty good and was walking all around her room with the door open, just in case visitors came to call. Pretty soon the nurse came in and asked, "Did you get your gown tied up in back?" "Why no I didn't!" said Colleen blushing on all four of her cheeks. They got her tied up and later that day as Colleen was out cruising the halls the nurse smiled at her and Colleen said, "Thanks, if it weren't for you, the other patients would be laughing at me.
Needless to say, Colleen is getting her sense of humor back. She had quite a few visitors this evening, the nurse had to bring in an extra chair, then she closed the door because we were laughing too loud.
Dr. McDreamie came in, checked her incision and said it is healing nicely. They took her off the morphine (good bye carpet rolls) and oxygen. She is on Oxycontin. She looks, feels and sounds better every day. She was able to eat an egg salad sandwich for lunch and meat loaf for dinner. Life is good. *G* She has gotten some beautiful flowers from friends and family, including a wintry sleigh arrangement from Miss Lovely and John. Flowers from Ebeneezer Scrooge (her boss) and a Garfield cookie arrangement from her private dick friends that she did skip traces for. She loved reading the posts that I took her and is giving grave consideration to all of the names offered.
She asked me to thank everyone for their good thoughts and prayers.

She best's me once again!!!

This is Colleen's sister Lori posting for her while she lounges away in the hospital recouping from her surgery. I have worked so hard over the past few years to develop weird and unusual maladies to stump and befuddle people. Then once again my sister trumps me!
From the last post.... Colleen met with her oncology surgeon. He told her that he felt they should try to take out the primary tumor and by the way they could fix the hernia that she didn't even know she had.
Saturday, Lige, Colleen and I went out to dinner at the Outback where we had a great meal. (Her last until who knew how long) the last thing she ate was a beautiful, delicious banana at just before midnight Saturday. Sunday she spent the day cleansing her system in preparation for the resection. Mom came over to my house to eat on Sunday so as not to torment her by eating in front of her.
Today Mom and I took her over to St. Vincent Hospital at 10:30 am. She got all checked in and we waited until 1:00 when they were to take her in for slicing. At 1:00 they came in and said that it would be another hour, so Mom and I went and ate lunch. When we came back she wanted to know everything we'd eaten. 2:00 came and they said that it would be another hour, so we waited and I snuck out and took a nap. 3:00 came and we were told that there had been an emergency that had dirtied all of the surgery rooms so they were cleaning one and would come for her soon. Finally at 4:00 she was wheeled off for surgery. We went and ate dinner in the cafeteria with Lige. At 6:00 our pager buzzed that Dr. McDreamie was ready to talk to us, so we left our trays and scraps with Lige and ran off to meet the Doc.
He said..... He opened her up and found that the tumor was much more invasive then expected. He tried to do some slicing to remove some of it, but it started to bleed pretty badly, so they stitched and glued until it stopped. He decided that it would be too dangerous to take it out. "Well", we said "how about the hernia, were you able to fix it?" "Well, he said, "That is the weird thing." "When I went looking for it, I couldn't find it. There is no hole in her abdomen." (What did I say about her one upping me?) He did have a couple of ideas of what it was, but no to the hernia fixing. What he did do was take a biopsy of the primary tumor so that they could determine for sure that it is a carcinoid. He also took a piece of one of the blemishes on her liver for biopsy, then he closed her up. We finally got in to see her at 8:00.
She hurts pretty badly and was nervous about staying at the hospital by herself because after surgery she tends to stop breathing when she falls asleep. So I came on home and Mom is staying the night on the handy recliner that flattens out into a twin sized bed. She can guide the straw into Colleen's mouth when she needs a slip and slap her when she forgets to breath.
Mom suggested that since Colleen will be stuck with the tumor in her tummy for the rest of her life she'd better name it, so we are having a contest to name the Carcinoid. All are welcome to participate, she will judge the names and pick one when she comes home. The winner will get a special little something. *G* She will still be in the hospital for 4 - 9 days. The things that they will be watching for is to make sure that the tumor doesn't start bleeding again and that the incicion starts to heal properly without infection.
A nice thing that happened was that the night orderly-nurse came and asked if we were Mormon. When we said yes he asked if Colleen had had a blessing because he could do that for her. How sweet we said, Lige had given her one on Sunday, but she said that she wouldn't mind another one, so he'll take care of her. She wouldn't mind visits from locals in a couple of days. Right now she is sad and hurting.
The nice thing about them not doing the resection is that she won't have to do the "white" diet for a month. She'll probably be able to eat whatever she wants when she comes home. Spagetti with hamburger and mushrooms plus German chocolate cake from the diebetic bakery is at the top of the list.