I don’t understand what’s happening. Things are going good, for once.
I was fully expecting to be in agonising pain and have everything go wrong and terrible things to happen, but they haven’t.
I’m bewildered at the lack of negative outcomes thus far.
So let me explain what has happened thus far.
I came into the hospital at 0700 on Saturday. Now last month when I came in they said “oh you probably won’t go down till the early afternoon at best as they want to get the day cases in and out before you. So I assumed this would also be the same process this month. So in the morning I was admitted by the charge nurse and was seen by my surgeon and anaesthetist to review and revise my consent forms.
This is where things started to change. My surgeon asked to have a look at my abdomen which of course I obliged. She indicated that the incision would only be approximately two to three inches in length. I had to double check she had meant that and she responded in the affirmative. That was a pleasant surprise. She did caveat that by saying that’s the best case scenario. Also she then said hopefully she won’t need to move my stoma. Hold up, this is news to me. This hasn’t been mentioned at all, last month or today, until now. My surgeon explained that due to my previous surgeries there is a good chance that adhesions had formed between my bowel, other bowel and other organs and my abdominal cavity. She would have to spend time carefully cutting through this scar tissue that joins the organs to be able to separate them and manipulate what she needed to safely. So with all the paperwork signed I was left alone with my thoughts in a side room.
I had been managing to healthily disassociate from my upcoming surgery for most of the time. There was no point in thinking and worrying about it, I couldn’t change the fact it needed to happen, I couldn’t really effect the outcome. Well that last bit is a lie. You can help sway the odds in your favour for better outcomes. I had given up smoking. If you are a smoker you massively decrease your bodies ability to carry oxygen and therefore heal and repair. Smoking is generally awful for your health and I could sit here and list loads of negative aspects and very little positives if any. Other than doing this, there’s not much you can do to effect any change, you just have to accept what’s happening.
So with regards to the surgery I was hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. Some of these things were very realistic expectations like a Ryle’s tube which is a tube that goes up your nose and down into your stomach to drain the contents of your stomach so you aren’t sick after surgery. Trust me I can attest to the fact you don’t want to be sick after you’ve had someone cut through your abdominal muscles and then staple them back together. Personally I find this way the best way for me to mentally prepare for something like this by acknowledging all the negative things that can happen, but actually you look at the statistical chances of some of them happening and they are miniscule. I had more chance of dying in the car on the way down to the hospital that morning that I did dying on the table in the operating theatre.
A sharp knock on the door interrupted my thoughts. It was a healthcare assistant who had come to take me down to theatre. Here we go, Standby. We walked the short walk to the lift the we went up or maybe down I don’t remember turned a corner and followed them into the room marked ‘Anaesthesia Room 2’ Here was the anaesthetists I had met earlier and one or two of his assistants. I climbed onto the bed in the middle of the room. On the side there were two large 100ml syringes in syringe drivers filled with milky looking fluid. I’d hazard a guess this was propofol, this was the shit Michael Jackson was using as a sleep aid. That’s like doing chemotherapy for your hair because your tired of cutting it. Propofol is lovingly referred to as ‘milk of amnesia’ because of its milky colour and amnesiac properties. The anaesthetist hooked me up to the two syringe drivers and set them off, I remarked about how crazy it is that he’s about to paralyse every muscle in my body, take over my breathing and wipe my memory. Then the lights went out like a warm fuzzy blanket was pulled over my head.
Now waking up is a hazy affair. I forget bits, remember bits, its very hazy thanks to the milk of amnesia. I’m going to go with the bits I definitely do remember. I woke up and started to give myself a vague once over, this is where things got weird. So I had my feeding NG that I thought they would have removed and I had no Ryle’s tube. I had no central or Picc line so that was good. I had a catheter which was to be expected. I looked under my gown and saw one small dressing only about two inches by three inches. There were a couple of cannulas in my abdomen that were slowly administering local anaesthetic to near the incision. My stoma was where it was before it hadn’t been moved. Now this can’t be right I thought, maybe they have forgotten to put things in and they are going to have to do it later. Also a tiny voice in my head was telling me that this was the best case scenario and it could just mean everything’s gone really well. I couldn’t believe it thought. I never get lucky let alone that lucky.
Well I should probably buy a lottery ticket because it didn’t finish there. At 5am today the nurse came and asked if I’d like to get up and get a wash, I thought fuck it, why not, I managed to sit up on my own in the bed with no assistance lets see how far we can push it. I sat up in bed and the nurse gave me a bowl of warm water and some wipes to clean myself with. Once I had finished doing that I managed to turn myself to the side and stand up. I was a bit wobbly and light headed but I’d had zero calorific intake for the last 24 hours and water had been limited as well. I managed to move across to the chair by my bed and sit in that where I could sip water as my stoma had been active and had output (which is key for knowing that you are not suffering with Ileus, where your guts are asleep and paralysed). I stayed in the chair for the next hour or so I was exhausted as I hadn’t managed much sleep so I moved back to the bed and tried to doze off again. It can be irritating with a cacophony of bleeping and whirring from the various infusion machines. I cant remember who it was but a doctor or surgeon came to see me and said that my catheter could be removed given I was mobile enough and was able to sip water.
So the NJ tube remains in as they are going to use that to feed me whilst the anastomosis between the small bowel and the stomach heal up a bit before I start to eat and pass food through it. This is the sensible and safest option.
I’m just in disbelief that this has all gone well and not only has it gone well, it’s gone really well. I get so prepared for the worst outcomes I honestly rarely ever give the positive ones any thought. So these positive outcomes have been a breath of fresh air for me. Now there are still time for things to go wrong of course, like when I begin eating but just as I have been hopeful, I remain so. Tomorrow they are going to start feeding me with the NJ tube so that the feed avoids the anastomosis and allows it to heal a bit quicker and with no complications.
So tomorrow I hopefully can start feeding via NJ tube to get some calories in me which I desperately need right now. I am running on fumes, hopes and dreams. Then hopefully I will start on a strict low residue diet and gradually increase the quantity and how solid the food is until I am eating some semblance of a normal diet. Something that gave me some optimism about being able to eat normally again was a gentleman I came across on reddit called Austin, he had a small bowel resection and a gastrojejunostomy all in one go. You can see his old posts from years ago where he was clearly very skinny and then had surgery and he is now eating totally normally. He eats enough to take in 3500kcal a day and is in the gym 6 days a week. He is absolutely shredded as well. I don’t know if I can be bothered with going to a gym, not at the moment anyhow but its nice to know that he has managed to do it. I have some slight concerns like dumping syndrome which experienced a little when feeding larger amounts down the NJ tube but there are ways to deal with that. Just got to wait and see what happens with it when I start eating.
Right I have fought the urge to fall asleep during the day. I am battling to keep my eyes open, It took me nearly 5 minutes just to write the previous sentence. So I think that’s me done for today. Nap timeeeee.
Ad astra per aspera