Going HOME!

I had to be at school today, but the surgeon was apparently pleased with Angie's progress, so she called a little while ago to say she can go home today. I am at school, so her parents have to pick her up-- darn it. But I will see her after school.
Yeah! The queen is returning to the castle!

#10 - Surgery Recap & Pics

For those of you just joining us, a brief recap so you don't have to read all the way down to post #1-- Angie was feeling increasingly rotten for the last few weeks, and she finally went to Urgent Care last Thursday and the doctor on Friday and was admitted immediately on suspicion of appendicitis-- but the surgeon found out that it was actually a perforated colon as a result of diverticulitis-- and they caught it early enough so it could be fixed and she only needs to be in the hospital a few days. If the colon had leaked out more, the situation would have been much more serious. She's been in a lot of pain but quite a trooper. We expect her to come home Tuesday or Wednesday. If you need more info, you can scroll down and read the earlier posts.

The good news is, she'll make a full recovery and only needs a modified diet. Angie's parents have been taking care of Bella and bringing her to visit twice a day, which has been wonderful. I start school Tuesday so will depend on our families even more to help out.

Thanks for all the kind words-- hope you enjoy a few pictures of Isabella visiting her Mommy.
T

#9- Monday's OK

Hi,
everything is progressing just fine-- Angie's plumbing has come back to life the past two days as they are introducing her to food again. She had oatmeal this morning, at least a couple bites, and that is the most substantial food she's eaten. That's the good news. The mediocre news is that she's not getting out today, and I'll be surprised if she's discharged tomorrow. Two doctors have told us that typical hospital stay for surgery of this kind is 5-6 days, and recovery time at home is a few weeks.

The bad news, if you can call it that, is that school starts tomorrow, and I have not been able to prepare these past few days as I needed to, so I am getting rather nervous...

The best news is that Angie will be just fine, and we are extremely blessed. More coming later, including a cute pic of Angie and Bella I took last night...

T

#8-Sunday morning

Angie had a fever and bad headache last evening, so they decided to give her some Tylenol, and that seemed to do the trick. Today she's a little better than yesterday morning, so I guess that's progress. When the doctor comes in today, we'll try to pin him down on a discharge plan. Angie would certainly like to stay another night, but that's about it. It's pretty strange living in a hospital-- the people are nice, but it's not home. And it's not our bed!

Speaking of home, I need to run home this morning and have the first shower since we checked in and get a few supplies. Gotta get going so I can get back here by the time Isabella arrives-- and then they have a prayer service in the chapel down the hall as well.

Cheers!

#7 - Update @ 5:00 PM

Our little Isabella Bellaboo Bellaballuba booboo doll came to see Mommy and Daddy today, and we sure enjoyed that. She got the broadest of smiles when she spotted Mommy, and she even smiled a lot at Daddy (I am sort of chopped liver compared to the "Dairy Queen" treats Mommy provides, and I am OK with that). I caught her just staring at me later, so I know she likes me, or thinks I'm quite an odd bunny. Isabella has been well taken-care of by Marcia and John (Granny & Papa). They are also taking care of our 'doggers' Hannah and Mud, who no doubt are wondering what's going on.

Angie was still in pretty rough shape this morning, but as the day has gone on, she's brightening up. The surgeon came in (when I had snuck out for a bite of lunch, so I missed her). She said basically the same stuff as we already knew, though we found out they have sent the tissue sample out for a biopsy on the very very slim chance there is something else wrong. Angie is still have 'ripping' pains in her abdomen from time to time, so it is likely she'll be here until Tuesday. Another doctor came in a little while ago to see if we had any questions about diverticulitis, etc. Angie will have to take it easy for a few weeks and eat a little more fiber, and fewer things with small seeds.

Anyway, Granny and Papa are bringing Isabella back for a visit this evening. I am going to try to sneak home and get a shower before then. We are thankful for the thoughts, prayers, and well-wishes. The hard part is over, now the waiting for Angie to feel better. She is only able to walk a few feet without feeling sick, so that's something that needs to be overcome in the next few days.

More later---

#6 - 5:00 am - restless night

It's been a mostly restless night for Angie - hard for her to get comfortable, keeping the pain down with self-administered morphine bumps limited to one every ten minutes. The care team is quite excellent, and nurse Daphne has been very accommodating, especially of me and my assortment of bags and technology devices littered around. They also set up for me a pull-out chair 'cot' which has been much more comfortable than the one I had during Isabella's birth.

I was able to get a few hours sleep, though it took me a while. I foolishly drank a diet Coke I had in the car at about midnight - I think the caffeine kept me tossing and turning for a while. In any case, they are trying to get a new IV in to make her more comfortable. It looks like success!

Angie needs a lot of rest today, so I think I'll request minimal and short, quiet visits from those of you who choose to come. Psychologically, she's going to need time with her baby. And this room is not like the maternity ward; it's literally half the size.

Good, the nurses have left, and Angie feels more comfortable and is dozing off. Maybe a few more hours of sleep. T

In other news...

If you're visiting this page for the first time looking for news about Angie, please scroll down... to #1-- this comes in reverse order.

I thought I'd take advantage of the audience here to point out that Angie and I feel most grateful for all the prayers, love and kind words sent to us, and we feel mightily blessed by God. Despite this little run-in with human physiology, we have nothing like the problems being experienced right now by folks in Louisiana, etc. In fact, my predecessor at St. Rose, the guy who left his job teaching the urchins to move to New Orleans to be with his sweetheart is now homeless. He also has a blog here on blogspot, and you can click here to visit it.

Bill and his wife threw their newborn kidlet in the car and headed north to beat the traffic, thus they left most of their stuff at home, quite near Lake Pontchartrain, where one of the levies broke. Say a prayer for them, please!

Baby Bella misses Mommy...

When I stopped at home today I snapped this photo of cute Isabella looking for her mom...

#5 - 9:45 pm - Post Op

I finally got to come see Angie about 9:00 - the nurse said she had a tough time in recovery and that's why it took so long. She is very groggy and in some amount of pain. She is saying that this is 10 times worse than the C-section.

Angie confirms that she was told this was indeed diverticulitis, inflamed pouches on the colon which rupture. This may mean she's in for a special diet. Maybe not since it's only the first trouble. In any case, she's in here for a couple days, it looks for sure, unless she feels much much better tomorrow.

We have seen about getting her some more pain medication, and there is a call in to the surgeon for something for her nausea. Quite a mess.

In case you're wondering, she's in room 104 of St. John's Hospital. I am not going to give out the phone number, because I'd like to keep the phone calls to a minimum until she gets enough sleep. Send me an e-mail to read to her or post a comment here if you like, and I will read them all to her.

She will be able to have visitors tomorrow, but of primary importance is Isabella. Angie misses her terribly right now. They're bringing in a cot for me to sleep. Unless there's more news, it's good night from Maplewood! T

#4 - Colons & Semi-colons

It's now after 8:15. It's been over an hour since the doctor left, and I am getting a little restless. I have been sitting here mostly researching perforated colons, diverticulitis, peritonitis, etc. Although the surgeon has assured me that this is fixed, and there was no spillage of toxins into Angie's body, I am--of course-- skeptical and somewhat concerned this might happen again, so I want to know what to look out for.

I will post again later when I get to see Angie. If you get bored waiting for updates, look at photos of our dear daughter Isabella! Click for Isabella's galleries

Update @ 8:30 pm: I found some info on diverticulitis, which is basically inflamed pouches on the colon which can cause pain and also get perforated. I am not sure if this is what Angie had, but you can Google it.

#3 - NOT the appendix...

The surgeon came out about 7:00 - Dr. Ogren. It seems Angie's appendix was OK, but there was a lot of inflamation around it caused by a perforated colon!

Ouch! She said they don't know how it happened, but there was a hole in her colon. She could see right into it. But it was somehow contained, so it didn't make her really sick. Dr. Ogren took out a chunk of the colon and the appendix and sewed it back up. She said she should never miss it, everything should be fine, except she'll be pretty sore for a while.

And, she'll be in the hospital at least a few days. Maybe until Tuesday-- depends how she heals.

I should get to see her shortly. I will post more later.

T

#2 - 6:30 pm-waiting, waiting

I got my laptop plugged into a normal phone here and got online in the surgery waiting room. Sure aren't many people around here!

So, here's what happened: Angie was not feeling well this week, progressively worse pain in her abdomen, right side. She went to Patty's yesterday (Thursday) and felt worse as the day went on, calling me and saying she thought we should go to Urgent Care or the Emergency Room.

Her mother, Marcia, was at Patty's and decided to accompany Angie home and stay the night. I looked up Healtheast Urgent Care and found out it was in South St. Paul, right on her route home from Patty's, so I directed her how to get there and made plans to meet her.

The urgent care doctor did not seem to know what could be the problem, said their imaging equipment was out of order, so we should go to the ER if we thought it was something bad, but otherwise she could give Angie some Vicodin to get her through the night. Without any idea what could be wrong, we agreed.

We could not get a doctor appt until 11:40 this morning, and new doctor at the clinic named Dr. Koranne, from India. Very nice guy, very complete, and he seemed genuinely surprised that the Urgent Care doctor did not suspect the appendix based on Angi's pain when he touched her stomach in certain places. In any case, he ordered a CT scan at St. John's Hospital, behind the clinic, and that took a number of hours, of course. We were led from the CT area to the admitting department... no one had told us what they had found, but we figured out that Angie was being admitted.

Nurse Pam said she would be scheduled for surgery as soon as possible, which could be 10 minutes or could be later this evening. Angie was in need of a pump to relieve her Bellaboo-lessness, so I decided to fly home and get it and some provisions for me to stay overnight. I stayed too long, of course, I wrote and e-mail to family and friends, held the baby, petted the dogs, etc., and I was getting in the car to go back to the hospital when my phone rang, it was Angie telling me they were ready for her to go into surgery already! I said if she had to go, I understand, but I would be there in 20 minutes. Well, rush hour traffic slowed me down, and when I arrived 25 minutes later, the nurse said I'd missed her. But she said it was a lady surgeon in there with her, all would be fine, the procedure would not take very long and Angie would be in recovery for about an hour.

That was 1:15 minutes ago-- I hope word comes soon.

T

#1-Angie's Appendix

Hello!
I am continuing to use this to inform family and friends about Angie's stay in the hospital for an appendectomy...
It's about 6:00 PM on Sept. 2-- She went into surgery about 5:15, and they say it doesn't take long. I went home to get some things, thinking it would be a few hours until she went in for the surgery, but as I was leaving home to come back, she called and said they were waiting just for me-- I tried to get to the hospital quickly but I just missed her. The nurse said the surgery was no big deal and she'd be out soon, in recovery for an hour, and probably go home tomorrow (Saturday). That's good news.

Well, I am going to get this posted in case any is waiting for news-- the news is, THERE IS NO NEWS. I will post later after I see Angie in recovery. In the meantime, feel free to leave Angie a comment below. You can post anonymously and just sign your name-- don't bother signing up for a blogger account if you don't have one.

T