Colon Free - Day 1

We checked into the hospital at 6:00 am. They arrived promptly at 7:30 to take Adam back for surgery. His surgery lasted nearly 6 hours. Dr. P said with men it's a little harder because their pelvis is smaller. The surgery was done laproscopically, with Dr. P inserting his hand to actually removed the colon. We received updates from his nurse every 2 hours. Dr. P said the surgery went well. He also took a picture for us. He was in recovery for a couple hours....waiting for his output(urine) to improve. They were not able to give him pain meds after the surgery because his breathing was too slow. So when we arrived in his room he was in a lot of pain. It took about 30 minutes for the morphine to kick in and make him feel better. He is complaining of lower back pain, but said his stomach doesn't hurt much. He is also on oxygen for the time being. He had 1 incision where the colon was actually removed. 4 small incisions for the laproscopes, and then 1 more small incision...can't remember what that one was for. He has a drain coming out of his stomach that has a egg-shaped container on the end...this drains the fluid from his belly. It is a red-colored fluid. He also has a catheter in. He hasn't said anything about that yet. He also has compressor bands on his legs to keep from getting blood clots. Tomorrow they will get him up walking around. No food yet. Just a few ice chips. The dr. said if he starts swallowing and swallows air it might make him throw up...and that could pop open his incisions.


This is Adam the night before his surgery. I think he weighed in around 115 lbs.


This is the mark the nurse put on him so the Dr. would know where to put his stoma.


This is him just before the surgery. Happy as a little J-bird!