7 Weeks = Absess

Adam is now 7 weeks out of surgery. He has been having some pain in his tail-bone area. Finally on Monday he called his GI. She told him to come in for some blood work and a CT...said he might have an absess. Sure enough...he has an absess about the size of a grape. They admitted him that night so that they could start him on iv antibiotics and possibly place a drain the next day.

6 Weeks Post-Op

This picture was taken on the 8th of January...almost a month after the surgery. The stitches are still visible and you can't see the "hole" of the stoma.


This was taken at 6 weeks. There are some definite changes we've noticed with Adam's stoma. We can now see the hole, all the stitches are gone, and his skin seems to be healing in around the stoma.

It's been a heck of a time trying to figure out which wafers and bags to use so that his skin doesn't burn and so that there aren't any leaks. We've finally ended up with a convex wafer. His stoma is almost flush with his skin. It is just under 3/4 in. in size.

Adam takes 1 immodium in the morning and 1 at night. He has also been eating corn chips and avacado to try to slow things down a bit. He is still drinking lots of gatorade, but has also added in water. He has learned that if he goes more than 2 hours without eating he starts to not feel well. He also seems to get dehydrated really fast. He has still had some stomach discomfort and a lot of "butt" pain. He seems to do ok if he keeps lb prufen in him. He also went to the Dr. and got a B12 shot and his Testosterone shot. Of course he's anemic. He's taking some vitamins that will hopefully help too.

He still has no energy. He's going to start walking to hopefully build up some strength. He's getting tired of people telling him he needs to eat more. "oh really...is that all....we've haven't tried that!!!!" It's not like he can all of the sudden start gorging himself! Oh ya...and then there's the classic comment of, "oh ya, I've had IBS before...it's terrible!" "Ya...did you have constant cramping and diarhea for over 9 years?!!!!"

Anyway...We believe things are progressing how they are supposed to...just slower than we would like. We wish he were already running marathons and back-packing through Europe!

4 Weeks Post Surgery - Adam's Colon

We had our follow-up with Dr. P yesterday. Things are going well. We scheduled surgery #2 for March 25. We als got to see the picture of Adam's colon. We learned that his appendix comes out with the colon. He also took out about 6 cm of his small intestines that were inflamed, most likely from a sort of "back wash" from his colon. Dr. P said that of all the "elective" surgeries he's done..this was one of the worst he's seen. Adam's colon was nearly half the size in length as it should have been..it was very swollen and shrunken. The picture looks disgusting, but is fascinating at the same time.

We also learned that the staples just stay in his J-pouch...forever I guess. He has had some "pain" in his rectum, but the Dr. said that should gradually go away. We have also had some issues finding the right wafer to use for Adam's stoma. We finally got the leaking problems fixed. He is using a Durahesive, Convex moldable wafer. Basically we are able to "mold" the hole of the wafer around his stoma, and the durahesive material puffs up when it gets wet from his stool and provides a more secure barrier around the soma. The durahesive material is better for more watery stool...so it works better than the stomahesive. All of this we have learned through searching the internet and browsing chat rooms and blogs. What a life saver the internet has been!

Dr. gave him the ok to drink water, but still wants him to get plenty of gatorade to keep his electrolytes up. He is also able to get his B12 shots and testosterone shots as needed. We will go in the 5 of March for a Barium test. They will put barium into his J-pouch and then do x-rays to test for any leaks or problems with the j-pouch before he has the take-down surgery.

Adam is slowing gaining his energy and strength back. The visit to the UofU completely wore him out yesterday, but he insisted on not riding in a wheel-chair.


And here it is! Yuck!