Author: Joe D'Aulerio

Susan made it through the night like a champ! she is doing great and making good progress. All her lab work is very good. Doctor Beilman came in this morning and said that if things continue to progress later today there is a possibility she could go to a regular room which is phenomenal considering she is less than 24 hours out from surgery. She still has lots of tubes and wires attached to her and will for a few days until she gets stronger.

They continue to monitor her blood sugar which is doing really well she is tolerating the pain very well and that is most likely because of the excellent pain control that ICU is supposed to do. As I said her labs are good so the concerns of any internal bleeding of blood clotting as a result of the surgery are slowly diminishing all of which are the positive factors to begin to consider moving her to a regular room. If you are wondering why its important to go to a regular room, well it really isn’t but for her to begin to slow down from the constant hustle and bustle poking and prodding and give her a chance to rest and get a chance to heal and recover. For ICU it is monitor and observe and make sure she is ok from the surgery then it’s off to the regular room to really begin to rest heal and recover. She will still get the care but on a quieter level.

In just a little bit Physical Therapy will be here to get her out of bed and have her sit up.  This is normal and it will be painful the first time. Susan is a determined person she will not let this surgery keep her down just as she was determined not to let her pancreas get the best of her either.

Sue Day 1

Dr. Beilman See’s Sue for the first time after the surgery.

The Boo boo…

We finally got to see Sue in ICU. She is in a private room and doing well. She is awake and able to understand whats going on. She is comfortable and resting well, and on very good medications that are doing the job that they should. We were able to tell her the good news about her surgery and her future. Since the doctor was gone the Nurses won’t say anything so she did not know anything until we came and told her. Because of the medicines, she may not remember everything but she seems happy with the good news.

Now the road to recovery begins. The good thing is that she has a lot going for her, a lot of good things to look forward to and with a little luck a recovery period that, if I know my wife, she will champion like she did in preparing for this day.  Sue, I sit here in the ICU room beside your bed writing this blog and looking at you.  You are an amazing woman to go through this with the spirit, bravery and the determination of a real warrior a name I know you are proud of after your Whipple and now even more deserved after this. I love you.

To all those who have followed my blog for Sue today, and who have supported her and prayed for her,  In the past few days, Sue has seen the many friends she has, who has come to her side in so many ways. It is very hard to mention everyone and personally thank them but you all know who you are. Everyone has touched her and in doing that and with your prayers you gave her that spirit and strength for her to make it here. She still has a ways to go but I Know if she could say it right now with tears in her eyes she would be saying thank you to every one of you. So as her voice I do that now and I join with her to say from the bottom of my heart and for Sue the most gracious THANK YOU!

This is the last entry for today, and while I would post a picture of her after the surgery it is something that is best left to your thoughts instead I leave you with this one because I know this is how she would want to think of her right now (finally happy this day is over).

Sue is still in Recovery but doing well. As we expected she needs her time and they are waiting on a room in ICU.

The surgery is done! The Doctor came out and spoke to us. Again he had good news. There are numbers that they hope for in the transplant of the Islet cells that they want to achieve for her best success to be free of insulin dependence in 6 months to a year. Sue’s remaining pancreas provided just the right amount she needed for her need and they looked really good. I also confirmed that my understanding that her healing process will be form the surgery since he did not have to change the digestive system and her remaining time here in Minnesota will be concentrated on the effort to train Sue to handle her surgical induced diabetes, and give the Islet cells the best chance for survival. How long that will take will still be 4 to 6 week but will be up to Sue and her ability to heal and adapt. Dr. Beilman has been fantastic in answering all our questions and providing details.  Thank you Dr. Beilman.

Sue is in recovery and we hope to see her around 6 CDT 7 EDT but that is dependant on how well she comes out of the anesthesia.  Ok, I know Sue, it will be the full 2 hours maybe 3 but that is ok, she just had a 9 and a half hour nap. and Sue loves to sleep. I think today its ok.

Please keep up on the prayers she still has a difficult 24 hours to go as with any surgery while the body deals with any damage and an operation is that to the body. The medical team is on top of all the things that can happen and Sue will be well monitored and comforted with medication, But the doctor is fairly confident that he has everything in good order and by Sunday she will be up and about. Don’t expect to hear from her for a week she has two tubes in her nose down to her stomach, one to feed her until she can eat in a week and one that is called an NG to help with nausea. She hates that but unfortunately, it is that way and because of those tubes talking will be hard. I bet she will do her best to recover and get them out quick…

Just got an update from the OR, the Islets cells are in and the surgery is just about done. Sue is doing well (that is what they say) The doctor will be out in a half hour to talk to us and I expect at that time she will be done and on her way to recovery.

Susans Surgery Time.

Sorry for the delay in this update. Dr. Beilman came out and talked to us. He was very happy and brought us some very good news. First Sue is doing very well. He explained about the scar tissue and as we expected it was from the previous surgeries.  He removed quite a bit and this should give her some relief from some of the abdominal pain that it caused until it reforms if it does. What was really good was that he did NOT have to do anything to her digestive system. He was thinking he would but because of a good job by the previous Whipple Surgeon, he was able to do the job he needed with minimal impact to her digestive system. I cannot go into the details (HIPAA rules) but he explained it to us and drew a picture which was very clear. (he said he wasn’t an artist but he did really well to get the message across) Let me say, if anyone is considering this surgery, Dr. Beilman is unbelievable. He knows his stuff and won’t do more than what needs to be done. Sue will tell you more when she is better. Ok, back to whats happening with Sue. Because of this good news what he expects is that instead of being on a feeding tube for weeks, he expects Sue to be eating in a few days (WOW that is AWESOME!). Now, this is me saying, this will change the dynamics of her recovery. She will still have a long road but he did say it won’t be as difficult as if she had had the Whipple which she already has.  There was more good news regarding other things that I cannot discuss because of the medical nature that was all just grand. In a few weeks, if Sue wants to add them to this blog for those who are following this as they prepare for or are considering this surgery, please know, the TP-IAT is more involved than just the removal of the pancreas and spleen. Always talk to the doctor as everyone has a different situation.  But for acute Chronic Pancreatitis like what Sue has, this is a life-changing option indeed.

The day has been long and dragging on. To see Dr. Beilman come out in the grand spirits he was in was a tremendous up lit to us. Sue is not out of the woods yet she still has several hours to go as they work to separate the Islet cells which will take 3 to 4 hours and then transplant them into the liver which will take another hour and a half. Then another hour to close. Then recovery and off to Intensive care. Sue won’t know about this news for about a day. But thanks to so many people and all the prayers God is listening. Don’t stop praying yet she still has a lot of serious hurdles to leap. After surgery, the next 24 hours are very critical in the recovery process. Keep praying.

Dr. Beilman telling us the good news about the surgery.


Dr. Beilman explaining the details of what he did via a drawing (sorry
the drawing has medical information so we cant display it).


A view of the board showing the time Sue is in
Surgery (D ,S UUOR 6:26) so far.

 

We just had an update from the OR, The pancreas is out! Sue is continuing to do well. The pancreas is on its way to the lab to have the Islet cells separated from the rest of the pancreas so that they can be transplanted into the liver. This will take 3 to 4 hours. Sue will remain in the operating room under anesthesia. She will be closed temporarily. We are now expecting Dr. Beilman to come out shortly and talk to us and tell us how everything has been going and how things will go as far as the rest of the procedure goes. Sue when you read this later you’re doing great I am really proud of you, hang in there the hard part is over!

We had another update from the OR. Susan is doing well. It is taking a little longer than expected to get to the pancreas because of scar tissue. This was something we expected and Dr. Beilman was aware of. Dr. Beilman is an excellent Doctor and has dealt with this before and knows exactly how to handle this. If anyone is wondering why there is scar tissue, this is from her many previous surgeries and in this case from her Whipple procedure done in 2012. I want to add, Sue spoke to the doctor who did the Whipple about removing the pancreas to get rid of her chronic pain. That doctor would not do a pancreatectomy, this (the scar tissue) is probably one reason why he was not comfortable doing it. With the skills and experience, Dr. Beilman has, I can’t think of a better person and I know Susan would be saying the same thing, we can’t think of anyone else we would want to do this surgery.

I just received word from the OR. The operation has started. Susan is doing well and everything is going well.

We just left Sue as they wheeled her to the operating room. We got to the hospital at 5 and they took her back to get her ready. We were a bit surprised because they had done the paravertebral block which is a spinal pain control system. We were originally told that it would be done once she was in the OR, but they did it early. We all met the doctor as he came to see Sue and he again gave us a run down about what he is expecting throughout the day. He will be coming out to see us once the pancreas is out in about 4 hours. For now she is in the OR going to sleep and then they get her ready for the operation.