Hello,
I have a lot to catch up on so here goes. First, Sue is in the hospital. She had surgery by Dr. Beilman to remove the adhesions. And, she had a fairly good night. She is ok but it is painful and at times I can see that the pain works through the medication. So what has happened since my last post?
Sue has been experiencing pain when she eats. The adhesions restrict the movement of the bowl and so as food passes through the small intestine it hurts because the adhesions restrict the bowel. Sue decided to go with the surgery as I discussed in my last post. During these times it is very difficult to schedule anything because everyone is trying to get things done before the end of the insurance year. And, to get the doctor to find a free spot and OR staff to make things happen takes a lot of determination and Doctor Beilman’s medical administrator, Emily, is amazing at getting things done and set up. So the surgery was set for December 1st. We live in Florida so Sue arranged air travel, another Airbnb, and a car. When you have surgery the process begins a few days before with testing and blood work. Susan got some things taken care of in Florida and finished up here in Minneapolis the day before the surgery. One thing I suggest, if you travel and need to be at a particular place at a particular time build in extra time for your trip. The last time a hurricane delayed things and this time snow did. Coming from Florida the white stuff and the cold are a bit of a shock when you are not used to it and it has been almost 30 years since we dealt with it. Anyway, we got here, she finished her preop tests and everything was a go. Doctor Beilman is an amazing doctor. He met with us and explained everything to a tee, answered all our questions, and eased some of Sue’s tension. As many surgeries as Sue has had she still gets stressed when she has to have another surgery, even though she knows what to expect. She is very good at knowing her body and she knows when and how to make a decision to help keep her in good health if she believes surgery is the right way to go then she is right and she makes the decision with confidence. If you have a doubt about a decision like this, then you really need some time to make sure it is the right thing to do. Having a doctor like Doctor Beilman who explains EVERYTHING is a big help to build your confidence either way. Doctor Beilman will not operate if he feels it is not yet the right time. That makes him a very, very good doctor!
Surgery day and it was scheduled for 1:40 in the afternoon. Planned for 2 to 3 hours but it could take longer. Like everything else this trip, the surgery was delayed till 3 for hospital reasons but it did start. The surgery lasted almost 4 hours and then 2 hours in recovery. Definitely less than the TP-IAT but still a long operation. When Doctor Beilman came out he told me everything went well and that she was on her way to recovery. I recorded our conversation so I could play it for Sue when I saw her. I figured it would be better cause it would lose something in the translation if I told her how things went. When I did see her she was in a lot of pain. They had to give her more medication and that made her sleepy too. Sue is basically on a minimal amount of insulin but they gave her an insulin drip. This bothered me because she may use 2 to 4 units in a day and they were going to give her 1 unit an hour. They said they would monitor her sugars every hour. I know they know what they are doing but the insulin would cause her to go low and if that happened quickly on the pain medication where she did not feel it, well what would happen an hour later when they come in and find the insulin 40 or below? So they gave her dextrose to prevent the lows. Sue was a bit upset that I was worried about this but I know Sue and her sugar levels, they do not. They thought she was a type one diabetic and with the islet cells working that is not totally true. Sue was under a lot of medication and sleepy and I don’t think she was cognizant enough to think about what was happening. It is important for someone to be there as an advocate for the patient and to help if they can with the care.
So the Doctor told me that she did very well in the surgery. It took every bit of 3 hours to remove a lot of adhesions and they were all around her small bowl and left side. He did accidentally cut a portion of the small bowl and had to do a connection but it was in the part of the small bowel where the bile comes from the liver. So the impact was very minimal in the grand picture. It happened because that part of the bowel had grown to the adhesion. But it’s ok. For everything else, it was just as Doctor Beilman expected and he felt very confident that for a while Sue will feel much better. There is no way of knowing how things will be in the long term, only time will tell.
So I am sitting beside her the day after the surgery and it’s about noon. Since I have been here she has improved. They did cut back the medication because it was affecting her breathing but it is for the better. She is still groggy and sleepy but that is the medication still.
Well, that is the up-to-the-minute happenings of Susan’s TP-IAT venture. More in the next day or two.
