Praise the Lord, my staples are gone! Yesterday, I saw the surgeon who actually performed my surgery. This is the first time I've met Dr. Chang, a trauma surgeon at NC Baptist, as I was already in the OR and asleep when he arrived. His team took care of me in the hospital and again, I must say how wonderful my experiences have been during my 3 stays there.
Dr. Chang explained that the adhesions in my abdomen had once again constricted my intestines, causing them to twist. Below the blockage, everything looked normal, but above the blockage, my small intestine was dilated to the circumference of a baseball! No wonder it hurts so bad, huh? He did have some good news for me and I wanted to share it, especially with those of you who have had or will have open abdominal surgery:
This time, Seprafilm was applied during my surgery. I had come across several references to this product during my research into chronic abdominal adhesions. I've included the URL to the product site on the links page if you're interested in learning more. Hopefully, the use of Seprafilm will reduce the likelihood of further adhesions forming. Dr. Chang said it works for some people and not for others, which is basically what my research had found. In any event, it would be a good idea to speak to your surgeon about this if you're having an open procedure - it can't hurt and just might help.
As far as my recovery is concerned, I'm feeling better this go-round than the one in June, probably because no intestine was removed this time. I still have abdominal pain and after 5 days of having Shelby here, I'm pretty tired, but I wouldn't trade my time with her for the world. Grant and Jake are also home this week; for those of you who don't know, Grant deploys to Iraq on the 12th of this month.
I'm looking forward to getting my energy back. Right now, I tire very easily, but I'm optimistic that things will get better.
I'll post again in a couple of weeks and let you know how things are going. In the meantime, thanks for your prayers - they keep me going!
