On April 12, 2024, surrounded by his doctors and nurses, Pete Stoma was buried and reunited (hopefully forever) with his true love, Peanut. 😀 

(Pete was my ileostomy--the end of my small intestines--and Peanut was my mucous fistula--the beginning of my colon.)

I had my big "plumbing surgery" Friday 4/12 (ostomy take-down, reanastomosis, lysis of adhesions, and liver biopsy). It ended up being an 8 hr surgery because the surgeon found masses of adhesions that he had to dig through to find my intestines. Adhesions are like spider webs that the body produces in response to inflammation and my body loves to make adhesions!  They can result in bowel obstructions like I had in March so it was good that he was able to remove them. There was also evidence of an old abcess which probably accounted for my mystery fevers in September. I was nothing by mouth with a nasogastric tube to suction until Thursday morning when the NG tube was removed and my diet was slowly advanced. Everything is moving through my intestines again although my colon is still getting used to regulating fluid content again. Pain is not too bad; I have been able to transition to just Tylenol. I am seeing my surgeon tomorrow a bit earlier than planned because the site where I had the internal jugular central line (IV in my neck) is swollen and painful.

The staff on the GI transplant floor at UPMC Montefiore were fantastic! I have a stack of recognition forms I need to fill out for all the staff who went above and beyond. I am especially thankful for a nursing assistant I had Wednesday night. She graduates next week with her nursing degree. I can tell she is a nurse at heart and will make an amazing professional nurse. I saw she had "Psalm 51" tattooed on her inner arm so we spent some time talking about our favorite Bible passages while she took my vitals. I had a CT scan that evening with oral contrast mixed in about 32oz of apple juice. I hadn't had anything by mouth for about 6 days so when offered the contrast in water or juice, I leapt at the juice not thinking through the physiology of hypertonic fluids on an empty GI system. When there was severe abdominal pain and an accident in bed several hours later, she was so compassionate letting me hold her hand and for a couple minutes while the pain meds took effect. 

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers! I covet your prayers as I continue to heal, as my body figures out its new normal, and then as I start work again in a couple weeks.