Out of the ICU

I am out of the ICU and can actually use a computer so I thought I should update everyone on my status. I am sure most of you have followed Steph's caring bridge site so I will give a quick summary of the past 7 days.

On Wednesday 5/30, I went in for surgery at 8am and I am sure that Dr. Boudreaux felt his sphincter clench, said a prayer and said something along the lines of "Oh Shit" as soon as he opened me up.  There were tumors everywhere.  The blood supply was severely cut off to the small intestine and the small intestine was grey, dead like and distended.  There was one obvious complete obstruction and twelve other partial obstructions.  My liver was  littered with tumors with most of the left lobe was pretty much completely tumor.

So, for the first day, they fixed the obstructions and excised the tumors everywhere and removed about half of my left lobe of the liver.  They worked some on the ureter and removed tumors around the arteries feeding the intestines and the liver.  This took about 12.5hrs and they then left me open so that they could continue surgery the next day.  Dr. Boudreaux's day was not over as he then had to get on a plane to harvest an organ for transplant, returning Thursday morning at 5am.  I don't know how these guys function at such an incredibly high level on so little sleep.

Day two was an add on surgery day and I was brought back about 2:30 for another 5hrs or so under the knife.  Again, this is after Dr. Boudreaux had gotten back early that morning and may (don't know) have had other surgeries that day.  They discovered the hepatic artery had failed and put in a graft of a vein to try to repair it.   The intestines had lost some of the healthy pink color that returned the previous day so work was done to revive the blood flow.  After that, more tumors, more ureter, more, more, more.

Day three was a bonus round surgery day and again started around 2:30 but 'only' went for about 4hrs.  They checked up on the artery repair and it was holding.  The intestines were continuing to look good so they did some final cleanup work on the ureter, removed yet more tumors and closed up.

They left many things undone, particularly some tumors around the rectum.  Those tumors had not compromised the wall of the rectum but could be felt digitally and there was just way too much scar tissue in that area to address it now.  Perhaps in the future but we need to really determine what is the best course of action to take at this time and there are many options.

Saturday through Tuesday were spent in the ICU and that is a brutal place to spend any significant amount of time.  I had a blood pressure cuff going off every 30 minutes (arterial lines in both wrists would not hold), beeping from the nearly dozen of piggy-backed lines and IV's that went into me.  Several old ladies that had a bit of dementia, and would scream for hours at a time, Drs and students coming in to check on me as well as the nurse.  I should have asked for a sleep aid but never thought to and will not hesitate to do so in the future.

Finally, Tuesday evening, I get my first meal (bland fish and rice) and got released to a regular recovery room.  I also requested a sleep aid so that I could get some solid sleep for the first time in a while.  Unfortunately, the meal I had got rejected by my body (stomach did not really know what to do with food) and I threw it up.  I begged Stephanie to stay with me that night and she did.  Knowing she was there was a huge relief to me and made the night go better.

Throughout the ICU time, Steph has been reading me her blog posts as well as some comments in the guestbook which made the time go better.  Thank you everyone who wrote, emailed, called, or texted Stephanie and helped her frame of mind as well as mine.

I am now being fed 6 small meals a day and the first three today seem to be staying down!  Food smells great but my stomach is shrunken as well as out of practice.  We need to train me back up to where I can eat again at a normal (but not close to a Brian Einswiler) level of feeding.

We don't know much about our long term paths forward but will probably be coming back to NOLA in the next 6 weeks to discuss this will all the surgeons, doctors, radiologist, and interventional radiologists at this group.  We also don't know what to expect with respect to return to work.  I start long term disability around the end of June and the outcome of the plans to be made will determine when and how I return to work.    

I anticipate that we will be staying at room 505 of the Oschner, Kenner hospital (180 W Esplanade Ave Kenner, LA 70065) for the next 2-3 days and then will return to the hope lodge (2609 River Rd
New Orleans, LA 70121) for an additional couple of days, returning on 6/13.

Again, I cannot thank folks enough for their support through this time.  It has been exceptionally heartening, even for a emotionless mathematician like me.