Another day, a little bit better.

Now that Jennie has gotten out of the Hospital she is finally able to rest a bit more, which seems to be helping her recover a bit quicker. The only down side is that she takes her pain medicine every two hours, so she isn't sleeping long periods of time without having to wake up and take more medicine.

Last night she wanted to go out to eat, and we decided to go to the Old Spaghetti Factory just a few blocks from our hotel. The trip there was very painful, as the roads up here are very rough, but Jennie handled it very well and we came back and played Uno for a while.

Today we have just let her rest mostly, and I doubt we will venture out of the hotel in the next day or two to prepare for the trip home on Wednesday. Our plan is to go see Dr. Sutherland that morning and leave straight from there. I don't know if we will make it half way or not, but hopefully we can make it back to Owensboro by Thursday night.

Moving on Out . . .

For those of you that have been following the blog, Jennie did get discharged today as we expected. She is still very sore and we will be staying here until the middle of the week to have another appointment with Dr. Sutherland on Wednesday.

Not much else to report, hopefully Jennie will get some better rest here without being interrupted constantly by nurses, which should help a lot with her recovery.

Day 10

Dr. Sutherland just left, and it sounds like Jennie will be getting out tomorrow barring any major setbacks!!

Jennie is still in a lot of pain, and today they have switched her totally to oral meds. They are a larger dose than she was on prior to entering the hospital last week, but still less than they were when she left the Hospital after her surgery in June. Hopefully they will re-evaluate her levels and bump them up some so she can be more comfortable.

Dr. Sutherland also talked briefly about the pain she is still experiencing after eating, and suggested a test called a hidoscan we should have run to determine exactly what the source of pain is. He gave us the option of doing the test early next week up here or doing it once we get back to KY, and we chose the latter.

Please continue to pray, Jennie still has a long way to recover after she gets out of the Hospital tomorrow!

Days 8 and 9

I am sorry I neglected to post yesterday, but I had a terrible migraine and went to bed very early. On the flip side, that meant that I woke up early today and managed to beat the doctors in for once.

Jennie had a very bad day yesterday, they tried to switch her to her oral pain meds, with the PCA still available for breakthrough. Unfortunately, the orders were written incorrectly and she went without pain meds for about an hour. Needless to say, it took quite a while to get her pain back under control, and from about 10 yesterday morning until almost 3 she was in severe pain. They did finally get the pain under control, but it took a long time and she was worn out afterwords.

Today Jennie is in a lot less pain and has just been sleeping so far this morning. The doctors came in about 7:30. Her incision looks good, and they will be giving her antibiotics until she is able to be released, hopefully on Saturday!!

Thats right, they said tentatively Saturday she could be released, and we would set up an appointment with Dr. Sutherland for early next week. Hopefully this time table will stick, I know Jennie is looking forward to being out of here. Keep praying that Jennie will recover from the surgery quickly, and that this surgery did fix the pain she has been having the last few months.

Day 7

So there isn't much progress to report today. Jennie's diet did not change, and she is hurting some today, possibly from the incision being opened yesterday.

She is still making small progress and is still moving around, but her pain level going up some today has us slightly worried. Unfortunately the Doctors came in very early today, so we were unable to get their take on it.

I am hoping to get over there earlier tomorrow morning, and hopefully I will be able to catch the doctors to get a better feel for what they are thinking. Until then, keep Jennie in your prayers!

Day 6

Again today Jennie is doing well. They started her on clear liquids today, so Jennie has been drinking apple juice all day. We found a juice last time, Nantucket Nectars, that has the most incredible apple juice. The only other thing she can have that she will eat is red jello, but she doesn't like the generic kind they have at the hospital, so we had to bring some over for her this afternoon.

The doctors did feel that her incision needed to drain, so today they opened it up a little at the bottom. They did all this without giving her any additional pain meds, and I could tell it hurt quite a bit. Not only did they cut the wound back open, but then they also pulled it apart a little in order to get as much fluid as possible out. That being said, Jennie's pain was much more this afternoon than it was yesterday, but her stomach was beginning to swell and become red, so it definitely needed to drain. I only hope that nothing further will need to be done at the incision site and that it can heal over the next few days.

Jennie was also somewhat more tired today, so I tried to let her sleep a lot of the time I was there. It seems that she is able to sleep better during the day while we are there because the nurses leave her alone more than they do overnight.

The draining is an issue we have known about for a day or two, and was even speculated about right after the surgery, so it was expected and shouldn't be a major setback in her recovery. If they didn't allow it to drain there was the risk it could become infected, and her pain seemed higher today due to the swelling, so I think it should actually make her feel better pretty quickly.

We ask for your continued prayers, the doctors are talking about taking her off of the TPN and allowing her to try soft solids tomorrow, which will really begin to tell us if her colon has healed enough yet for her to leave the hospital in a few days.

Day 5

Again today Jennie seems to be doing pretty well. She didn't get much sleep last night, so she has slept quite a bit, but her pain seems to be a little better.

The doctors said they will try her on clear liquids tomorrow, which will be a major step towards her getting out of here. They are hoping that she will be out of here before the weekend, which we would be very happy with.

While the doctors were in they did mark a few places along her incision that were red and puffy. The doctors don't seem to think this is an infection at this point, but they wanted to mark it so they know to monitor it over the next few days.

Jennie has already been on 2 walks today down the hall and back, and also sat in the reclining chair for an few hours. Each day she seems to be doing more and more, and her progress is much quicker than it was after the last surgery.

Day 4

Again today Jennie is doing pretty well. She is experiencing a little more pain than yesterday, but they seem to think it may be because of her digestive tract beginning to work again, and the nurses have noting some sounds indicating this may be the case.

I was able to get her to go for a decent walk down the hall today, and occupational therapy came in and worked with her shortly afterwards. The doctor mentioned this morning that he will start a TPN, a bag of nutrients given through IV, tonight or tomorrow. I hope this goes ok, last time the TPN messed with her blood sugar levels quite a bit.

All in all, today has been another good day. So far the Doctors haven't mentioned when we might leave, but I would be surprised if She is still in the hospital next weekend at this time. Keep praying for a quick recovery, hopefully this will be the last surgery for a long time!

Day 3

Today Jennie continues to make a lot of progress, and the doctors are impressed with how quickly she is advancing. They were able to take her NG tube out, which has made her much more comfortable. Her blood pressure has finally dropped back to the normal range and her pulse has come down some too.

Jennie was able to take a walk down the hall and back, as well as getting out of bed to sit in a chair for a while, both very good for just a few days after abdominal surgery. Her pain seems to have lowered a little also, and she is sleeping much better than before.

We appreciate all the calls, emails and posts, I promise I am passing them on to Jennie! Please continue to keep her in your prayers, hopefully she will heal quickly and be on her way back home soon.

Day 2

Jennie is recovering very well today. The doctors adjusted her pain meds and gave her lasix to get some of the fluid off, and both seem to have worked very well. Her pain is still high, but she is aware enough today to find the NG tube irritating, which is a good sign.

Physical Therapy came in today and had her sit on the edge of the bed. They also asked us to try and get her to walk a little today, and we did manage to get her to walk to the door and back. When Dr. Sutherland came in later he was surprised we had been able to make that much progress, but getting Jennie up and moving was good for her recovery.

Her Hemoglobin had dropped some today, so they gave her two more units of blood. All in all, I feel like her recovery is going better this time than last, and we can only hope and pray that it continues that way.

And Recovery begins . . .

I am sorry to have not posted again last night, but they didn't get Jennie into her room until after 10 pm, and we only got to spend a short time with her before heading back to the hotel.

Jennie looks much better than she did after the last surgery, but she is very swollen and hurting a lot. Her blood pressure is still up, but that is likely attributed to the pain meds and the extra fluid she has right now. The doctors are hoping that the fluid will come off itself, and are hoping to avoid giving her a diuretic to reduce the swelling.

Jennie is in the transplant unit again, just like last time, so hopefully she will continue to have the high level of nursing care from last time. The doctor said hopefully her recovery will be quicker this time, but it is still too early to really tell how quickly it will go.

Jennie's address here is below if you are interested in sending a card. I am sure hearing from everyone would lift her spirits in a few days once she gets to feeling a little better. They won't accept flowers on her floor, and we are limited on space to travel home, so please no gifts. Thank you in advance.

Fairview Medical Center

420 Delaware Street SE

Floor 6D Room 506 - Jennie Boggess

Minneapolis, MN 55455

Surgery is Done!

Dr. Sutherland came out a few minutes ago and told us that they were wheeling Jennie to recovery. He said that the colon was even larger and more inflamed than he had thought from the images, and that he clearly thought that was her problem.

He removed all but about a foot of the colon, which should be enough to prevent Jennie from having any long term issues. He had taken some pictures and showed us, and it was very large, clearly not normal. He reiterated again that he felt this was a problem she had prior to the last surgery, and that it could have been another source of the pain she felt all along.

Jennie only had to have 2 units of blood this time, which is much better, and Dr. Sutherland felt that her recovery should be quicker and less major this time.

We appreciate all the calls, texts, e-mails and other forms of support. Please continue to keep Jennie in your thoughts and prayers, she still has a long way to go but hopefully the worst is behind us.

Deja Vu

So it seems like not so long ago that I was sitting in this waiting room in Minnesota waiting anxiously for Dr. Sutherland to tell us that Jennie's Surgery went well, and here I find myself less than a year later back in the same place.

For the few who may not know, the surgery Dr. Sutherland talked about months ago has become necessary, and Jennie is having a subtotal colectomy (removal of part of the colon). Her pain the last few months had digressed to where it was before her pancreatectomy in June and Dr. Sutherland feels that this is due to her colon damage. We aren't as confident as he is, but I guess that can happen after frequently getting our hopes up time after time.

Jennie's surgery was at 9:30 this morning and it is 1:30 as I type this with no word as of yet. We were warned yesterday that he expected the surgery to take about 2.5 or 3 hours, but that it could vary depending on the extent of damage and anything else he might find while operating. They also didn't take her into the operating room until 9:45, so they were a little behind schedule to begin with.

This surgery is supposed to be much less dangerous, but the recovery time can still take up to 2 weeks in the hospital, so we may be up here almost as long this time also.

We are all getting nervous and anxious as it takes longer and longer for us to hear word, hopefully there haven't been any complications. If taking longer this time will avoid further problems, it will be worth the wait.

Please keep Jennie in your prayers, I will post later once we know more.