Up to her room . . .

We finally got Jennie moved into a room and got to see her for the first time. This time her room is on the Surgical Oncology floor, which we are not sure why they chose this floor. We are afraid once she begins to heal and move around more that the low moral and demeanor on the floor could impede her recovery, but I hope we are wrong.

On the plus side, she does look better this time compared to the last two surgeries. Her color is a little better, and she seems to be in a little less pain than the previous times. That is not to say that she doesn't have a long way to go, but it is the little signs :-) Anyway, I hope she is able to sleep tonight and will be well on the way to recovery soon.

She made it!!

Dr. Sutherland came out a few minutes ago and told us that the surgery is complete and that Jennie should be making her way to recovery shortly. Dr. Sutherland thinks the surgery went well and hopefully there will be a noticeable improvement within several weeks as Jennie begins to heal.

He elected not to do the liver biopsy he was planning on, he said because he was concerned about bleeding. He was also on his way to another case, and he said her blood sugar stayed low the entire surgery without any insulin. I think both of these may have been factors in him choosing not to do the biopsy as well.

Anyway, the surgery is over and now she can begin to recover. I expect her to be out of it for the next day or two, but hopefully she will notice a difference as she begins to heal and trys to eat in the next few days and weeks. Keep praying that this surgery will have finally made her pain tolerable and that she will heal quickly.

Surgery update

Dr. Sutherland just poked his head out briefly to give us an update. They just completed the stomach removal and will be working to attach the remaining portion to the Duodenum when he goes back in. He noted that there was a large amount of swelling and inflammation, possibly from the reflux. He warned us that it was taking somewhat longer than he anticipated, but that everything was going fine so far.

Dr. Sutherland also said that the site around where he performed the Subtotal Colectomy was also very inflamed, and he wasn't sure if this was related to the reflux or not. He doesn't see any other issues at this point, but he did tell us due to the prior surgeries he was going very slowly to avoid any further damage and to ensure everything is done properly to avoid any additional surgeries.

We appreciate all the prayers and support, and hope to have some good news in a few more hours.

Surgery has begun . . .

Jennie's surgery began this morning at about 7:30, and Dr. Sutherland told us to expect it to last 3 or 4 hours, possibly a bit longer depending on exactly what they find. We did get some good news that her islet cells seem to be functioning very well after the boost test on Wednesday. Her insulin production is just below the normal range, which it seems is better than Dr. Sutherland expected after the transplant last summer.

Today in addition to the Roux-En-Y procedure, Dr. Sutherland will take care of any adhesions he finds and do a liver biopsy. Dr. Sutherland told us that many of the patients he has to perform this surgery on notice a difference almost immediately, and I think that we are all hoping that happens with Jennie.

Jennie of course was very nervous this morning, as we are, but we all hope that this will be the last surgery for a long time and that she will finally be able to reduce the pain medicine and get back into school or whatever she wants to do. If this makes it so that she can actually live life again it will have all been worth it.

Please keep Jennie in your prayers, hopefully the surgery will be done in a few hours and she can begin to recover.

From Jennie

Hi everyone! This is Jennie. I wanted to write and let you all know how grateful I am for your thoughts and prayers. With the surgery tomorrow, we are getting, as you can well imagine, a little nervous. But in hopes of soothing some of my dear husband's fears we have found a midnight showing of "GI Joe" that we will be attending tonight. To everyone reading this post, you have all been a very important piece of our lives and we would not be the couple we are today, nor as happy with our lives as we are today without you. Thank you for all of your support, your prayers, and, of course, for the many hugs and cards. As tomorrow morning approaches, I will be thinking of you all and praying that you have a blessed day. Thank you in advance for your love and prayers, and I ask only that you continue to hold my family and my sweet Andy as they deal with the numerous hours in the hospital and waiting rooms.
With lots of love and hugs, Jennie

Meeting with the Doctor

Today we met with Dr. Sutherland and discussed the surgery in more length. He believes that this surgery should absolutely fix the remaining pain and digestive issues that Jennie has, and talked briefly with us about several other patients he has had to perform this surgery on after their Pancreatectomy. He also mentioned that he was glad we had not attempted to do the Roux-En-Y back in March along with the Subtotal Colectomy because of the complications we had with that surgery afterwords.

Jennie's surgery is scheduled for Friday morning, and we have to be at the Hospital at 5:30. It will be Dr. Sutherland's first case of the day, which has been the case both other times, and should help to get the surgery started on time. Dr. Sutherland gave us an estimate of 3-4 hours for this surgery, however both of the previous surgeries went well past the estimates we were given, so I expect it to take somewhat longer than that. He also mentioned that he expected this surgery to be pretty difficult, and it is much more involved than the Subtotal Colectomy was in March. This was not very comforting to hear, especially after that surgery ended up having lots more complications than we expected. Jennie's blood work was drawn today as well, and her hemoglobin levels were a little on the low side, so a blood transfusion will most likely be necessary on Friday.

On a side note, today was the first time that they have accessed the Powerport that was put in last month. It was much easier to do once we found a nurse who was familiar with the port, and it only took two attempts which is much better than the 15 tries it took last time.

We made it!

After two long days of traveling, we made it into Minneapolis late last night. We are staying at the same hotel as last time, and it was really sad to know that I didn't need a map to get to the hotel or to Target to buy groceries. I think that is definitely a sign we have been here too much!!

Anyway, we are planning on just relaxing and getting settled in today, we will start the pre-op testing tomorrow morning bright and early. We have to be at the hospital at 5:30 on Friday, so the next few days will be early mornings for us. Just wish us well, I will try to begin posting regularly again!