I have finally made it home from the hospital!

Hi to everyone. First, I need to thank everyone for all their thoughts, prayers, well wishes and encouragements in the hours leading up to the surgery. It got me through some rough patches. The surgery itself went very well with no problems with my heart or asthma which had been concerns. Unfortunately by the afternoon I was throwing up blood. They did a chest xray and an upper GI on me and found a blockage...nothing was getting through the new pouch. Since my Doc was on call all weekend, he decided to go slow, rather than reopen me right away. He put in an NG tube (yuck, yuck, double yuck) and kept draining it and treating it with meds. I also had a few problems with my catheter, it blocked up a little, so while it was showing output, I was still very uncomfortable with the need to pee. I was in ICU for 5 days with all that junk. On Monday they did another upper GI (such yummy stuff they have you drink) and found it was draining properly. Yippee!!! So the NG tube came out...yippee again. I did clear liquids then...I never thought an ice chip would taste soooo good. On Tuesday afternoon I went to pureed and on Wednesday came home. He wanted to keep me another day, but I really wanted to come home. After the 4 hour drive, I think I could have stayed another day, but after sleeping til now I feel a little better. My best advice after just a few days is to stay positive no matter what. I saw others there that would hardly walk or do their breathing stuff or drink and they were not doing as well as those that were upbeat and positive and doing what the doc's ordered. You don't feel like doing all that. You just want to lay there and feel miserable, but that will do nothing for you! Grinnell Hospital was AWESOME!!!!!!! I have never before had a hospital stay in which every person I encountered was upbeat, friendly and willing to do anything to help. Every nurse, aid, xray tech, housekeeper, transfer tech, pulminary tech, etc. was wonderful. I'm totally serious on this! I have made it to the losing side! Yippppeeeee!!!!!!

OMG! Sue, I am sooo sorry that I couldn't get in touch with you or Lisa to find out about all the problems that you were having! I had assumed (DUH!) that everything was going fine since I hadn't heard from you. I have learned my lesson. Please let me know if I can do anything. Glad you have made it home . Hope to hear from you again soon. Elizabeth (excuse me while I go turn in my tarnished angel's halo) 0:o(

Sue- when did you have your surgery? I had mine at Grinnell on July 11th, and you're right, they are a wonderful bunch! Glad to hear you're doing better. Drop me a line when you feel up to it! Jeri