I hope everyone had a safe and happy Memorial Day filled with family, friends, good food, and honoring the brave men and women who have fought for our freedom. Memorial Day (and everyday) we should be extremely thankful for the service of those selfless men and women.
After a long weekend, we hit the ground running on Tuesday, May 31st, with an appointment with my local surgeon to remove my remaining 3 staples. Now, the progression of my staples was quite something else. As my incision began to gap open, my staples began to drag through my skin, no longer able to hold the wound closed. Obviously, this brought much discomfort and really irritated my incision. So, about a week ago, I had the first 2 staples removed that had ripped through over the widest part of my incision.
While the removal of staples 2 of 7 provided temporary relief, the removal placed extra strain on the next staple trying to hold my incision closed. Back to the local surgeon I went before the long weekend to have the 3rd staple removed.
Over Memorial Day weekend, the 4th staple ripped through- as expected. But with no doctor's offices open until Tuesday, I was left with either grinning and bearing the discomfort, or taking the staple out myself. Now, I definitely do not have the strongest stomach, but after a year of battling Ulcerative Colitis, my tolerance has increased substantially.
So I grabbed a pair of pliers from the garage (don't worry, we disinfected them) and removed staple number 4. After a few minutes of twisting and maneuvering the staple from my incision, I called to my parents, grinning with a gaping incision and a pair of pliers holding a staple in my hand. Sometimes we don't even realize how strong a hardship can really make us. As someone who used to get squirmy at the sight of needles, blood, or vomit, pulling my own staple out truly indicated how much my tolerance had grown.
After my appointment with the local surgeon on Tuesday, I had my regular visit with the home nurse for blood work and started packing a small bag for the trip to Baltimore for my post-operative evaluation the next day. Our trips to Baltimore have become so familiar and routine that it has become second nature. We left early Wednesday morning and due to adjusting to my j-pouch still, the trip took us around 5 1/2 hours.
We grabbed some lunch and made our way to the Johns Hopkins Outpatient Center for my appointment. It is hard to describe the outpatient center. Just imagine 8 floors, plus a basement, of every kind of doctor and surgeon you could imagine. Add to that a pharmacy, lab for blood work, gift shop, eye glasses shop, coffee shop, and full-time restaurant. The outpatient center also serves as a bridge to the hospital, allowing doctors, nurses, and patients to move easily from building to another. The outpatient center is flooded with white coats, students, and patients from every corner of the world. It is truly amazing to me that patients will travel across the world for care at Johns Hopkins Hospital and reminds me of how lucky I am to have access to such a world-class hospital.
After another restroom stop we took the elevator to the 8th floor- general surgery. Luckily everything was running on-time and we were in and out in a reasonable amount of time.
Here's the verdict: my surgeon was pleased to hear that my j-pouch is functioning and I am obstruction-free (knock on wood). He requested that I stop all fluids and TPN for 2 weeks before removing my Hickman line to ensure that nothing goes wrong and I end up needing the line. Staying hydrated with a j-pouch is a challenge, so it is better to be safe than sorry. I was also advised to start an iron supplement because my iron levels have dipped extremely low.
We make the 5 hour drive again in 2 weeks to hopefully remove my Hickman and follow up with the healing of my incision.
Every day gets easier! Fingers crossed for a successful recovery with no problems this time.