Eric's Surgery

On Friday October 30, 2009 Eric had surgery. This problem has been leading up to this day for too long, 47 days to be exact. With being diagnosed with diverticulitis and having it not get better within that time frame we decided that the best thing for Eric would be to have that part of the colon removed so this problem will finally go away and hopefully never return. It was considered an elective surgery (he could just live with the pain until it eventually went away and hope that it healed correctly and that no other problems or complications would occur) but we both had prayed about it and felt that this was the right choice. It made us feel even better when the doctor, after having done the surgery, told us that he thought we made the right choice considering there is no way to know the future and that the infected part looked worse than the scan had been showing. The day before Friday Eric had a colonoscopy done to make sure there were no surprises and check for cancer or other diseases and it turned out that is was just diverticulitis and nothing else, the rest of his colon looked great and healthy! Talk about a relief! The day before Thursday Eric had to start preparing for everything and a part of that included being on a clear liquid diet. That means water, jello, broth, Gatorade, water, jello... that's it. He has had to be on this diet a few times before (previous hospitalizations) and for a while after the surgery. Because of this diet he has lost close to 20 pounds! Anyway the surgery went really well, it took around 2 hours. Eric's dad, Randy, waited with me at the hospital and my mom watched my girls for me. No one under 14 was allowed to come because of flu season so my lucky mom got to introduce Kyla to the bottle for the first time. It was rough but she managed and I am so grateful for all her help! The doctor came to talk to us to tell us what happened and how everything went and he told us that he removed about a foot of his colon. A normal colon is around 6-7 feet long and to have a regular functioning colon you need at least 4 or 5 feet. So Eric is still functioning normally. He also said that he could definitely tell what part needed to be taken out and that the majority of the section he took out was the part that had more diverticula on it (those are what they are called before they get infected which most people actually have and don't know it) so the problem is not very likely to occur again. Eric spent an hour or so in the recovery room then we got to see him (we were waiting in his room he was going to stay in for the next few days). He was still out of it and his throat was killing him from the breathing tube but they would let him have water yet and that kinda made him made. They tried to see if he could go for a walk that night but that didn't happen, he did go for a walk the next day though and got better each day. It was kind of funny walking with him because old people with canes walked faster than he did! We both had a good laugh at that. He had an epidural in to numb is stomach area for the first three days when they took it out he really felt the pain but he got it under control so that he could come home Tuesday night. Everyday has been a little bit better. It's still a four week recovery from the surgery date but we can definitely see improvement. We are both ready for the day when he can pick his babies up and hug them and play with them and get back to work!

This is what his stomach looked like the first day after surgery, there were four incisions.

The second Sunday after surgery, the bottom left (your right) is the largest incision and is the one where the doctor reached his hand in and took out his colon to work on it, all the other cuts are small where cameras were put in to help them see.