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and last updated June24th., 2002.
WELCOME TO MY DAY..
IT IS NICE TO HAVE YOU SHARE IT WITH ME...
When I was in hospital, I decided I'd face the reality of suddenly acquiring a stoma by keeping a regular online diary..a "Life With a Colostomy" kind of thing....even wrote the first episode during my second week at home. Funny..once I was out and about again, that sharing was the LAST thing I wanted to do. And I'm darned if I could write the second episode..which upset a few of my readers.
Well, folks, I did survive both the colostomy experience and the surgery to put me back together again, (they call it Reversal of Hartmann's Procedure)
Not so happy was the young nurse rostered to look after me on return to the ward.
Despite being, this time, so very organized and so thoroughly packed and prepared, I was quite sick for some days. There was a lot of pain this time, and the epidural analgesia did not work for me after the first day, and my veins refused to cooperate for parenteral nutrition after three days, so the first days after were quite rough and I learned a lot about life in a shared acute-surgical ward in a busy teaching hospital..not all of it good, but on the whole a positive experience!
And the flowers from my online friend Dr B from Alabama, helped a lot, and attracted a lot of attention.
"I am wondering if you survived the experience" , wrote one gentleman, "Since your journal has ceased.."
And it was a rather long procedure, some five hours in theatre, while they unstuck a lot of things that had adhered to things they shouldn't have, but the first question I asked, when I finally woke up was "Do I still have a stoma?" and was so very happy when they said NO.
Told she was nursing a "reversal of stoma" patient, she was bemused to find, under the dressing, a hole...and had to go doublecheck that she had the right patient and that the correct operation had been performed.
Noone had told her, (or me) that the old stoma site would be left open to heal from the bottom up, minimizing the risk of infection or incomplete closure...and would take at least 5 weeks to heal over.
I was aghast at first, but changed my mind when I found I was sharing a room with a woman whose wound had been stitched up and never healed underneath..after eight years an experimental procedure involving vacuum dressings was being utilized with some success but she was just beginning her fourth week in the hospital, and had obviously become accustomed to enjoying bad health and all the attention it brought her!
Besides the sixth floor room had a superb view of Corio Bay and the Bayside suburbs...almost worth being sick for!
The surgical Resident the lovely Olivia, looked at the flowers and pronounced..
"Those have to have come from an American.."
"Yes, they have," I acknowledged, " how did you know?"
"Because", she said sourly, "Yanks always have to do EVERYTHING bigger and better than everyone else!"
Well, I don't know what magic American can utilize from so far away, but those flowers were still completely fresh when I went home and lasted a full three weeks, with the little green orchids still going strong after FIVE.."
And long before that arrangement began to droop, an even more spectacular delivery arrived..roses and lilliums, this time, in a huge vase...and again they lasted, and lasted, and lasted....
I decided to thank Dr B by knitting him a vest, which he tried to tell me he didn't really need, living in Alabama and all, but I had time on my hands so knitted it any way...
But I had all kinds of trouble with the directions, and finally decided it wasn't perfect enough to send overseas...
...Looked just fine on the daughter though!
Daughter is back studying to finish the nursing training she never completed years ago, and finding it hard going with 6 children aged from 15 down to 9 months!
Being home for the month recuperating has been a mixed bag. I expected to make a quicker recovery, and was impatient when I found I needed daily rests and a LOT of sleep, and I expected to have clearer, unhappy memories of being stoma-tized..but it wasn't like that at all. My body slipped right back into the normal toilet routines, and I had to work hard to even remember what it had been like..kind of the way we women forget labour pains enough to go back and have more babies!
My surgeon, the reputable Professor W., warns that many people who have had diverticular disease need to have further surgery after the initial treatment since the condition frequently reoccurs, with more bowel needing to be removed. But he is reasonably confident that won't happen with me, or not for a long time, since what I had left appeared in good condition and the healing was quite fast.
But first, back to work for the end of the financial year, with all its incredible paperwork, a lot of staff promotions, and another senior leaving , meaning lots of negotiating and reallocation of duties and new rosters.
And all needing transport to a miriad of after school and weekend activities!
I think she probably understand me a little better now too, since I had to do almost all of my studying while working fulltime, and after my children were in bed.
She has always said that her lullaby was the sound of my typewriter on the other side of her bedroom wall..
Course that was before word processors and computers made study life so much easier!! Maybe I'd have managed my doctorate had I the computer power I have now!
Daughter has never believed in using a playpen to restrain her children..was very scathing of MY liking for this means of curtailing baby-wandering!
But she was quite happy to try it pre-exams if it meant a few minutes freedom...
Funny, isn't it, how much our children find we have suddenly learned as THEY get older!
If it hadn't been for the bathroom drawers and study closets full of supplies, I might have found it all hard to believe!
And despite all the books I had lined up ready to read, and despite my habit of staying in bed in the mornings till late with the radio and the papers, I only got through a few of my little library, and tired really quickly for the first month.
Which is my excuse for this diary update being so very LATE!!
And he feels there is no reason why I can't travel, later this year, especially if I can fly first class or business class and travel light..
And the new pharmacy salary schedule has come out as always , in late June, just before I have to balance the Salaries spreadsheet for the Financial Year, and write everyone's Group Certificates.
It will be an incredibly busy time, and I am actually going back to work three weeks early so I expect I will have some bad days!
As for my hair, it survived the second anaesthesia quite well, so keeping it short was obviously a good move.And of course it was sensible to keep it like this for a hospital stay..quick to dry in those awful first few days when a shower was such an effort, no need for conditioner, no back- of- head -against- pillow tangling- just wash and wear!
I still hate it but everyone else seems to really like it while daughter has totally forbidden any reperming...
My hidden agenda is based on quietly growing it while I am back at work, growing it for the few weeks without saying anything and then quietly showing up at home one day with the new soft perm!
...
...looking, once again, as I do in my webpage photos...
After all this is MY life, isn't it?
And how very grateful I am to Professor W and his team that I still HAVE it!!
Love to everyone ,and everyone on our side!
-from
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June 19th:
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©Robin Knight, 2002.
