Hi everyone, we left hospital on Thursday evening with Andrew still feeling a little wary of getting through the night and being in 1 piece by morning. I understood his concern as he had to be rushed into ER the day after his biopsy last June - after catheter removal he could not pee so had to rush back to be emptied. And then just last week he had to be re-admitted after 1 night at home with abdominal pains (which turned out to the the 'kink' in his intestine.) The Doctors at Mayo also understood his concern so just before we left on Thursday they taught him how to catheterize himself and gave him the kit with 2 sizes of tubing. Of course, we got through the night in 1 piece but it gave him the confidence he needed. Three nights have gone by and he's still doing ok. He's very tired and looks quite frail which is not surprising as he's lost 14 llbs. The day after discharge we had an appointment at the Mayo Clinic - fortunately our condo is attached to the clinic via the Skyways & Subways. It is not too far but it took us about 20 mins and Andrew was jiggered by the time we got there. It was well worth the effort and the Doctors just wanted to make sure he was ok.... we can't speak highly enough of the Mayo system.
When we left the hospital, Part 2 of the Recovery Program began. The operation bit is just one small part of the whole process and I can see that this next bit is going to take quite a while. All the 'new-neo's' out there will know what I'm talking about but for our family and friends this means that Andrew has to go to the loo every hour - day & night - until he's trained his new neo to behave like a proper bladder. His new neo doesn't have the muscles like we do to control it. During the day is not so bad as you can organise life around Public Washrooms (we know every one of them between here and the Mayo..) but night time is a killer. Andrew puts the alarm on & dutifully gets up to pee..... he's very pernickity, so it's not unusual for him to shower a couple of times too. I popped into the Mayo Shop and purchased the necessary 'gear' to help things along and protect bedding etc but it doesn't alter the fact that you don't get alot of the really good sleep that you need.
We are still managing our small walks. There was 4 inches of snow on Friday so our Skyways & Subways proved very useful - we can wander around downtown Rochester without even a coat. Last night we ventured down a new Skyway and came across a Barbershop Quartet competition - only in America! Today, we are planning to walk to the Barnes & Noble bookshop. It's nice there on Sunday - bit of music, coffee shop and loads of musing to do and then back home for Sunday lunch. Not my usual prime roast beef, yorkshire pudding and 6 veg as there is no way Andrew's digestive system could cope with it. He's missing 18 inches of intestine which his bowel has to readjust to. Andrew is sticking to the Soft diet - little and often - and this seems to be working (no cramps) with lots of fluid in between. If anyone out there has any good recipes for the 'Soft diet' I would welcome them....in the meantime, it's cheerio and thumbs up from us both. love T x
