much like any NZ innings....

1) the whole thing yesterday took about 5 hours

2) today she could be out in the blink of an eye

3) her middle can't cope with any sort of pressure


We've worked out why this still feels quite surreal. For most people, an operation of this magnitude comes after much suffering or with immediate fear. So someone with ulcerative colitis who has the same operation will get relief after years of pain. Someone who has a hemicolectomy for a big tumour is grateful that the damn thing is out of them. A hip replacement ends years of pain and can return mobility and freedom.

But here, all was pretty ok. Oh, sure, there was a small tumour, but that was taken care of during the colonoscopy. No-one would chop off an arm if the mole I excised from the back of the hand turned out to be a melanoma with clear margins*.

This then was a prophylactic procedure, to try to eliminate the risk of turning up one day with liver metastases from that one polyp that got missed that one time. Like the double mastectomy for someone with the BRCA gene (a la Angelina Jolie). The key difference here though is the loss of function, not just form (although I'm not trying to downplay the effect that can have).

The brutish ward staff were true to their word, and forced her out of bed this morning - barely 18 hours after the final stitch! By the time Nana went to see her she was exhausted after her 45 mins hard sitting in the chair. Presumeably they'll have her doing sit-ups by Thursday. She been very good with her DVT exercises, though.

I took the older one in to see her after school - we figured it would be too hard for the wee one, as she'd want to cuddle and crawl all over mum. And we worried she'd be too distressed when we left. Elder was quite taken by all the pumps and tubes. I pointed out mum's central line (in the neck).

The stoma has turned out to be a touch fiddly. They seem to have it working ok for now, but the word is that they may need to do the reversal procedure in a couple of weeks, not eight as originally planned. Now, that eight weeks is important to let the join at the end to heal enough to cope with its new job, so reducing the healing time will put her at risk of leakage. However there was the chance that they wouldn't be able to form the stoma in the first place, so I guess two weeks of healing is better than none.

I can't decide on the style of tap I want for the new bathroom vanity.

#1 Husband

* if any mole that I excised turned out to be a melanoma, that person would need to go to Plastics for a much wider excision margin, even if my sample looked clear.