Greetings from Bennie and Bratcat

Hi all. Just wanted to let you know that Bratcat is out of surgery and doing well. Her surgery was yesterday. Her sugeon said it went very well, exactly how he wanted it to go. Watching her go off to surgery was traumatic. She ended up getting an epidural so I wasn't able to go in with her. The OR nurse was great. She called us in the surgical waiting room about 45 minutes after we left Bratcat to let us know she was wonderful through the whole prep, and that the surgeon was about to start. 4-1/4 hours later, she was done. We were able to see her for a bit in recovery and then she was moved up to her room.

She is on the pediatric floor. Right now it is virtually empty so it is very quiet. Yesterday evening she was in alot of pain. She has lots of different tubes coming out of different places but they removed one today and will continue to remove them daily. She slept a little last night. Today she is sitting in a chair. She's going to walk a little later. Every doctor, intern, fellow, resident, etc has been it to check on her.

All in all, Bratcat is terrific. I know she is my daughter but she amazes me. She is alot tougher than I would be in her situation. And she still feels like this is the right decision.

Thanks again for your good wishes. I will check in as soon as possible.

Bennie

So happy to hear everything went so well. Hope she has a speedy recovery. good luck to her.

Thanks for updating us. Great that Bratcat has such resolve! Wishing her all the best ... / Old Hat (nearly 30 yrs with left-sided UC ... [etc.])

That's great news...........Hope she recovers quickly. She will be able to enjoy life so much more now. She sounds like such a brave girl. Good for her.....

She's one amazing little lady....and so is her Mom. Thanks Bennie for letting us know how she's doing, and let her know we are thinking about her! Awesome news...smile.

Bratcat has amazing strength and you're an awesome supportive mom!

It's wonderful the surgery went smoothly...I hope she recovers quickly. been a long road!

Thank you for letting us know Bennie.
quincyxx

Glad the surgery went well. Here is to a speedy recovery.

I hope that today brought more healing! Glad to hear Bratcat is doing so well :) I hope in time she'll be able to log in and tell us her story.

Sounds like she's making great progress, Bennie. I'm so glad to hear things continue to go well for her.

That's great Bennie! I'm so happy to hear she is doing well and am excited for her to get back to living her life!
James

On the long holiday weekend the more experienced phlebotomists may have taken off. Hoping that Bratcat gets more gentle attention re needle issues-- gads! I, too, have small veins & understand that problem very well. / Old Hat (nearly 30 yrs with left-sided UC ... [etc.])

Bennie,

Glad that your daughter is doing so well after her surgery. I don't know if I could have gone through with it.


When I was in the hospital and when I had colonoscopies my GI would put this numbing cream on the area where they were putting an IV and it would help to ease the prick. I think it's left on for about 30 minutes so the numbing can take effect. It's called EMLA Cream (lidocaine 2.5% and prilocaine 2.5%) then the tube says AstraZeneca. My mom saved it for future reference. :-} I don't know if it helps prevent bruising or not, but you can always ask the doctor about it.

Good Luck

We're home! 6 days after surgery. Bratcat is eating a bit. She is only limited to a low residue diet but so far she doesn't have much of an appetite.
The epidural pain management that they used was great for her. She was able to push the button to get more drugs when she felt she needed it. The heperin shots (to prevent blood clots) were the worst! She has black and blue marks on her arms and thighs from them. The nurses finally tried putting an ice pack on immediately after the shots. Still got bruised but less pain (it is not the needle that bothers her, it is the burning of the medicine going in).
Drawing blood daily got easier as soon as they started sending a phlebotomist. Gosh those people are amazing!
She was able to empty her bag a few times this evening with almost no problems. The incision (she did not have laproscopic surgery) hurts a bit but looks good (for an incision). We go to the surgeon next week.
A home health provider is coming either tomorrow or Friday to go over how to care for the ostomy. And in about 2 weeks we will see the hospital ostomy nurse again.

Hoping that each day brings Bratcat another positive step even if it is slowly. I keep having to remind her where she started 6 days ago. I took a few pictures in the hospital (thanks for the idea Mark & Megan) but I am not as diligent as them.