After Surgery Day 3 - 2/8/12

Sheila’s mobility has increased and she was able to get off of the IV pump this morning.  The outer bandage was removed and the wound looked good.  There was no re-occurrence of the fever during the night.  We talked to the Doctor and tried to determine the stage of the cancer, but he said that we would be referred to a specialist in patient treatment after cancer removal to determine the stage of the cancer.  The specialist would help determine the best course of action after looking at the pathology report on the part of the colon and cancer mass that was removed.  Dr Oberg thought that with the size of the mass that chemo would probably be prescribed, but said there are a lot of other factors and a specialist would be able to give the best diagnosis.  I think this means that even though we will get the results of the pathology, probably Thursday, we will not know the diagnosis for after surgery treatment until after meeting with the specialist.

Later today we had a real battle with nausea. Since we were off of the IV, pain pills were prescribed instead of the morphine IV pump.  Either the pills, or the fact that things were not moving through the bowel, or something unknown, made Sheila very nauseated. It took at least 5 hours and a couple of medications to get this under control.  Many say that the 3^rd day after this kind of surgery is the worst.  We are hoping that this will be the case here and that we are home for the week-end.

Thanks to all for the help with our children at home.  I could not be here with Sheila, if it were not for all of you.  THANK YOU!