We made it up to the hospital around noon. We were told R had made it through surgery. The doctor found a bleed by his liver and was able to repair it. Rather than sew him up, they put some mesh in his wounds. In addition, they took about 5 cm off his ostomy and it looked very good. For all practical purposes, the surgery was a success. When we arrived, however, R was not doing very well and was very unstable.
The two biggest problems during recovery was that he was putting out a tremendous amount of blood. His blood pressure was critically low, his oxygen saturation was low, his hemoglobin was low and the chemical makeup of some of the things in his blood were out of balance. At the start of his recovery, we were fearing the worst as things did not look good. As the afternoon progressed, they started R on dialysis. Not only did it help his kidneys put off some fluid, but they circulated his blood through the machine to clean it. In addition, they also gave him some blood. The doctors and staff were watching him closely to see if the blood loss was due to more bleeding internally or just his body putting off much of the fluids he had been given and retained due to the two surgeries in two days he had gone through. Over the next few hours, the blood he had received helped his blood pressure, oxygen and hemoglobin levels climb and stabilize. His fluid output slowed, giving the doctors hope that there was no bleeding. Whatever chemical imbalances in his blood seemed to improve. He continues to be stable and showing some signs of improvement.
Today has been an emotional roller coaster. Not going well, making progress, deteriorating conditions, signs of improvement. Not a typical day, but not untypical either.
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