Very Personal but Sharing for Information and Prayers

Today I am going to share something that is quite personal - but there is a very good reason for sharing. I am very surprised and shocked about the out come and want to share - so maybe if the information is out there - that it might help someone else.

I know I have not  been able to update as I would like on here- I have been so very busy and still don't feel like I have been able to keep up with everything.

May 11th as I think you all know my MIL had a surgery to remove her lower right lobe of her lung because she had cancer. We praised God when we heard the pathology report- Stage 1 - cancer was contained in the lobe and she had the lowest grade cancer meaning it was very slow growing and not very aggressive. On Friday I took her home from the hospital and she seemed to be doing well.

On Sunday she asked if my husband and I could come over while she took a shower. Sometime either before she called or afterwards(we have no idea) she took 2 pain pills and by the time we got there she was out of it. So much so after and hour or so of us cleaning house she was still out of it and we said we would come by later.
On Monday I went over and helped her change her bandage. And she seemed pretty good considering. On Tuesday my husband and I went to Home Depot and got her a special thing to attach to her toilet in order to make it easier for her to get up off the toilet. We went by and we put it on for her. She seemed alright - not really with it. But we chalked it up to her taking her meds. Plus you have to keep in mind that she had been a smoker up till the surgery and now was probably going through some withdrawals.

Anyway all of that to get to Wednesday. On Wed at about 2:25pm - my MIL calls my husband(at work) and says she is hurting. He calls me and asks me to go get her and take her to the ER and he would meet us there. When I got to her house she was out of it again and I asked - did you take 2 pain pills again- yes...... Well there was no way I was going to be able to get her to the car. So I talked to my husband and we decided that I would stay with her till he got there and he would take her to the ER. Thankfully shortly before my husband got there- my MIL's brother got there and together they were able to get her to the car- while I opened up doors and such for them.

We found out that she had not had a bowel movement for 14 days at that point. So her last one was the Wed before surgery. Anyway her stomach was distended and she was miserable, but because she had taken 2 pain meds at 2pm - she was about out of it. Well they did a ct scan and confirmed that she was impacted. So they were going to try an enema or the like and try to get things moving. So we figure that they would be successful in getting things moving along and hat she would get to go home today. But....

My husband - we will call him Jay- got a phone call this morning from the hospital telling him that they had not been successful and that it was worse than they thought and that her body was suffering from the stress of everything. Her blood pressure was low and having other issues with her heart. They told him that there were two choices - no surgery - they would keep her as comfortable as possible but she would die - OR  surgery - to remove the compaction and that she would have to have a colostomy bag - temporarily or permanently.

As you can tell neither choice seemed that great - but at least one of them gave her a chance at live. It was not until later that we realized how serious things really were.

So Jay, his brother, and I were there and we told her we loved her and that we were praying for her. Then we went to the waiting room. Fifteen minutes later - a nurse came out and said she wants to see you before the surgery. Ok - that seemed a little odd but we went back and each loved on her a bit more. Then when we were out of the room a Dr informed us again of our choices - but he added the part that hit us like a ton of bricks.... We were told that she was in such bad shape - worse than the had thought and that she only had a 20% chance of making it.

We made our way out to the waiting room - making the calls that needed to be made. And tried to recoup from the shock.

She made it through the surgery - we were told that her colon(large intestines) were about doubled in size - or bigger. That there had been some leakage of at least fumes- because when they opened her up it smelled. And that because of this - there is more of a chance of infection. They said that they had to take most of her large intestines - as they were gangrene. We were told that if she made it past the next 72 hours that her chances for survival would increase. She will be in the hospital for probably a week or two. And that after that she will probably go into rehab.

She really has no idea of what happened. She has not idea that she now has a C bag. I am sad for her - because I know that it will be a shock to her. And that she will not like the recover time. She has about a 6 inch incision down the front of her, and then still recouping from the other surgery.

*Something that I feel is so important to share with you all is that allowing constipation to get out of and is dangerous. She has always had problems - but I am sure she never ever would have dreamed that this would happen to her.

*Another important thing I want to share is that sometimes going through surgeries slow down your system. So it is important to counter act this by drinking lots of water, walking as much as possible to help keep things moving. Eating fresh fruits and veggies and high fiber things.

*And here is something else to keep in mind - pain meds cause or contribute to constipation. And so does meds like Zofran. I know from experience. So some people may think, as did my MIL, that she was doing her body a favor by taking the upper dose of pain meds so she did not hurt so much- but in fact it slowed her system down even more and caused some really serious consequences.

Anyway like I said this is highly personal for my MIL but I wanted to share for 2 reason - #1 - Prayers for her to pull through this and #2. So that maybe by sharing this - it can help someone else.

Thanks so much.