Boy, oh boy, oh boy

It's Saturday night, Janett's birthday, but no Red Lobster tonight. Janett's still in the ICU.

Tuesday night they performed a scan and were able to identify the source of the bleeding. Wednesday in the morning they tried to stop the bleeding by entering a catheter to her groin and approaching the bleeding spot to insert a coil in the artery. The bleeding spot couldn't be reached, and the bleeding continued. Janett had been receiving transfusions, but was growing weaker, and the doctors were getting nervous. Wednesday afternoon they performed laproscopic surgery, found a bleeding ulcer, and resectioned Janett's colon removing the portion where the ulcer was located; a similar procedure to that which Janett had undergone 18 months ago, but much higher on her colon. The surgeon knew that in leaving a large portion of the colon in place between the two resections he was taking a risk that blood flow to that central portion might have been diminished, and that portion might not be viable.

Sure enough, Janett's white blood cell count rose on Thursday, and Janett was scheduled for surgery again on Friday. Between the anesthesia hangover from Wednesday, the pain medication, and the valium Janett was uncommunicative on Thursday, and not much better on Friday as we waited till 8 PM for her second surgery. At 11 PM the surgeon told us he'd had to remove the large central portion but was able to stretch the upper colon far enough to complete a resection. So that brings us to today.

I slept in Janett's room last night. Kim came over this morning and sent me home, I tried to nap, but not successfuly, talked to Louie on the phone, sent out emails, gathered up some laundry and took it in to be done. I went back to the hospital and Steff and Jason were there with Kim and Janett. Janett had revived somewhat and told me that her nurse had brought her a grape popsycle, which she appreciated immensely. I feel the greatest appreciation for our children who stayed with Janett through this week, caring for her with great sensitivity and sympathy, but also with attention to details and insuring contradictions between all the involved physicians and staff were resolved beneficially to Janett. They sent me home again so here I am.