Game Day

Dan was admitted into the hospital on Monday June 28th. We got up early to pack our hospital bag.  I always thought packing for our first hospital stay would involve us preparing to welcome our first child.  They don't give you a list for your hospital bag.  In fact, they didn't even suggest that we pack anything.   I guess it's just one of those things you are just supposed to know to do.  I had been failing in the "know what to do" department, so thankfully my mom was there to help. 

Checking into the hospital wasn't any different than checking in for his colonoscopy, except our nerves. I had been looking forward to and dreading this day all week. I wanted Monday to come so quickly, but so slowly at the same time. Again, I was playing the “What if” game. We didn’t get much sleep Sunday night, so Dan was looking forward to getting some good sleep once the surgery was done, and we heard that he was all clear.

We filled the waiting room with family and close friends and had a steady stream of people going into the prep room while we waited for Dan’s surgery to start. Dan got to wear nifty nylons to prevent blood clots in his legs.  They put in the IV, drew some blood, gave him a heparin shot and some pain meds. The surgeon came in before hand and my dad said a prayer. The nurse came in to shoo everyone away so they could wheel him off.

I cannot explain to you how hard it is to say goodbye, trusting everything into the hands of someone you’ve only heard bad news from. They said the surgery should only last an hour plus recovery time. This was the longest hour of my life. I had to sit, worthless, just waiting on the outcome. I broke. It was out of my hands, out of my control. Only God knew what was happening inside Dan’s abdomen.

Thankfully, Dan’s mom worked as a nurse at HC Hospital, and had a friend in the surgery room while Dan was being sedated, and peeking in to give us updates on the surgery and what they found. The surgeon removed about a foot of Dan’s colon, the descending and sigmoid portions, as well as 19 lymph nodes. He reconnected his transverse colon to his rectum and removed his appendix to prevent any other problems. He took his time stitching up his abdominal wall to ensure it would be nice and secure when Dan got back to training. They closed him up using steristrips.

I did pretty good waiting during the surgery. There were a lot of people there to distract me and it really did help. My mom made cookies and friends brought comfort food. The longest wait was the recovery. Dan didn’t do well with the anesthesia. It made him really nauseous, which prevented him from going up to his room for a while. Marsha was able to go back into recovery to see him as he was waking up, and I was able to see him once he got into his room.

I hope I never have to see Dan come out of surgery again. He was very pale, still nauseous, and in a lot of pain. He had a hard time staying awake and you really had to force him to talk to you. It took too long to get his morphine pump set up so he had a hard time controlling his pain levels that first day.

Unfortunately the doctor could only tell us that they were able to remove the tumor, and that it only appeared to be contained within the colon walls.  We had to wait for the pathology report before we knew if the lymph nodes were clear, and to know how big, and how contained the tumor was. We were told that it would be Wednesday, at the earliest, before we would know anything.

The surgery was over, but now there was even more waiting...