I just realized I never posted an update yesterday. Julie continues to do well. She was moved to a regular diet, but it was a misunderstanding between the doctors and the nurses so she ate a little mashed potatoes and grits and got moved back to clear liquids diet. They just want to be very conservative since she had so many problems last surgery. The doctor even said that the surgery was so perfect that he couldn’t hardly believe it.
Julie has been up walking multiple times today even without a walker. She is doing really good. Today has been a harder day with more pain, tiredness, etc., but the doctor had already warned us that today and tomorrow we should expect that then it will start to get better. They have moved her off of the push-button pain meds and onto an as-needed oral, but that also means she stays sleepy more of the time (also a good thing because she needs rest).
Now for a special story of how God works……….
The surgeon had told me this, but it didn’t fully register until I read his report on the surgery and looked up what it meant….. Julie was born with a “redundant sigmoid colon”. This basically means that the very last segment (the sigmoid) of her colon was about twice as long as normal. This typically causes a lot of constipation and can even cause the colon to get twisted and cause a surgical emergency (though most people that have it don’t have to treat it), but in Julie’s case it means when they re-connected the sigmoid to the rectum there was plenty of colon to do its job as normal. What does all of this mean? It means that there is a real good probability that Julie will not have a problem with short gut syndrome. She has had a section of her small intestines removed and that will cause her to have to adapt how and what she eats somewhat, but the sigmoid is key is things behaving as normal. So…… when God was forming Julie’s body, He knew she would have to have the sigmoid removed due to a tumor and he gave her an extra one then so she wouldn’t be without at this time in her life. Just more evidence that you can (and should!) trust God with your life and your eternity!
Ben