Things are progressing well now. Dr. Robertson cautioned us that we are not “completely out of the woods yet, but there is more sunshine than clouds”; meaning there is a slight risk of problems with the colon due to the previous lack of bloodflow. The good news is that all of her labwork is continuing to come back consistent and within expected ranges indicating there are no problems of that nature and no bleeding as well.
They have now clamped the NG tube (the tube that pulls stuff out of her stomach) with a plan to keep it clamped for 4 hours then measure how much bile is pulled out with a syringe. They have not yet had to reconnect the NG tube to the suction device today so there is a good chance of having it removed tomorrow. After having it removed, this is the first step to preparing to introduce clear liquids (starting with water). If this goes well the next step would be to try it with some water and repeat and eventually take it out if all continues to go well.
We had orders to be moved out of ICU and into a regular room, but the floor she needs to be on is full so she is still in ICU tonight. This means that as soon as somebody on that floor is discharged and they get the room clean we will be moved back up to the 8th floor.
They are also taking her off of heparin IV tonight and going back to a therapeutic dose of Lovenox injection, which is what we will continue to do at home.
We still expect to be in the hospital for a number of days as they are keeping her on the TPA (feeding tube) until she is able to slowly progress through the various diet stages to slowly introduce food back into her intestines and is able to eat enough calories without the TPA to continue to heal appropriately.
Julie has no pains now other than tenderness where they went in for the procedure the day before yesterday.
If you are on Facebook, I have created a group that you can join where I put out updates as we get information throughout the day. I am trying to summarize the information here at night, but you will get more real-time data there.
Link to group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AgeeCancerFight/
Ben