Steph's Hospital Longer Than Expected

As planned, David and Adrienne, Russ and I went to Owatonna yesterday to see little James. He is truly a bright spot in our lives. James can go home anytime now. But, he won't. You see, his Mommy is getting better like we all expected. Don't get to alarmed. She should be improving now. It goes like this. . .

On Friday, before I came home from my first visit of James, Steph wasn't improving. We had originally thought she and James would be going home on Friday. But Steph's bodily functions weren't performing. As our Med student told us, those bodily functions (peeing, pooing, throwing up) are key for any person's health. If the 1st 2 aren't performing properly, one may have serious problems. As it turns out, Steph's bowels weren't moving. She was also filling up with gases. With those symptoms and other test results, Steph was taken into surgery about 11 a.m. to see if they could figure out was was going on.


Duane called us with this news when we were en route. We had discussed how we should come right away (skip our brief shopping trip plan for the moment) and come see James while Steph is in surgery. We didn't want to be in the room when Steph got back -- we all know how one hates company when we're feeling miserable.


We arrived at the hospital at about 1 p.m. Steph was still in surgery. We went to James and Steph's room to wait with Duane and James (and to goggle over James of course). It was a good thing we were there. Duane would have had a long wait alone. His day had been long enough as it was. The medical staff had performed a couple different tests throughout the night. So he had gotten very little sleep.

After a couple updates from the nurse(s) saying that Steph was still asleep and doing fine through surgery, we were finally told that she was out of surgery. The doctors came in around 4:30 p.m. to tell Duane (and us) how Steph was and what they found. Fortunately, the surgery went well and Steph is fine. The doctors found a perforated bowel. Because of that and some inflammation, they had to remove a segment of her colon (I think it's the colon). She should recover just fine with no long term affects.

After finding out Steph will be fine, we asked the usual questions. The biggy - Why. How could this have happened. Did it have anything to do with the Cesarean section delivery of James? The answer - the doctors checked to see if there could have been any relationship between the 1st surgery (c-section) and the perforated bowel. The answer was "no". They actually don't know how it happened. With that, the doctors let us know that this problem happens rarely. The O.B. doctor, who scrubbed in and observed the surgery, concerned that the problem could have been a result of the c-section, had never seen this in his 20 years of doctoring. The general surgeon, who actually performed the surgery, had seen it only once before - 15 years ago.

So, as it turns out, Steph should be fine. She is in recovery today. At the writing of this, I haven't called Duane for an update. But, as of late yesterday afternoon, Steph was taken to intensive care since she would have lots of tubes hanging from her (an i.v. and a tube going down through her nose into her stomach to help with digest issues after this type of surgery, to name a couple).

Because Steph wouldn't be coming back to her 1st room, the doctor and nurses worked it out for Duane and James to keep her first room. They probably won't release James from the hospital till Steph is ready to leave. That news is a relief to me. That eliminates the concerns about how to care for him while Steph is laid up. As for Nicholas, Grandpa and Grandma W. had him all day yesterday. I'm sure they will help with him today too. As for Monday, I'm sure Nicholas will go to daycare. We'll have to work out any other concerned details when they come up. As for Steph's release date, we believe (as of yesterday) she'll be able to go home on Tuesday.

In conclusion, please keep Steph and her family in your thoughts and prayers.