Getting Healthier

Just another quick update on my health (Yikealo Groupies can quit reading now :)...

I have surgery scheduled for October 12th to reverse my stoma. On April 6th I had the remainder of my colon removed and at that time the end of my small intestine was hooked up to my rectum. In order to allow this area to heal, I was given a stoma whose function is to divert my digested food into a keen pouch that is taped/glued to my stomach. The surgery on 10/12 will put everything that belongs on my inside back on my inside and route the food back through the normal processes (sorry folks... there's just no classy way to describe all this).

I had my pre-op testing Tuesday during which 13 different people verified that my birthday was 3/20/74. In addition to confirming my birthday I had X-rays and a procedure to confirm that my guts were all hooked up and healed. They are, in fact, all healed up. I was able to look at them myself during the procedure and everything is the reassuring pink of healthy tissue. Woot!

As part of my procedure I learned that the air used to inflate my intestine during the sigmoidoscopy (or whatever they call it for folks who have no sigmoid colon) has an amusing effect on my stoma pouch. If you've ever seen the guy who makes balloon animals use his balloon inflater then you have an accurate picture. Who would have thought you could have this much fun at the doctor's?

Anyway, my blood work looked really good on Tuesday. In the March-June time period my blood test results were a real mess; there are 25 basic levels tested during the normal course of blood testing and, of these, anywhere from half to two-thirds were out of whack. Not only were they high or low, but some of them drastically so. My favorites were Sed Rate (124 on a scale where normal is 0-10) and Alkaline Phosphatase (465 on a scale where normal is 40-150). (Is that bad?) Additionally, my red blood cell count was so low that I needed to have two units of blood before my surgery and two more units on June 10th.

So yesterday, it looked like my file was mixed up with a healthy person's file: only three levels were out of the normal range and these barely so. I was amazed and so thankful. God is truly awesome!