Friday, October 3, 2008

Land of not what I expected: delux tour

Hi everyone,

This is actually Rob posting for Julie--so the writing won't be quite as good as you normally expect. Since she posted last Julie's been stuck in the hospital, just waiting for her ileus to resolve. Then yesterday she developed a fever, and her White Blood Cell Count and heart rate both went sky high. The surgery team decided she needs exploratory surgery to make sure there wasn't any sort of injury from the C-section that they were missing on the CT scans.

In the OR they found a large hole in her cecum (the first portion of her large intestine). The contents of her GI tract had been draining through that hole into her abdomen for the last 8 days so it was full of all sorts of nasty stuff, which explains why she had such a bad ileus. They cut out a small section of her bowel reconnected the rest of it, and washed everything out really well. She's in the SICU now on very high powered antibiotics, so that they can make sure the bacteria from her belly doesn't get into her blood stream.

She's doing well and they hope that she'll be ready to leave the SICU tomorrow. She actually looks better now than she did before surgery. Her sense of humor is back, which is good. Her assessment of the situation after she came out of surgery last night--"so that was my problem, I was full of poop......"

We're grateful for the dedication of the nurses and the doctors currently taking care of her. We are also incredibly grateful for the love, concern and support we get from all of you.

12 comments:

Julie M. said...

I've been wondering how things were going. I'm so sorry!! Not how you want to start off with having a baby AND being full of poop! I'm glad they figured it out, and I hope your recovery is quick!

HIJK Skousen said...

Wow, hope it all turns out okay. What a busy time for you guys with a new baby. Wish we were there to help out!!! Good luck to you guys and your little guy is so so so handsome!!

Camille said...

I am glad they found the problem. I hope your recovery is quick and I can't wait to read your post about it all as I am sure it will be very humorous.

[alisar] said...

I have too many questions to write. Number 1 would be: What can we do to help?? Do you have family around? Do you need anything at all? I could be there so quick if I felt like I could help even a little.

RicAnn said...

Oh, Julie! I am so sorry! If there is anything I can do please let me know. Hopefully the recovery will be quick. We can't wait to have you back and at it.

Jackee said...

Oh, Rob! Give Julie a hug from me. We've been praying for you all and will continue to. Abdominal surgery is not pleasant... Whew!

Also, tell her she's got it backwards--when you have a new baby at home you end up getting pooped on all the time on the OUTSIDE of your body, not the inside! She should know that by now... :)

[AnnieR] said...

Holy mackerel. I can't believe that. I'm so relieved they found out what was causing the problems but my goodness. Hopefully you can recover quickly. I SO wish we lived closer and I could actually do something. I hope Rob's mom is still there and everything at home is running as smooth as it can. We'll for sure pray for you Julie that you get better soon and out of the hospital and home with your babies. MAN!

TheFunYam said...

Thanks so much for posting Rob!We've been praying and thinking about Julie constantly and we miss her so much. I'm so glad they solved the mystery and that she's got her awesome sense of humor back. Please let us know if you need any childcare--we'd be so happy to take the girls or little Sam!

Jenni said...

What a c-section nightmare! I'm glad they finally found out what was going on and were (hopefully) able to fix it. We'll keep praying for your full recovery, Julie, so you can finally be home with Samuel!

Boss said...

Oh my goodness. I know it's not much of a consolation, but your childbirth horror story totally wins. I'm so glad the docs figured out the problem and got it taken care of. Now you get on with that speedy recovery, okay?

Jill T said...

Thanks for the update! We'll be praying for a quick recovery!

Abbigail said...

Oh my! Bless you! this is all sounding much too familiar it is a little bit freaky. Thank goodness they figured out what was wrong and no infection got into your blood. SCARY!