As Jonathan wrote in his blog post earlier today, his recovery is going well. His surgeon, Dr Liu, visited yesterday to touch base. Dr Liu examined the incision and the ostomy bag and reported that everything looks fine so far. The bloodwork and other test results look good. So that’s encouraging.

While the first 24 hours after surgery were a little challenging, Jonathan is doing much better today. His fever is gone, he’s no longer connected to the IV, and he’s graduated from a liquid diet to a low fiber diet which includes solid foods. He also slept much better last night and woke up feeling energized today.

Yesterday we also got to meet Jonathan’s physical therapist. She showed Jonathan how to sit up using a “log roll” motion which avoids putting pressure on the incision. He walked around the floor of the medical wing twice using a walker. The physical therapist showed Jonathan stretches to help ease the pain in his calf.

His calf remains sore but is better today. How did Jonathan end up with a painfully sore calf after a surgery on his rectum, you might ask? The medical staff believe it is due to how he was positioned during the procedure. After running some tests, they believe it’s essentially a really bad charlie horse.

Today was a relatively quiet one. His roommate was discharged yesterday so Jonathan had the room to himself and got to look out the window. He’s enjoyed a few visits from family and friends and a special flower delivery. He’s gone on more walks around the floor and listened to an audiobook. He’s getting used to the reality of having an ostomy bag and beginning to learn how to care for it.

Tomorrow is a big day. We are expecting visits from the surgeon, the ostomy team, the urologist and the physical therapist. These folks will all assess Jonathan’s progress and ensure he is ready to handle life at home. Once they give the all-clear, then he will be ready for discharge.

So… fingers crossed he’ll get to come home soon!

Thank you all for the well wishes, love and support.

Huge thanks to my sis for her updates on my surgery day! Just wanted to let you all know I am doing ok, recovering at the hospital after surgery. That fever from Friday night went away and the medical team like what they are seeing in terms of recovery (I’ve had a healthy appetite, incision sites look good, etc).

I’ll be in the hospital at least through tomorrow, as there are still meetings I need to have, most notably with the ostomy team.

I’ll write more in a few days, but just wanted to let you know I am doing good. 🙂

Jonathan is now out of surgery and doing fine in a room at the hospital. The good news is that the surgical team successfully removed the section of his rectum with the tumor and installed the ileostomy. The bad news is that they accidentally nicked a hole in his bladder in the process.

It turns out that the radiation treatment weakened the tissue separating Jonathan’s rectum and bladder. So, it was more fragile than anticipated. The hole has now been stitched up but it means that Jonathan now needs to heal from the bladder injury as well as the LAR surgery and ileostomy.

The initial plan was for Jonathan to have a catheter for only 1-2 days; however, now they want him to have it in for 2 weeks. So he’ll go home with the catheter. He’ll need to come back in a couple of weeks to get his bladder checked before they’ll confirm if it can be removed.

Jonathan is in good spirits about the bladder injury as he recognizes that these things happen sometimes.

During the surgery recovery period, Jonathan experienced a lot of pain in his left calf. He said it felt like the world’s worst charlie horse, or a “charlie demon stallion” to quote Jonathan when he was on a lot of pain meds.

Later in the evening, he developed a fever of 99.9 which caused a bit of concern from the nursing staff. They were worried he might develop sepsis which can be quite dangerous.

Suddenly, Jonathan’s room was full of medical staff running various tests – from an X-ray to blood and urine tests to an EKG. It was all a bit overwhelming and stressful. The staff is monitoring the situation and they gave Jonathan some medicine to help him feel calm.

When I left for the evening, Jonathan was feeling calmer. We are now waiting on the results of the blood and urine samples to see if he has an infection.

Cheers,

Katy

Just a quick note to let y’all know that Jonathan is still in surgery. I’ve been getting periodic phone calls throughout the day from the surgery team to touch base. So far, so good.

So, for now, we continue to wait.

I’m in the surgery waiting room, which is a comfortable space with a nice view with a few other families. We’ve been nervously chatting and comparing notes about how long we anticipate being here today.

Today I’m keeping myself occupied by listening to an audiobook and knitting… and keeping my phone close at hand so I don’t miss a phone call. Earlier today, I missed a call from the surgery team due to a fire alarm which caused this wing of the building to be evacuated. Luckily, the incident didn’t impact the wing where Jonathan’s surgery is taking place and the alarm didn’t last very long.  Now I have the volume of my ringer turned on high and I’ve got my phone in my hands so I don’t miss another call.

Will post another update when I have news to share!

Good morning, readers of Jonathan’s blog!

Hi! My name is Katy and I’m Jonathan’s sister. It is 5:30 am here in Seattle. We just arrived for Jonathan’s surgery at the UW Medical Center. The hospital is pretty quiet at this time of day, except for here at the admitting clinic which is bustling with patients and their family members.

I drove to Seattle yesterday from my home in Eugene, Oregon. I’m an alumna from the University of Washington, so I’m familiar with the campus. I’m grateful that Jonathan lives so close to the hospital and we only had a 12-minute drive this morning.

Jonathan is all checked in and resting comfortably under a heated blanket while we wait for the surgery to begin. 

I’ll be sharing updates here as I learn more information about how the surgery is progressing.

Stay tuned!

Happy new year!

December was really enjoyable, a very relaxing time. It’s been great to be able to enjoy the holidays, post-chemo (and pre-surgery). Currently I’m gearing up for surgery; this has involved a daily prescribed immunonutrition regimen — basically these guidelines, but tweaked slightly to accommodate my dairy allergy. For me, that’s involved mixing Ripple vegan protein shakes, Ensure plant-based shakes, arginine powder, walnuts, bananas and other fruit blended into a smoothie (which I consume in portions, throughout the day) … along with five of these per day.

Tomorrow: no more food, basically the same regimen as colonoscopy prep, along with some extra guidelines. And then on Friday, I check in at 5:30am(!) at UW Montlake for surgery. I’ll likely be pretty out of it this weekend, recovering from surgery in the hospital. I’ve given my sister Katy access to this blog, so she can post updates on my behalf during that time. She’ll be coming up from Eugene tomorrow and helping out during the surgery process (thanks Katy!).