Bum Briefing #12 by Beth

I wanted to give a quick update about how Eric is doing since surgery. 

Eric’s surgery went well, but recovery has been a slow and painful process. The good news is that Eric is still in good spirits, and is up and walking around throughout the day. The bad news is that he developed some swelling and an lieus (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/intestinal-obstruction/symptoms-causes/syc-20351460), which is causing a lot of pain, and slowing down his recovery.

During the pre-op appointments, the doctor had said Eric would be likely in the hospital for about 3-5 days. But, his nursing case manager had said some people can stay in the hospital for up to 14 days. At this point, he is at day 7, with no indication of when he will be ok to discharge. It’s starting to sound like he will be on the longer end of the spectrum, unfortunately. He will need to be able to eat solid foods and have his pain controlled with oral pain medication prior to them letting him go. Currently, he is only able to take sips of water to wet his mouth, and has a button where he can control his IV pain medication (called a PCA)…. They put him on IV nutrition (TPN) today since he hasn’t been able to eat anything for about 10 days now. So, he has a ways to go.

On another note, our dog Basil is the the one having sympathetic butt problems this time. He started having diarrhea an hour before Eric and I were supposed to get up and get ready to head in for the surgery. Apparently, Basil likes to stress eat by eating carpeting…. So, that has been another point of excitement this week. The good news is that Basil will bounce back quickly!