26 May, 2009

Saying goodbye to a diseased colon...

For those of you that don't know, my wife has been dealing with ulcerative colitis (inflammation of the colon) for the past 7.5 years. It has been the most difficult thing she's ever had to deal with and it has dominated her life for most of the time we've been together. We'll... as of Friday, May 22nd she no longer has that diseased body part thanks to the wonderful surgeons at Piedmont Hospital. This is an account of our last week in the hospital:

pre-surgery visit from Em and the girls
pre-operation visit


sunrise over Peachtree
sunrise above peachtree


happy couple
happy couple


colon
healthy colon


Liza's colon (pix from her colonoscopy before surgery). White = inflammation
liza's inflammed colon


Post-surgery with new hardware (that's an ileostomy bag she'll wear for 3 months). A link to the "J pouch" surgery she had can be found here- great illustrations.
post-surgery


building up that lung capacity!
workin' those lungs!


spit bath
bath time


mom visited from Georgetown
mom


first solid meal
1st meal


first meal dance
1st meal dance


Beauty in nature- to say that I was stressed out and worried during the past few weeks would be huge understatements. The little things in life like these beautiful flowers around the hospital grounds really helped me to see the brighter side of things during our hospital stay.
Stouthern Magnolia
Mint
Sunflower
Azalea
variegated mayapple and trillium
Photobucket

Things get better and better each day and we expect to be back at home within the next 24-48 hours. Thanks so much for all of your thoughts, prayers, help, and kind words. We couldn't do it without our amazing friends and family!!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Your old lady is really fuggin' hot, even when she's under the knife.

Kassie said...

hi my name is Kassie. my friend is going to have the same surgey that you had this month. she is a little scared about the surgey, and having the circle hole or mean the j-pouch.so if you have anything to help with my friend least scared that would be nice.