doydie,

Really appreciate your keeping us informed. Hope Charlie being stubbornly independent will help him keep a positive outlook. It appears all went well with the ostomy nurse today.

I'm sure both of you are looking forward to getting home. tkrik is quite helpful with sharing her experience and ideas.


Gerry

i'm glad to hear from you about your dh.
i hope once you both get home things will fall into place.

sending prayers for healing your way.

All is doing very well. So far he is self care but we haven't had to change the bag yet. We changed it the day before he left the hospital. That was on Wednesday, they are supposed to stay 5-7 days. His doctor's appointment is next Wednesday where we will have to put a new bag on then since the doctor will want to see it. Wish it could stay on all the days between but i don't think it will. Guess I will have to get my nursing skills out and brush them up and try to do it like she showed us Wednesday. I did it fine with no prompting on anything. It's just that this time she won't be on the other side of the bed. I think this time since I still have to be doing it I will at least have Charlie cut the whole on the seal for me so he can at least learn that.

His doctor called today to check on us and to let us know the pathology was all negative.

doydie,
This really has to be quite an adjustment for both of you. Charlie must be relieved to finally end his dealing with the effects of the ulcerative colitis. Thankfully the pathology was all negative.

I would imagine how quickly filling the bag would depend on the amount of food he has consumed. Was he given a special diet?

Praying the transition will go smoothly for both of you.


Gerry

He was told to eat whatever he wanted to, just to remember to CHEW!!!! He is a fast eater and that will be hard on him. But yes, what is in the bag is dependent on what he eats.

Did the first bag change at home tonight. I hope next time I can help him do it standing up. It's not that I don't want to do it. But i know he needs to know how to do it in case I am not available. But he has to be standing up and his butt still hurts and he refuses to take any pain medicine

men are so stubborn. i used to give my parents all kinds of advice which they usually ignored. once when their dr gave them the same advice they began to see me as a nurse and not just their daughter.

He actually took some medicine last night but it really didn't change how he slept. He apparently passed some kind of drainage through his butt incision this afternoon and has less pressure.

Charlie had his 1st follow up appointment today. The last couple of days he has had this hard area right above the top of his incision. He has called them masses and they scared him to death. I knew what they probably were but I couldn't convince him of that. So right after the nurse took his staples out, the doctor took a small blunt instrument, well actually it was a the opposite end of a q-tip and gently inserted into where the top staple was and the bloody pus just flowed out. So after he was done expressing it all out, he packed it and now I will do that 3 times a day. Just the difference of what he got out this morning and what I got out this evening before bed was huge. I hope this doesn't take to long although there is still a hard area there which hurts him. I am glad he totally trusts me in putting this medicated gauze in this little hole. And then I clean his sore bumm with warm paper towels. It still drains awful but there was no pus areas that needed to be packed. The doctor said that many times he has to pack both areas so am glad it is just the one although if we were packing Charlie would feel like we are doing something for the bumm. I guess God knew what He was doing when he matched up an RN with this stubborn grumpy guy. It was softened him a lot and we have sure done a lot more hugging since surgery. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

you both are so strong. it's a blessing you're a nurse doydie.
i hope your dh con't to improve and feel more like himself (ugh, well, sort of).

thanks for the update.