When you’re in recovery from some traumatic medical situation, you take any bit of progress you can get. Sometimes, it’s just a sip of water. Sometimes, it’s managing to walk an extra 20 feet. And sometimes, it’s getting rid of the everyday reminder of when you couldn’t eat and had to feed yourself through a tube.
Last night.
This afternoon.
The procedure took about 15 minutes, total, although the actual time at the office was about two hours. The removal process was much less painful than the insertion process, that’s for certain. The worst I have is a sore throat from the scope and them pulling the balloon part back out through my throat (the other part of the tube was snipped at my belly and pulled away). I also had a huge headache after a nap this afternoon, induced by the no-caffeine rule for many hours prior to the procedure. The former is addressed by some Chloraseptic, the latter by a cappuccino.
Overall, I’d say this is a major step on the road to whatever full recovery is possible for me.
The doctor also gave us some photos taken from inside. I’m going to scan those and put them up here as well. Very interesting stuff.
Think of all those gratuitous nudity shots still to come. Right on. This blog rocks!
Congratulations and best wishes for many years of happy cooking and eating. Zoe Ann
I just came upon your blog, and went through the archives after seeing this posting.
Holy crap, have you been through a lot! Thank goodness the tube is out.
That is just awesome.
*so* glad. that’s amazing. well done and enjoy food!
I am very happy that one more hurdle has been crossed on your long road back!
Let me make one thing very clear: there will be no gratuitous nude shots around these parts. Any such shots of my skinny ass – or any other part of me that appears without clothing – I expect to be paid for. That is all.
Seriously, thanks for the kind words, everyone. I hadn’t used the tube in awhile, so it was a little funky, as they say. The doctor asked me if I wanted to keep it (what a joker!) but I told him that particular souvenir, he could keep.
Congratulations, I know it’s a relief. Mentally and physically.
What did they do to close the hole, if you don’t mind my asking? It doesn’t look stitched, but it almost looks like there’s a button there. (Sorry to be analytical when it’s your life, I tend to be stupidly curious.)
Don’t mind asking. I do the same thing.
What they did to close it: nothing at all. It closes on its own. I’ve talked to people who have actually had the balloons deflate and the tube fall out, and they say theirs closed over within 24 hours, before they could get to the doctor (so they had to have it placed all over again, from the start). For me, it’s just some gauze to handle whatever seeping there is, which wasn’t terribly different from the seeping I had when the thing was in. Yesterday afternoon, I dropped the gauze and the granular tissue is drying out, just as it did when the tube was in. As it dries, it falls off, comes off in the shower, or I can brush it away from the wound. It’s getting smaller every day, and at this rate I figure by this weekend it will look like a second belly button and will be done. That will be good, because it itches like hell now that it’s healing for real.
Wow, I’m surprised that it’s so fast. That’s awesome! They don’t have to do anything to keep it from abcessing, or from healing open?
(I’m interested in seeing the internal shots, too.)