Joe's in Surgery...again

Another tough day, but hopefully we've hit bottom and are on our way back up. They transported Joe to UMC last night (midnight). This morning, they ran tests and examined him and within 10 minutes of getting the results back, Dr. Ong was in Joe's room. He told us that they need to operate right away. Apparently the connection between the small bowel and the colon did not take and is leaking. As a result, "stuff" has leaked out and is infecting Joe. He said this happens in 10-15% of the patients and it has never happened to one of his patients. Joe is the first and Dr. Ong feels just terrible about it, but it needs to be addressed immediately. He said it may be from the HIPEC (hot chemo) or something else. It doesn't matter at this point. The infection and leakage are causing all the other problems that Joe was having and it must be addressed immediately. They took Joe back to surgery immediately. Again, we met under the mistletoe, kissed him and said "see you soon". The surgery is expected to last 4 hours. Dr. Ong warned us that Joe will be very sick from this surgery. He can't have an epidural because of the infection, but they will give him other meds to help with the pain. He will also have a colostomy bag as a result of the surgery. If all goes well, it may only be for a few months. He will be in ICU for a few days and Dr. Ong wants him to stay in the hospital for 2 weeks. This was extremely difficult for all of us to hear and we all broke down, but Joe told us and told us to tell everyone else, that we can't look back...only forward. He feels that he is in really good hands and has the utmost faith and respect for Dr. Ong - - - as do the rest of us. I'll update the blog once Joe is out of surgery and continue to update as he progresses. Thanks to all who are helping us out - our family, our work friends, our neighbors, our high school and college friends and all our other friends. Joe told the nurse today that God and his support group are getting him through this. So while you pray, please remember to add your thanks to God for us. We love you all, Sherrie, Joe, Amanda, Candace, Doug and Shelli