Dr. Ong Visit June 26th

We met with Dr. Ong today and he was somewhat surprised that Joe was still losing weight.  He said it rarely happens, but he has seen it before.  He does think reversing the ileostomy will help.  Joe had lost 42 lbs and was continuing to lose.  It wasn't for lack of effort either.  Joe has been tracking everything in and everything out.  We went through my Weight Watchers Dining Out Guide and found the most fattening things we could and set out to get them for Joe.  The rest of us are eating lettuce and carrots!  The surgery will be scheduled the 3rd or 4th week of July.  They are contacting UMC and will let us know in the next few days.  Dr. Ong explained that this is another major surgery.  He repeated that statement 3 times.  He will have to open Joe up about 1/2 of where he opened him the last 2 times.  He has to stitch the 2 ends of the bowel back together and put everything back from there.  There is also the risk of a bowel or gas busting the stitch apart before it heals, which will cause Joe to go septic again.  For that reason, Joe will have to stay in the hospital for 1-2 weeks until Dr. Ong is sure he is out of the danger zone.  He told us it will take 3-4 weeks before Joe is doing much better and around 6 months to recover.  He doesn't know when Dr.S will start chemo.  It will really be up to Joe's body and how fast he can recover and how fast he can put some weight on.  So from here, everything is up in the air.  We just pray for a successful surgery and no bowel movements or gas.  How's that for an unusual prayer!  We are really challenging our prayer team now.   We did have a great week celebrating our 31st wedding anniversary, visiting with friends, going to a Diamondback game and celebrating our grandson's 3rd birthday.  Although Joe is fatigued, I am continuously amazed that he gets out there and tries.  He doesn't always make it through the events, but he always gives it a go, sleeps, eats and gets back up and goes at it again.  I really have faith that after this successful surgery and his weight starts coming back, he'll feel like a new person.  Right now he rests about 80% of a day, so we will use that as our baseline and head up from there.  Thanks as always for the continuous prayers, cards, and support.  Love to all,  Sherrie & Joe