…Heart On Her Sleeve…

Well thats a relief in my mind. I got a message from her saying that she still feels much better than yesterday. We’ll see today when they feel they can release her from the hospital.

The doctor came into the room after the re-evaluation and said that he didn’t find any leaks or anything wrong and thinks the pain is attributable to above normal swelling. He said he went and thoroughly flushed the area.

I’m happy to report that when Jude came back, she reported that the piercing swallowing pain was gone and was now experiencing a ’2′ out of 10 on the pain scale (a good thing). She looks a lot better now and is just really tired from the entire 72 hour experience. We’ll see overnight/tomorrow what happens but I’m hoping that there was just some gas trapped somewhere that got released when the doctor poked around in her.

I doubt that she’s going to be released tomorrow so I’m planning to be in the illustrious ypsilanti michigan until Saturday.

So what we thought yesterday was normal gas pain from the procedure doesn’t seem to be gas related. Jude has been complaining of a sharp stabbing pain anytime that she swallowed. An ’8′ on the 1-10 scale, ’6′ was what she reported right after the procedure…

The x-rays taken this morning were ‘fuzzy’ (the idiotic term that the doctor used) and that they needed to take her back to the O.R to see what is going on. So we’re back to waiting and wondering and who knows what. The doctor said that theres an 80% chance it’s nothing.. if it’s not nothing he said it’s likely it’s a leak that they can resolve.

That’s pretty much all the information that I have right now and I will do my best to let the internet know what the results were and how our famour heroine is doing.

Sorry for the long delay for getting this post up but there was no internet access anywhere even close in the viscinity of the hospital.

Jude’s surgery was a SUCCESS and she is now dealing with all the fun stuff that recovery has to offer. The procedure releases CO2 into the stomach or body or something and she’s having some pretty bad gas pain. Apparently that’s normal. She’s already been out of bed once and done a lap of the floor (in record time compared to the other surgical laggards in the wing). Sorry friends, but I think Jude’s current BFF is the morphine shot button which she’s been leaning on all day (I believe we got up to 40 total today).

The plan is for some x-rays tomorrow morning to determine if there is any ‘leaking’ and then Friday she’ll be discharged and enjoy the four hour trip back home to Toronto.

I asked Jude for a comment for the internet and she responded with “ggghhhhhrrrrsslllllluuhhhhhhhh”.

Maybe I should have asked her BEFORE the morphine shot. My bad.

Thanks for all the well wishes from anyone and everyone. It was a stressful 2 1/2 hrs from when we last saw her pre-op to when the doctor finally came out to tell us that everything was ok. If you have Jude’s cellphone #, feel free to send her a well wishing txt message.

Hi I’m Dan, Jude’s boyfriend, and I’ll be updating the blog for the next few days. We’re currently at a hotel in Ypsilanti, MI awaiting the procedure tomorrow.

I just thought I’d drop in to give a timeline of how we expect things to go tomorrow:

• 8am : Arrival at the hospital for two hours of prep
• 10am : Jude is shipped off for the 45 minute procedure
• 11am : Jude begins the recovery process

So by 12 or 1pm eastern it should all be over and Jude can begin the recovery process of drinking thimblefuls of chicken broth and looking longingly at me while I eat steaks drizzled in bacon.