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Well, there really isn’t a lot to report with Michelle. She is still on the road to recovery, but it isn’t moving quite as quickly as we had hoped. They are still trying to get her nutrition worked out so she can come home. They changed the nutrients that they were putting in her feeding tube yesterday. Since then, she has been complaining of abdominal pains. Most likely this is because her intestines are starting to work again after months of not being used and two abdominal surgeries relatively close together. It doesn’t look like she will be getting out this weekend after all. It is now looking more like next weekend, but of course, it is still a day-by-day thing. We did plan on a welcome home and birthday party for Saturday, December 12, though. I’ll be posting more about that when it gets closer, but anyone is welcome to attend. She is really looking forward to that.

Things change rapidly with Michelle. We never know what is going to happen from day to day. Yesterday morning, when I spoke to her, she said that the doctor was discussing trying to get her well enough to be released by next weekend. That, of course, was good news. She has been gone a long time, and I keep praying that she’ll get well enough to come home.

Well, when I spoke to Michelle again that evening, she had even better news. She said there wasn’t a lot of waste in the colostomy bag so the nurse checked to see if everything was ok. From what the nurse could see, it looked as if the hole in her intestines was actually closing. If that is the case, then the future surgeries will no longer be necessary. Michelle is going to ask for a CT scan later next week to make sure it is closing before they release her. We are praying that it will close and that Michelle continues to recover, with no further setbacks.

God is good!

Three and a half months. Seems like it has been forever, and there is still no date for Michelle to come home. They need to get her nutrition up and get her eating solid foods in addition to the feeding tube. We don’t know how long that will take. I’m glad she is getting taken care of there, but I do miss her. I only see her on Saturdays, and the rest of the time we talk on the phone. She has been sounding very good every time I talk to her. She seems to be in good spirits. I’m very proud of her. I know this situation isn’t easy, but she still is looking to the Lord and keeping a fairly positive attitude about the whole thing. No, she isn’t always positive or in a good mood, but who can blame her? She also said she was proud of herself because she finally was able to empty the colostomy bag on her own. She still needs help getting it attached, but this was a positive step forward. We just continue to take things one day at a time and continue to pray for her quick healing so she can come home soon. We also continue to praise the Lord for all the good works He has done and will do in our lives.

On Friday, I started coming down with a cold. At first, I thought it was just allergies, as that is not uncommon. Unfortunately, as I had a hard time sleeping Friday night, I realized it was a cold. I still went up to San Francisco on Saturday with my father-in-law, but only saw Michelle for a brief minute. Couldn’t take the chance of getting her sick. While he visited with Michelle, I walked a block away to a Starbucks and stayed there for a couple hours while they visited. Rested all day on Sunday, and even left work a little early yesterday, feeling light-headed. I’m thinking the worst stage of the cold is behind me, and hoping that I’ll be well enough to see her this coming Saturday.

As for Michelle, she is doing as well as could be expected. There really has been no changes in her condition. They are trying to get her completely off the TPN, as that is pushing her blood sugar really high. They’ve been doing TPN and her feeding tube, and want to get fully onto the feeding tube and perhaps even some solid foods, depending on how her system handles it. It is still a day-by-day thing.

Today, Michelle spoke with the doctor about her situation. He told her that he had never seen or heard of a case like hers before. The first holes that formed he thought could have been the result of the first surgery, if he had inadvertently nicked them, which he didn’t think he did. The second surgery, though, to repair the holes, he said went perfectly. He saw absolutely no reason why this new hole would have formed. It was apparent to him that her intestines just weren’t healing like they were supposed to. So, he laid out his plan for Michelle’s recovery. Currently, she has a temporary colostomy bag. She will have that for about six months while waiting for her body to heal. In six months, she will have surgery to attach a semi-permanent colostomy bag. From there, they will give her another six months to heal before they see if she has recovered well enough for the colostomy bag to be removed. So, in the meantime, she was transferred back to the extended care facility today, and will be there for a while recovering. The doctor does not want to release her until he is absolutely certain that she can go home without any further problems. There is no date set for her to get out, just continuing on a day-by-day basis.

Well, the results of the CT scan came back. Michelle has developed another hole in her intestines. Apparently her intestines are weak and are currently prone to developing holes. The cause for it is a combination of factors, being on TPN for so long, not getting enough nutrition into her body, her medications, and her surgeries. They gave Michelle an option of getting a colostomy bag for six to twelve months to give her intestines time to heal. While they are giving her time to think and pray about it, they are also trying to get another surgeon to look at Michelle’s test results and case, to see if there is something else that can be done. At the present time they don’t know what they are going to do about the hole, if they are going to do surgery or not. If they do decide surgery, we don’t know if it will be relatively soon, or if they’ll wait another six weeks for Michelle to get stronger. So, for now, it is just wait, pray, and continuing to trust in God.

I wonder if we’re ever going to catch a break. Unfortunately, there has been a setback in Michelle’s recovery. She called a short while ago stating that her wound tore open and that it was leaking feces again. She spoke with the surgeon who believes that it may be that the stitches that connected her intestines may have popped. They are going to monitor her tonight and do a CT scan tomorrow to see exactly what had happened. There is a possibility that they may have to go in again to stitch it back up. Hopefully it is something simple, and isn’t a major setback. All we can do is pray and continue to trust in God.

Michelle has now been in the hospital for almost three months. She first went in on July 7. After all this time, it appears as if things are actually moving in the correct direction. Barry and I went to San Francisco today to visit Michelle in the hospital. She is looking and sounding good, considering everything she is going through. She is struggling with diarrhea right now, but the doctor says that is a normal part of the healing process. Her white blood count is a little elevated right now as well, and they are going to monitor it. If it continues to be high, they will get a CT Scan of her abdomen to make sure everything is ok there. Also, Michelle was told that she will not be able to eat for a total of six weeks. Since she has already gone ten days, there is less than five weeks remaining. During this time, they will use her feeding tube to give her food. Hopefully, that will continue to go well. Finally, sometime next week she should be transferred from the hospital back to the extended care facility. That will put her one step closer to actually coming home. Don’t know how long she’ll need to be there, but I as long as she continues to get better, I will be happy. Just continuing to pray for no more setbacks and quick healing so she can come home soon.

Michelle’s recovery is going well overall. She had a slight setback on Saturday night. She was up most of the night vomiting. Her father and I went to visit her on Sunday, and she wasn’t doing too well, considering. While we were there, her father discovered that a medicine she was taking for her sore throat (as a result of having the breathing tube in for so long) had a side effect of nausea. Michelle realized that her nausea and vomiting started soon after taking that medication, so they told the nurses. The nurses changed her medication, and she was better after that.

I spoke to Michelle this morning and she informed me that she was being moved from the TICU a regular room later today. She sounded really good. Not sure exactly how long she’ll be in the regular room, but I would assume that, if things continue going well, she will be moved back to the extended care facility by this weekend. From there, we don’t know how long she’ll stay until she comes home. We’re still taking things one day at a time, praying that she continues to heal and has no more setbacks.

Around 4pm on Sunday, while still visiting Michelle in San Francisco, I started to get a headache. I had no aspirin with me, so we left around 5pm. We stopped in San Jose for gas and dinner, and my head was getting worse. We didn’t get home until 8:30, and by that time, my entire head and shoulders were killing me. I took some aspirin and tried to rest. That night I had trouble sleeping, and the pain was to a level that I felt like I was going to vomit. By the morning, my head was still hurting, and if I moved too fast I had a feeling of vertigo. I wound up calling in sick to work as a result. Headache was mostly gone by that evening, so I’m back at work today.

One final note. Barry (Michelle’s father) and I went to the movies on Saturday to see Surrogates. We both enjoyed the movie. It wasn’t a great movie that I had to see in the theater, but it still was quite enjoyable. Looking forward to seeing the Toy Story 3D double feature next weekend, though.

Last night, Michelle was taken into ICU. We were able to see her at about 9:30. She was awake when we saw her, but she still had the breathing tube in. She seemed really good for just getting out of an eight hour surgery. Nurse said she was doing well also. We left the hospital around 10pm and headed home, stopping at a Denny’s in San Jose for a very late dinner. We didn’t get home until quarter after 1 in the morning, making for an extremely long day.

This afternoon, I was supposed to call into a conference call for work, even though I had taken the day off due to the surgery yesterday. I called in at 2, but either I had the incorrect information of the meeting was changed or canceled without me being aware. I waited on the conference line for 30 minutes, before hanging up and calling the hospital to check on Michelle. Apparently, I called at the time they were transferring Michelle from ICU to the TICU. The nurse said Michelle was doing really well, and they removed her breathing tube. I figured I’d wait a while and try to call Michelle again, after she was situated in her new room.

At 4pm, I called, trying to see how Michelle was doing. Unfortunately, she didn’t answer the phone right away. About twenty minutes later, she called me. It was great hearing her. Her voice was a little hoarse as a result of having the breathing tube in for so long, but aside from that, she sounded great. She was very happy and quite coherent. She was glad that the surgery went as well as it did, and told everyone that it was God who did it. I agreed and told her that we were now praying that her healing will continue and that she will have no more setbacks. So far, with the surgery 24 hours behind us, Michelle is showing remarkable recovery. She said they were probably going to keep her for about five days then move her back to the extended care facility. Beyond that, we don’t know what is planned. So, for now, we continue to pray and praise the Lord for what He has already done.