The Sanborn Family Website

Today has been a long day. I was up at 5:30 this morning, and left the house at 6am. We got to the hospital at 9am, and were able to talk to and pray with Michelle before her surgery. We even called our friend Dave and put him on speakerphone to pray with us. Michelle was still a little scared about the surgery, but the prayer helped.

The doctor came in to talk to us before the surgery. He told us that, despite the TPN she had been on since May/June, she was still malnourished. In addition, she had the low blood count before the surgery, and her diabetes were all problem factors. He said he would like to just remove the damaged parts of her intestines and attach them. He said if that didn’t work well, he would have to pull part of her intestines out of her skin and attach a colostomy bag for three to six months while the intestines healed. In addition, he said he would have to leave her surgery site opened, but, if things went well, he would put in some packing and cover the wound with a material for five days. It all depended on how well things while he was working in there.

Michelle was taken back for the surgery around 11am. The surgery lasted around eight hours. At 7:30, the doctor came out to talk to us regarding the surgery. He did tell us that her intestines were compressed and stuck together, which he was concerned about prior to going in. He was able to pull everything apart and discovered a couple more holes. He also stated that the intestines weren’t as clean as he had hoped, so they had to clean her out more during the surgery. He removed all the sections of her intestines that had holes, and was able to attach them without a problem, so no colostomy bag was necessary. In addition, he removed her appendix to avoid future potential problems and added a feeding tube to help her get the nutrients her body needed to heal. Also, he was able to put in the gauze and cover the wound as he was hoping, so he didn’t have to leave the wound completely exposed as originally thought. Finally, while she was in the surgery, the labs called with blood test results taken from her port-acath on Monday evening. The results showed that it was infected, and is no longer able to be used. At some point, that will have to be removed and potentially replaced. It wasn’t done at the time of the surgery, though. They haven’t determined if they will do it while she is in the hospital, or if she’ll have to make another appointment later to take care of that issue.

So, the next step is that Michelle should be going to a CCU room, provided she wakes up on her own after the surgery. As the surgery was eight hours, she may not wake up right away, so may have to go into ICU for about 24 hours until she wakes up and they are able to take the breathing tube out. She’ll be in CCU for 24-48 hours, then she’ll be in a regular room. The recovery process is 6-12 weeks. How much of that time she’ll need to be in the hospital is unknown. We are just praying that this latest surgery will correct her issues and she will have no more complications. Barry (Michelle’s father) and I won’t be leaving San Francisco until after 9pm tonight, so we won’t get home until midnight at the earliest. It will be a long day, but, prayerfully, it will all be worth it. At least we can take comfort in knowing that Michelle is in a good hospital, and, more importantly, she is in the Lord’s loving hands.

Just spoke with Michelle. She spoke to the doctor regarding the surgery tomorrow. Already things aren’t looking good.

Her blood count is already low, so they are going to be giving her a blood transfusion today, before surgery tomorrow.

She is malnourished, which is something they’ve been trying to correct with her being in the hospital. This is greatly increasing her risks in surgery.

Doctor said that this is a very high risk procedure, made higher risk because of Michelle’s current condition. They are “cleaning her out” today, using a liquid she had to drink as well as giving her enemas today. The doctor is going to do his best to try to suture the holes in her intestines, and if everything goes well, that will be the extent. Doctor says it is highly likely, though, that she may be stuck with a colostomy bag for four to six months, if not permanently. Also, they will have to leave the surgery site open, they can’t close it up, so she will have to remain in the hospital for a while (not sure how long). Recovery, though, according to the doctor, will take anywhere from six to twelve weeks.

Michelle is scared, and that is understandable. I encourage her that she is in God’s hands. We both know there is a chance that she won’t make it through the surgery. Despite that, I continue to trust that the Lord will heal her, and that she will come home sooner than the doctors thought. No matter what happens, though, I trust in God, and know that He has her best wishes (and mine) in His heart.

Well, there isn’t a lot new to report. Michelle has been in much better spirits of late, and sounding really good. Michelle’s father and I went up to San Francisco to see her today, which was great. We enjoyed seeing her and she enjoyed seeing us. I brought her up her new cell phone. Hers was lost or stolen on Tuesday. She was eligible for an upgrade, so instead of getting a replacement phone, she decided to upgrade to the LG Voyager. She was excited to get the new “toy” to play with. Monday, she is going to be taken from the extended care facility back to the hospital. On Wednesday, she will have the surgery to repair the holes in her intestines. I will be off work Wednesday and Thursday as a result. I’m praying that this surgery will take care of the problem, and not cause further problems along the way.

I have to say, it is still odd seeing that date. Seems like only yesterday that the WTC fell. I’m sure it will feel odd for a while.

On another note, it has been a week since my lat update regarding Michelle. I have been extremely busy with work and life, and hadn’t had an opportunity to post updates as I would have liked. Michelle has been in the extended care facility now since last Thursday. For the most part, she has been doing ok, although she has suffered a few complications over the past couple of days. First, her porta-cath — a device in her chest they use for IV access — has stopped working. My guess is that it became dislodged from her vein as a result of too much use. As that was what they were using for her IV nutrients, that was not a good thing to have happen. They did make a decision to take her off the IV nutrients and start her on a liquid diet. That is a good thing, although I believe it was done because of the failure of the port. Although there is still the problem of her needing IV access for her medications. They tried to find a vein and, according to Michelle, spent three hours poking and prodding her trying to find a vein. They even tried to put in a central line, but the anesthesiologist said he thought there was a clot in her vein. Today, they are taking her to the hospital to put in a pick line for IV access. It is an outpatient procedure, so once they put the line in, they’ll send her back to the extended care facility.

In addition to the IV problems, Michelle started having trouble urinating. They had to put a Foley catheter in to drain her bladder. They only had it in a short time before Michelle had them take it out because it was hurting her too much. Fortunately, Michelle has started urinating on her own again. She is still having difficulty, but at least it isn’t blocked like before.

Finally, the next surgery was scheduled for repairing the two holes in her intestines. That surgery is planned for Wednesday, September 23, at 11am. As far as I know that date won’t change unless they have to move it up due to complications Michelle may have. Although I continue to pray that she won’t have any further complications.

Yesterday I went up to San Francisco to see Michelle. Her father as well as our friend from church, Dave, went up as well. We met Dave at 9am and had breakfast on the way up. We made good time getting there this time, as we arrived just after noon. Michelle was glad to see us, and I was glad to see her. We saw her doctor while we were there as well. Michelle’s tests all came back OK. What they believed happened is that one of the medications was causing a problem, so they changed medications. Michelle has been doing much better since that time.

We stayed at the hospital until just before 2pm. Michelle was doing really well, and soon after we left they transported her from the hospital back to the extended care facility. They will keep her there for two to three weeks until they transfer her back to the hospital for the surgery to repair her holes in her intestines. They are waiting because they want her to be stronger physically, and the inflamation to go down before they go back in.

Today, I brought my car to the mechanic. Had to get an oil change, brakes taken care of, and a minor problem with my steering looked at (before it becomes a major problem). I’m hoping the service won’t cost too much. I guess I’ll find out this afternoon when my car is ready.

My phone call with Michelle last night was probably the worst call I’ve had. She was still very confused, and could barely express the words she wanted to say. She was very upset and crying on the phone. The confusion and lack of answers was making her scared, and she didn’t like that her father and I couldn’t be there with her. She kept asking and saying the same things over and over, partly due to the fear, and partly due to her inability to concentrate. It was horrible for me as well, as I couldn’t be there to comfort her and encourage her as much as I wanted. When I talked to her this morning, though, she seemed a little less confused. She was still sick, vomiting, but at least she seemed more clearheaded. Not completely yet, but better than the past couple of days. She did mention that the doctor was talking about doing surgery again, but didn’t know when that would happen. So for now, there isn’t much more to do except continue to wait and pray.

Disappointing news to report. Michelle is back in the hospital in San Francisco again. We got home on Saturday around 4pm. Everything seemed to be going ok. She was up until around midnight and seemed to be in good spirits. Sunday morning, she woke up sweating and not feeling well. It was a warmer night, so I attributed it to the room being warmer. The visiting nurse arrived around 11:30. After checking on Michelle she said I should call 911 to have the paramedics bring her to the hosptial. After spending around eight hours in the local hospital, the doctors there didn’t get an answer, so they transported her back up to San Francisco via ambulance. As of this morning, when I spoke to Michelle on the phone, the doctors in San Francisco are talking about surgery again. Unfortunately, I don’t know much more than that at this point.

Michelle is home now. We are so happy that she is home. It is difficult for her, though, because she cannot eat or drink anything except for water. She’ll need to make an appointment to see the doctor back in San Francisco a month from now, to see how she is healing, to determine if more surgery is needed or not, and when she can start eating again.

More to update.

Saturday, I will be picking Michelle up from the nursing home and bring her home. She still has a colostomy bag and is on IV nutrients, so a nurse will be coming to the house regularly to check on her. In a few weeks they will see if the holes in her intestines have healed, and determine whether or not they will do surgery. We’re still praying for healing, so that no surgery will be necessary.

Another quick update. Saw Michelle in San Francisco today. She’s doing as well as could be expected. The doctors are hoping that the holes will heal, and are keeping an eye on things. We are still praying for healing, so that no more surgery will be necessary. She’s having trouble with the colostomy bag. It doesn’t always want to stay in place. Don’t know if that is normal or not, but I feel bad for her having to deal with that.