3 hours, 2 doctors, 5 nurses, and 3 tattoos

I am BLOWN AWAY by this place. I can honestly say I've never had such a positive experience with any medical facility in my life.

We showed up about an hour early to our first appointment - meet the surgeon, Dr. Remzi. We checked in & I assumed we'd have to wait until our scheduled time. After only about 10 minutes, his nurse, Vicki, called us back to a room. She didn't leave us & say, "I'll be back later" or "the doctor will be with you shortly." She sat right down & got to work....blood pressure, temp, long dissertation by Matt of his history, etc. She was very sympathetic to the amount of pain he is in. (During our meeting with Dr. Remzi, he twice referred to her as his 'right hand'...they've worked together for 8 years.)

When she was finished, Vicki paged the stoma nurse. Turns out, we have two stoma nurses. They spent probably 15 minutes 'sizing up' Matt's abdomen & discussing where to put the stoma. (The stoma is the part of his small intestine that will be 'pulled out.' This is where the ileostomy bag will connect.) They were great, but with the two of them working together, it was kind of like the chipmunk cartoons, "no no, you first, I insist." "No no YOU first..." When it was finally decided, they tattooed 3 teeny tiny dots on him. It was agreed that once his tummy was shaved in the morning, these would be very easy to spot. With the hair, not so much. They left & it was maybe 5 minutes before Dr. Remzi came in.

When Dr. Remzi came in, he shook both our hands, then sat down, looked at Matt & said, "You are suffering, yes?" Remzi is Turkish and very young to be head of the Colorectal Surgery Department. (He's 43 - we asked.) In talking for a few minutes before getting to the nitty-gritty surgery talk, we found out that he wanted to go to the VA in Jackson years ago but had a visa problem & the government wouldn't allow him to work there. Something like that. How sad for Jackson! He explained everything to us in great detail. Made sure we understood the surgery, why there are 3 surgeries required for patients like Matt, etc. Then he recommended that Matt have the surgery. It was lovely for him to pretend that we needed to hear all that, but we were like, "Yeah. That's why we're here. Rip it out."

He will be removing Matt's entire colon, leaving the rectum, and forming the ileostomy with the "end" of the small intestine. This is called an 'end ileostomy' and if you have to have an ileostomy, apparently this is the type you want. While the surgery will of course be painful, this should give Matt almost immediate relief from the colitis & related issues. I asked about the inflammation in his rectum, and Remzi said, without the colon - and nothing will be passing through the rectum - the inflammation will 'dry up'. So this is good news.

The bad news - kind of - is that he is leaning toward a diagnosis of Crohn's disease, not ulcerative colitis. This means that if Matt does come back for the j-pouch surgeries (removal of the rectum, reconnection off the small intestine to anus, closure of the ileostomy), he may have a recurrence of the disease. It can spread to the small intestine. If this happened, and it was not controllable with meds, he would need to have the ileostomy procedure done again. I am personally thinking we can deal with the ileostomy bag forever if we need to. No biggie.

Before he left, he dictated a letter to Matt's GI in Jackson, essentially reciting a short history as he understood it, he "does recommend surgery...not a sure candidate for j-pouch surgery...many thanks for allowing me to take part in Matt's care." Maybe this is just what doctors do, but I thought it was lovely & very professional.

The last thing we heard from Dr. Remzi was no bowel prep. Did you hear me? NO BOWEL PREP. I think short of someone congratulating us on winning the lottery, this was the best thing we could have heard today. We high-fived right there in the procedure room.

After all that, we went to the Internal Medicine doctor...just a quick run through to make sure Matt was surgery ready. Lungs? Good. Heart? Good. Blood work? Ewwww...not so good...probably will be getting blood tomorrow. He's very anemic. The doctor asked Matt, "When you were healthy, were you active? You could run a short distance easily?" Matt said, "Oh yeah, I could run a marathon." This was where I had to stop him, "Um, NO. You ran a HALF marathon. And I had to go get the car because you couldn't walk afterwards." Let's keep it real, no need to exaggerate here.

Downstairs to the lab, I gave the receptionist our file & we walked around the corner to the waiting area. Matt's name was called literally before we sat down. I'm not even sure how the paperwork traveled that fast. He did this part alone, so I sat & read my Watership Down. Then to the admitting interview - just insurancy stuff. Matt was in the bathroom for most of this...when he came out, I had already called the hotel shuttle & we were ready to go! Three hours, 2 doctors, 5 nurses, and 3 teeny tiny tattoos. Not too bad.

We're back in the hotel now, Matt feels like doggy-do today. He's on clear liquids, but not having to do the bowel prep is such a blessing. You have no idea how horrible that would have been for me. Oh, I mean for him. Did I say me?

Do you want to hear more about me & how lucky I am...there is a Greek grocery/deli about 200 ft from our hotel. I went there today when we got back from the hospital. I bought a chicken shawarma pita & a piece of pistachio baklava for $6.00! I had to walk down to the CVS to get Matt some broth (poor, poor baby), then I went BACK to the Greek deli for some hummus, fresh pita bread & tabouli. YUM!!!! I might be nice & share with him after the surgery. Maybe.

Funny story: Matt is addicted to Sudoku puzzles. I knew this, but I didn't realize the extent to which his addiction goes. Last night, he had a bad episode & was trying to relax afterwards by sitting in a hot tub (another blessing - our hotel has a great tub with water that comes out IMMEDIATELY hot & fills the tub quickly). I went to sit by him & he was telling me that these episodes really mess up his Sudoku times. "Wait. Are you telling me that while you are in here moaning in pain, you are working a puzzle? And TIMING YOURSELF?" He says, "Yeah, but my times really suck on the bad ones."

Note: I just finished this post and Matt is asleep...so he can't proof it for me. I may have some of the surgery details wrong, in which case, I'm SURE he will correct me later. Tomorrow is the big day. We have to be at the hospital surgery center at 5:45 am. Dr. Remzi told us the surgery normally lasts about 3 hours.