Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Complications

Sooooooo, we ran into a minor complication in the ol' recovery process.





Jere had been having an especially hard time with his left side. It just was hurting him A LOT, and it was getting red and spreading. Then, randomly on Saturday night it started to "leak" a little bit. We watched it, to make sure all was ok. On Sunday it started to "leak" some more, and by Sunday evening it was pretty much pouring out this liquid every time he stood up, or sat, or moved, or whatever. We put gauze and tape over it and it would soak through. I wasn't too concerned because it wasn't puss (sorry, so gross) just mostly clear or a little bloddy liquidy stuff. However, by Monday morning it was clearly more of a problem, so we called the doctor. Long story short, they had us come in and when the doctor saw it his first words were, "I don't like the looks of that at all." And then he followed with "I'm gonna have to open it up Jere." This, you should know, was jere's BIGGEST fear. He was surrrrrrrre he would die if the doctor said he'd cut him. Wish you could have seen the look on his face....priceless! So, he numbed it up and then proceeded to scalple the site open. I'm here to say, that I find nothing more revolting than the sound of skin being sliced open. UGHHH! My stomach was squirming and lurching at this point. Jere was looking at the cieling and humming loudly. Pretty soong the doctor said, "Ummm, ok, Allyson, I'm gonna need some MORE guaze, could you hand me some?" So I obliged and handed him a wad, without looking in the direction of the foulness happening over there. Wouldn't you know it, even that was not enough, he soon asked me for some MORE gauze. Apparently, there was A LOT of infection inside of there. I tragically looked over at this point to see a fountain of what can only be described as FOULNESS flowing into the gauze. Holy barf buckets Batman. So, after he "cleaned" it all out, he then asks if I'll be able to pack this wound. He asks me this as I'm noticing his ENTIRE finger is now inside of Jeres wound. At that point I said, "but your whole finger is inside of him." Jere whimpered and the doctor said "That's probably not something you should say right now?" Sigh. But the answer to the questions was....No, not just no, but HELLLLLLL NO! There is no way that my overly squeamish stomach could handle packing this "wound". He asked me again if I could, I said AGAIN, NO! I assured him I'd call my cousin the nurse, or some of our friends that are nurses. And his wound was packed and we were o n our way. On the way home I placed my phone call to my cousin Wendy and told her of our little situation, and she was totally willing to come and help us out. So, below I'm going to share some pics with you.


WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! Hideous picture of Jeres gaping hole underneath. Run away now if you can't handle it. Loves to you!






This is my dear, dear cousin Wendy who so willingly traipsed herself and her two young cuties over at 8:45 a.m. to pull out the old and pack in the new. I heart her so for being willing to do this!!



Welcome to Jeres "hole". It really is far grosser in real life, if you can believe it. On the upside, he feels a lot better now that the infection is out. He is practically bouncing around in his walking.




And here is Wendy working hard to re-pack the wound. Unfortunately she did not have many or ANY proper supplies to make it work, so it was a bit more difficult for her to do. But, after a lot of effort, she got done what she could....all with a smile on her face. Not only that, but she's willing to come back tonight and do it all again.

THANKS WENDY!!

So, there you have it, the latest news on the surgical front. Oh that, AND the fact that he's now lost 29 lbs. in a week. AWESOME!!

Gaping holes and packing gauze,

Allyson

10 comments:

jen said...

I'm usually not too squeamish, but I have to admit my stomach roiled a little when I blew the closeup up to full screen. WOW! At least now he's feeling a little better.

Nikki said...

Poor Jere, ugh, sounds awful. I could not do that either. Wendy is awesome!!!!!

EG said...

Why did I enlarge the gaping hole photo? Why?! I just dry heaved..no, seriously. Poor Jere. Yay for 29 lost though!!

Dixiechick said...

That Wendy...she's a gem. Truly disgusting hole in the tummy. Is that going to leave a massive scar or what? Jere's modeling days will be over for sure.

Lana said...

nothing but gagging here. And I have a strong will against gagging...but wow. Lots of gagging.

Wendy said...

Oh ye faint of heart! :)

Fear not, all is not as terrible and horrifying as you think. This is small stuff. It will heal before we know it.

Jere is a trooper!

Dana said...

I too HAD to see the life-sized blow up on my large computer screen. What was I thinking?!?! Wendy is a hero! Now, I think I'll call Breckyn in and show what her life as a nurse is really gonna be like! ;)

MomDian said...

Yikes! I had no idea of all the drama trama going on at the Van Patten home! School seems to buffer me from all the news. Glad to hear he's better. THANKS WENDY! I can't even change the bandage on my Dad's sores. Tony has to do it and I so appreciate him for being willing to do it for me! Maybe that's where you got your wimpy side, Allyson. Sorry!
Anyway, glad Jere's doing better. Sorry about the kids (I read about them tonight, too. :( Much love to you all.
Mom

✩Molly✩ said...

20 props to my sister Wendy the nurse! What a labor of love! Yeah, puss is one of the grosses things in the world for me to think about, and when he had mentioned how much it hurt in his blog posts, i will admit I was a bit concerned then... but I am glad that it will be healed and well soon.

Love you guys :)

Gina said...

OH MY GOSH... this is Gina's first C-Section ALL OVER AGAIN... However, Jere, be glad it is just a small incision and in your stomach and not a 8 inch wide gash a few inches above your "private region"... Allyson, I am so with you... I am soooo glad we had in-home nurses come in to change her vacuum wound dressings. I am sure you'll recover quickly. We love you and will pray for you!