NOTHING PER RECTUM

This is actually me (Dave) posting this. I thought the title of this post was appropriate. Nate's hospital room door has a big sign on it for all those that walk by that says, "NOTHING PER RECTUM". Nice. This is a picture of Nate just before they took him into the OR on Tuesday morning. It was so nice to have him sleep for a minute before they took him back. He was such a good sport. He had nothing to eat for 2 days and constant flushing of his system. No fun at all. He just put up with it and didn't complain too much at all.

The surgery took about 5 hours and they removed about a foot of his lower colon. His surgeon said he won't miss it and that everything went very smooth. They were able to do the procedure laproscopically so he didn't need to have a big abdominal incision. In the picture below you can see where the 3 little incisions were.

He's doing pretty well right now. He still isn't allowed to eat or drink anything (4 days now...poor guy). I think he's just starting to accept the fact that he can't eat and isn't really putting up much of a fuss. We hope that in the next day or so he'll be able to nurse. He stopped getting morphine today and he seems to be doing alright. We're hoping that we can take him home by Sunday. He's pretty mellow right now and likes to cuddle with his mom (and me in small doses).

Thanks everyone for keeping him in your prayers! He's doing great.