Surgery and in-hospital recovery: September 2007 Archives

You see a changed man, who not only has a new, now working stomach but a new face, devoid of the tubing that gave him the look of an elephant. As of today, he also had his precious epidural line removed. He can still get shots of morphine, mind you and he will but, the line that was threatening to get infected had to go. That means his level of pain has changed and Jonas has to adapt to feeling what was previously numbed, especially on his side where he had a thoracotomy (opening of the rib cage) that is stapled all the way from the front to the back.

Friends have started to come in and this is the best thing for Jonas. Alone, he is not very motivated in doing things like exercising and can be in a somber mood. As soon as I appear, we do some chest physio which involves clapping with cupped hands on his back. I have never been so happy to see large blobs of mucus noisily come out of someone ' s mouth. That is what clapping sessions are supposed to bring out and it works.

He is just so amazing. Yesterday, it looked like Jonas ' recovery would be slowed down for at least a few days when the left lung crumpled. During the couple of hours in surgery last night, a big plug of mucus was taken out and the lung returned to normal while the thorax was still being drained. The digestive tract is perfectly sewn up, no air leak. The doctor does not know where that air came from but, Jonas slept while in the recovery room and, in a complete turnaround, look at him today afternoon: