Dirty Jobs

Mike Rowe, where are you when we need you?

Noel and I felt like we were in an episode of that Discovery Channel show, Dirty Jobs today. Without getting too gross, Matt had a lot of trouble with his colostomy bag leaking. For those of you unfamiliar with the joys of colostomy, this is an operation that reroutes the human solid waste material from its normal outlet to an alternative outlet on the lower abdomen. The waste is collected in a bag which is emptied when it becomes full. The bag is a stick on affair and they are sometimes tricky to get sealed.

Matt's bag leaked 3 times last night and 4 times today (so far). As you can imagine, cleanup of a leak can be quite disgusting (that's the Dirty Jobs part - if you've ever seen the show, the host, Mike Rowe, is frequently performing in tasks involving poop of some type). But that's not the best (worst) of it. A couple of times there was an "eruption" while the bag was off. Talk about nasty! Well we hope that the nurses have solved the problem now and that we won't have any more leaks.

Recognition to all of the nurses up here on 4 west. They all pulled up the slack while Matt's nurse, Jamie, was busy with the frequent cleanups. Also, thanks to Jamie for her patience and persistence in figuring out how to make the bag seal. Great teamwork!

Other than this, Matt is doing OK even though his counts are still low. He should be climbing back up in the next couple of days. Also a bit of good news is that the plastic surgeons have decided that they can close the bedsore sometime after Mardi Gras. This will be a great relief and should allow the radiation treatment to proceed on schedule.

We are all like little children on Christmas Eve waiting on the BIG GAME tomorrow. GO SAINTS!!