The hope yesterday had been that I’d get to go home today. Turns out that was a pipe dream. While my BP got better yesterday after fluids, it’s back to struggling to get over 100. This morning it was under 90 and only got a couple points better when I sat up. It did get high enough for my nurse to be comfortable giving my the dose of dilaudid.

The bigger issue is that my ileostomy output yesterday was more than 2 liters. That’s way too much for the doc to be comfortable discharging next. In doing a little research, normal output for an ileostomy should be 800-1000 ml/day. Pharmacy screwed up with they input my medications into the system and didn’t put in that I take Imodium and Metamucil at home. So until this morning, I had had either. I’ve now had a dose of Metamucil and at some point will have a dose of Imodium. Together, they slow down the passage of fluids & nutrition through my small bowel. That gives it time to properly digest things and absorb the things it needs to. Those two meds also help thicken up my stool so I’m not constantly losing fluid. One of the functions of the colon is to remove the liquid from stool and put it back into the body. That is one of the few functions the small bowel cannot take on following a total colectomy. Between the very liquid stool and urinating, it can be difficult at times to stay hydrated and then when you become dehydrated, it’s difficult to fix without medical intervention.

My technician came in and checked my blood pressure. Even after a full bag of fluids (1 liter), my blood pressure is still low. It was 95/54. Normal for me is around 115/60. It got that high after heater’s round of fluids but today it’s been in the tank again.

My mom will be here shortly and we’ll see if I can walk the halls. I haven’t seen people walking the halls the few times I’ve had my door open but wouldn’t surprise me if we’ll not allowed to walk the halls. If that’s the case, the next best thing is to sit in the big chair in my room.

I did get a look at my new stoma last night when I changed my bag. It took a good chunk of the day to get someone to help me change it. I literally just needed another set of hands while I changed it myself. With the pain, I don’t have quite the range of motion right now. So I needed someone to help me make sure everything made it in the garbage and to hand me things that might end up on the floor or just too far to reach. I had all my supplies and changed it myself with that extra pair of hands. Initially, the nurse and tech didn’t understand why I’d want to change it, mostly because they assumed I’d simply be putting on the same appliance. It took them a few minutes to grasp I was going to put on a bag Id brought from home. My stoma right now is pretty ugly and somewhat bloody. It’s also very big and my usual bags are just barely big enough to accommodate it. It’s hard to know right now how the stoma is pointed, but I’m hoping my current bag system will work with it long term. I know for sure though that I’m not interested in a two piece system. There’s too much hard plastic that can dig into my skin (this wasn’t my first run in with a two piece system). My own bag has some plastic of course, but it’s so much softer and pliable that by a few hours after a bag change, I don’t even notice it. The bag change went well and so far no leaks. While it heals, I’ll be much more prone to leaks as the stoma itself will shrink as it heals. While I don’t know how big my stoma will be when it heals, it won’t be as big as it is now.

To end, I’ll be praying I get out of here tomorrow, but that’s largely determined by whether we can get my stoma back on track. Right now it’s in overdrive.