Just Not Right

I feel a need to rant. I have not mentioned on the blog that my SIL has colon cancer. She has known for a couple of months now and she went in for surgery on the day after Christmas. It seemed like things were going r e a l l y slow in terms of her recovery. Yes, she is 58 years old and yes she is diabetic. But, it seems that she should have been healing faster. The surgery that she had on the 16th was supposed to just remove the rest of the tumor and the doc felt he had gotten it all. There would be no need to have further surgery. Each day I called her and she sounded ... weak. Just weak and tired. OK. She just had surgery and that type of surgery is pretty invasive, but she just seemed so very tired to me. By the way, she lives in a different state than I do, so all of my news is coming via the telephone. Last night at about eight, my phone rang and it was her! I was so excited to hear her voice...she was actually calling me HERSELF!! I thought, WOW!! She sounded SOOOOOO much better and she told me she was coming home today!! WOO HOO! Happy Dance Baby!! I said GREAT NEWS....I'll talk to you tomorrow after you are settled back at home. Then today. My husband gets a call at work. They are taking her back in for surgery today. Apparently she has an infection and something is leaking. Not good. At all. She was beside herself. She didn't want any phone calls. She was miserable. Depressed. I feel so very bad for her. My heart is breaking for her. So, this afternoon, I spoke with her son and he told me they were prepping her for surgery. It shouldn't be a big deal. They'll just go in there and fix it. She should be in and out in about an hour and a half.

So. We go out and grab a sandwich when my husband gets home from work. We come home and are puttering around waiting for the phone to ring. OK. We're pretending that we're NOT waiting for the phone to ring. But we are. We watch some engaging Forensic Files show for awhile. Then we wait some more. We're not talking about it. My husband gives up and calls his younger sister. No answer. ARGH. FINALLY his brother calls about a half hour later...she's still in surgery. She's been in surgery for three hours already. No one knows anything. We go back to puttering. My husband has an early meeting tomorrow so he tries to go to sleep. That's not happening.

Finally. Eleven thirty. The phone rings. She is being kept in Intensive Care for the night. The surgery was "a little more extensive" than they had originally thought. But, the colostomy bag is in place. We were originally told she'd have it for about three months, then they'd remove it. Now, I don't know. So we wait til tomorrow and see if we can find out anything else.

My heart goes out to this woman. She has a heart as big as ALL outdoors. She holds the family together! No one feels right tonight. Nothing feels right tonight. I pray tomorrow will be better.