From the beginning we were told that Luanne would be in the hospital 2-3 days, depending on how long it takes her to fart. Yes, really, although the medical term is “pass gas”. With part of the colon cut out and the two dangling ends stitched together, passing gas indicates that the connection and the new system are working. So does pooping. Luanne has always been pretty good at those two things, so she was satisfying these requirements the very next day.
The first day she was put on a liquid diet. Remember that Luanne is a long-time (16+ continuous years as of this date) food addict in recovery, which means among other things, no flour (not just gluten free), no added sweeteners (not even artificial ones) and she also does minimal dairy. You would think a hospital could adjust to these requirements, given the diabetics, celiacs and lactose-intolerant people they see. Perhaps they can, but the communication between patient and kitchen seems to suffer. One tray Luanne received had custard, milk and sugar packets for her herbal tea. Another had a sandwich and more custard. Fortunately if you speak up there are enough people who can fix the situation and corrections were promptly made.
We are told that the pathology report indicating the degree of spread (if any) will take 7-10 days. When we met with the surgeon he does not offer any hint of how things looked or what the stage might be. Wait for pathology, he says.
Luanne is still in great spirits, tired and pooping.