Dr. Buie

I saw Dr. Buie in his clinic yesterday at the hospital to discuss the upcoming surgery. Stop reading now if you don't want to know every lASSt detail of the plan.

The plan, as discussed before, is to make my ileostomy permanent in the hope that it will reduce the fequency of infection at my drain site and also perhaps eliminate the need to be on antibiotics constantly. As an added measure he will also talk to interventional radiology to see if they would attempt to place a wire down my drain, into the abscess, throught the fistula and into what is left of my rectum (I have a feeling that might not be too fun). If they could do that the day before surgery, and leave the wire in place, Dr. Buie might be able to trace the path of the wire up from the rectum. He could then insert a dilator and enlarge that opening with the hope that the abscess would then drain right into my rectum and posibly alleviate the need for a drain altogether. I'm not sure I'm so keen on having a wire in there for a day before surgery but I sure like the idea of not having a drain anymore. We'll have to see if the interventional radiologists will attempt it.

As for a date, I don't have one yet but Dr. Buie said he would have the surgery done before the end of the month so that I would have ample time to recover before heading to Cancun for Christmas. I have a feeling the surgery will take place closer to the end of the month than the beginning but it could be any time after this week. I can't wait to have it all behind me and sip on a pina colada on Christmas morning.