"Good Morning, Mr. Hamrock.........."

I found the level of care at Cedars-Sinai to be excellent. Interestingly, the nursing staff was about 80% Philippino...a mix of male and female nurses and aides. To a person, all the staff treated me with patience, care, and genuine respect. The Philippino's were a particularly happy lot of people. By and large they were not a sophisticated group, but very true.

I have come to realize that each floor of a hospital is devoted to the recovery of patients suffering the same or similar illnesses. You don't have cardiac patients mixed in with cancer patients....their needs are different and the hospital concentrates resources accordingly. In the cardiac recovery section of Whittier Presbyterian the focus was on heart rates, blood pressure, circulation, preventing blood clots, etc....making sure that the patients' hearts were ticking properly. At Cedars, I was on a floor where the common denominator was bowel surgery. I, like others down the hallway, had a section of bowel removed and the two loose ends reconnected with sutures. The intestinal tract heals very quickly and this reconnected juncture is "ready" in twenty-four hours. However, one does not know how successful the re-section is until there is evidence that the tract is clear and allowing matter to flow past the re-sectioned juncture. It takes several days for this evidence to make itself apparent and indicate successful surgery. Hence there is a laser-like focus by all medical personnel in search of that evidence.

Very early on the fourth day after surgery I got up from my very uncomfortable bed and walked the hallways. Walking helps promote circulation and the elimination of retained fluids and it is encouraged from the day of surgery to the time you are released. As I approached the nurses' station I saw the diminutive aide  who had attended to my needs through the nightshift discussing something with another male nurse. "Parri" looked up and with a bright smile greeted me in a voice for all to hear.."Good Morning, Mr. Hamrock!! Did you pass gas last night??".  As I passed by him, I put my hand on his shoulder and laughingly told him that I had not, but expected to any hour. Everyone laughed and I proceeded down the hall chuckling to myself. From the nationally recognized surgeon to the night aide....the indication of a successful re-section was the passing of gas. All, including myself, were relieved once that happened (no pun intended).

It has been seven days since the surgery to remove the tumor was performed. I am feeling fine, though the recovery from this operation is different than the recovery from the heart surgery. As I wrote in an earlier blog, this last surgery caused me a good deal of anxiety. I had no idea what the surgeons would find once they got into my abdomen. As it is, the outcome was the best that I could ask for. No other organs were affected. The tumor infested area was restricted in scope and removed. The small intestine was re-sectioned and I was closed up after an operation that took no more than one and one-half hours to perform. They got me off the table in record time. My heart held up just fine and the anesthesiologist was amazed that all went so well and so quickly.

The tumor had attached itself to the outside walls of the small intestines and had bound up a section of them in a mass that, once removed, proved to be the size of a large grapefruit. The surgeon told me she was surprised that I could eat anything and not experience discomfort. The probability of a blockage in the very near future was real......and that would not have been a pretty situation.

My appetite is still repressed and food doesn't interest me like it once did. However, I am seriously thinking of making a pot of Chili Verde this weekend. I don't know if I will eat much of it, but everyone else is enthusiastic. I should feel up to the task by this Sunday.

Stephen