Rebecca's Journey

As some of you may know Becca had an elective surgery on Tuesday, March 26th. This was an outpatient surgery, during surgery the surgeon nicked her bowel but assured us that a general surgeon came in and said it was fine, they closed her up and sent her home. During the trip home she became very uncomfortable and had 10/10 pain but she and Andrew continued home, not thinking anything of it. By Thursday Andrew needed to go back to work so they asked me to come sit with her. She still wasn't getting up much, wasn't eating much, and wasn't drinking much. On Saturday she was getting more uncomfortable, had hiccups almost constantly, and began to be nauseated, eventually leading to throwing up. Her vomit was dark colored (warning sign 3??), probably should have been yellow considering she wasn't eating. She vomited a couple more times and I called the number she was sent home with, they asked all the questions; fever, short of breath, etc. Becca said she felt short of breath and was very insistent about it, although she appeared to be fine to me. My thoughts were that she just needed to get up and move around to get her bowels woke up and moving. But, she wanted to go to the ER so I took her; this is around 4pm on Saturday. When we arrived at Iowa Specialty ER in Belmond we were greeted by an amazing staff. I let them know of the procedure she had done and about the nicked bowel. They quickly gave her IV fluids, antibiotics and did a CT Scan. They decided it best she return to the hospital where it all began. Around 11pm they took her by ambulance back to Sioux City, Andrew and I followed. We made it to Unity Point around 2am Sunday morning. They continued IV fluids, antibiotics, meds for nausea, and pain. Becca continued to grow uncomfortable, continued with the hiccups and her stomach continued to "grow". We waited..... The doctor made rounds and near 11 am he came to tell us what we already knew; her white blood cell count was elevated(she had infection) and her bowels weren't really moving. We asked about the results of the CT, doctor looked on the computer, read the results, and got on his phone. After his phone call he looked at us and said she would be in surgery within the hour. Becca went back for her second surgery in 5 days. The plan was to do a "clean out and bowel resection". The doctor came to let us know they were done, he said her abdomen was full, and she was full of infection. Due to this they had to remove half of her colon and a small section of her small intestine. The doctor felt it best to leave her open and sedated and would go back in the next day(Monday) to put her bowels back together and stitch her up. Monday came and they took her into surgery, the doctor made sure everything looked "clean" and was able to stitch her up at this time. Becca remained sedated and on the ventilator, they said they would try to wake her the next day (Tuesday). One week later from her initial elective surgery and they took her off sedation. Throughout the day Tuesday she was somewhat responsive, when asked questions she might nod "yes" or "no" but wasn't waking much so they started a lighter sedation around 2pm and let her body rest through the night. Today; Wednesday, April 3rd, they took her off sedation again. Becca has been much more alert today and is much more responsive. Because she was more responsive they were also able to extubate today! She's opening her eyes a little more, still nodding to questions, talked out loud to Andrew! ♥️♥️ It's been a relief to see life in her body over the last two days. She is still not fully awake and remains in ICU. She has a long recovery ahead of her and will be in the hospital for, what sounds like another week. Both Becca and Andrew are missing work and are looking at significant hospital bills. Anything you give is much appreciated, even if it's not monetary. I will provide daily updates here.