Adventures in colorectal surgery II

So I had my ileostomy surgery back in February 2006 and it really did dramatically change my quality of life. And after a couple of months I became somewhat accustomed to life with a stoma. One night sometime in May as I was getting ready for bed I noticed a wet spot on the front of my pants and I'm trying to figure out where in the world it came from I moved my hand across my wafer and came back with blood and watery mucus. Well needless to say this freaked me out quite a bit. I examined my wafer only to discover that it had turned to mush in one part where it covered my midline incision. Now had it been a lot of blood I certainly would have gone to the ER but considering the amount of blood and the fact that I had an appointment with my surgeon within 2 days of this discovery I figured I would be ok. I did change my wafer the next morning to get a look at what was going on, a hole had opened up in my midline scar about the size of a pencil eraser, I could not see how far down it went and it continuously oozed blood and a watery substance. To be on the safe side I did email my surgeon and talk to a nurse. He said I would be ok until I saw him.

Now between this visit and my very 1st visit with Dr Remzi I had seen him at least a dozen times, and had been admitted to the hospital about 2 weeks before this for a partial obstruction. So Dr Remzi and I had gotten to know each other pretty well and I had discovered that not only is he kind and compassionate, he has an excellent sense of humor. As I'm sitting in that little examination room waiting to see him, I'm wondering if he will remember about my little hole problem and what exactly (if anything) we're going to do about it. I tried to sit calmly and read my book but no matter how much you love your doctor, when you don't know whats going to happen when he walks into the room, its pretty unsettling. Dr Remzi burst into the room with a nurse and a Fellow trailing (a Fellow is a doctor who has finished his residency and is doing a Fellowship for a particular specialty). Before I even had time to say "hello" Dr Remzi said "UP! Up onto the table." Well, I think to myself, I guess he remembered about my little hole. So now I'm laying on the table looking up at him and Dr Koh (the Fellow) and smile sheepishly. Dr Remzi grabs the giant light over the table points it at my belly, turns it on and says "Hello there sweetheart, ok I want to take a look at this thing." I obediently move aside the clothing that obstructed his view of the hole. The nurse is on the other side of the table and puts a glove on Dr Remzi's hand, just like you see it done on TV and she hands him a q-tip looking thing (not the foot-long one). So he starts probing around in the hole and I can't feel it because if you don't know this, scars don't have nerve endings. I'm just laying there trying to relax when Dr Remzi says "Give me the hook." My eyes get big. "HOOK???" I say as the nurse turns around to grab an instrument. "Hook??" I repeat as the nurse passes him a tool that looks remarkably like what dental hygienists use to scrape plaque off of teeth. "Yes." Dr Remzi replies "I'm going to hang you from the ceiling with it!" Now, of course I know he's joking but I emit an audible gasp or ACK of some kind. Dr Koh says "He's just kidding". This makes me laugh, "Yes, I know, Dr Remzi is a very funny guy."
Things are beginning to get uncomfortable for me at this point though because I've figured out that Dr Remzi is working on a suture because I feel this tugging in my gut. I can tell the suture is still attached to something and he's trying to pull it loose. I make the mistake of looking down and I see that this hook is a good 1/4 inch inside me and the tugging is increasing. "ACK!" I repeat one of my favorite phrases. Dr Remzi glances at my face "Don't look!" he commands me. So now I've got nothing to do but stare at his face and grasp the side of the table, try not to move or whimper.
Its fascinating for me to see Dr Remzi's 'surgery face' because every time I've seen him up until now its either just chatting in an office visit or him checking on me in the hospital or I'm unconscious. We usually just talk and laugh but now as he's doing what he does best he emits almost palpable waves of power and concentration. But alas, the tugging at my belly is really getting to me and I cannot contain my grunts of pain. Dr Remzi says "Ok, I'm going to stop, I can't get it to come out and I don't want to hurt you. If this gets worse we'll treat it more aggressively." He put the hook down, took of his gloves and the nurse swabbed the wound. After I got cleaned up I sat in a chair and our office visit continued like normal! This was certainly the craziest visit I had in the colorectal department though