Chương 18: A Surgery Without Anesthesia
After those agonizing hours of waiting to know the outcome, the surgeon finally came out.
"Miss Allyza, we found an inborn or congenital bands at the outer walls of your child's small intestine. Imagine your child's intestine as a rose stalk. Along the stalk, there are thorns. Or, you can also imagine a hairy stalk. Only that the thorns or hairs are long strands, about a foot long and about the width of a rubber band."
" The movement of the intestines medically called as 'peristalsis', caused these strands or bands to wrap or bind around the body of the intestine until it got tighter, choking and twisting it, thus, the obstruction. All her ingested milk can no longer pass through the large intestines that's why it is pushed back on her stomach which explained her vomiting. The obstruction destroyed a long portion of the small intestine beyond healing and repair so we decide to cut it. We pulled out the ends of both cut portion of the intestine to her outer and lower abdomen, to allow healing and control of infection. Because if we would connect both ends right then, the stitch will only burst out or rupture due to the infection. After a month or two, when the infection is controlled, we will stitch and connect both ends again then place it back inside her abdominal cavity. "
"So we need to do a second surgery. As of now, the child will pass out her waste through the pulled out intestinal ends outside her lower abdomen, called 'ileostomy'."
"Do you mean, doc, my child is safe now and after the second surgery, she will be back to normal? " Allie nervously asked, too scared of that term called 'ileostomy'.
The end of the cut portions of her intestine is placed outside her abdomen? Then she would be touching the intestines everytime she would clean her out? What a mind - blowing revelation!
"It's too early to say it. We still could not eliminate complications. We may had climbed a mountain successfully but we couldn't guarantee that we wouldn't stumble over a small mound. Who knew that the fall would be fatal? "
The doctor tried to gently appraise her for the anticipated complication. She had to prepare her heart and mind ahead for the worst.
"I'm sorry to tell you this, Miss Allyza. I don't want to give you false hope. But I must admit it. Of the twenty years I have handled surgeries, it is only now that I have witnessed a miracle over the operating table. "
The doctor paused for a while as he tried to hold back his emotion. He took a deep breath but that wasn't able to stop the redenning of his eyes.
"She was kicking and crying in the OR table, looking for her pacifier. I didn't expect it because she was already dying when I last saw her. The small amount of anesthesia inducted to her stopped her heart, so we went on with the surgery with a very little amount, close to none. "
Of all the pain she went through, of all those fear she tried to overcome, of all the shame and insults she received, nothing was more painful than knowing that her child went into the surgery without an anesthesia! The needle inserted into her vein a while ago even broke her heart, how much more in imagining those blades cutting some portion of her intestines...
In front of the doctor and some of the medical team, she cried bitterly. It was too hard to accept!
Later, Andrew comforted her. "Don't feel so bad about that. I am sure that God allowed her a painless surgery. Stay strong. You will still be planning ahead for the second surgery. "
Later in the ICU, her heart experienced death a thousand times when she saw Chloe lying peacefully with many attachments. The beeping and the pumping sounds of the machines were all deafening and frightening. A mechanical ventilator to support her breathing, a cardiac monitor which displayed the tracings of her hearbeats, the many bottles attached to her IV lines...
Then, she saw the white bandage covering her surgical wound across her abdomen. She also saw that 'ileostomy' which looked like a raw, red meat covered with a plastic pouch at one side of her abdomen.It was placed below the horizontal line of the long surgical wound, starting at one point at her side and ended at her other side.
A fluid seemed dripping from it and the nurse was stuffing pads of gauze around it as if to prevent its leakage.
"Miss, can you please explain why are you doing that? "She could no longer hold her curiousity since she was already presuming that she would also be doing it once Chloe would be discharged.
"It is because the fluid will cause erosion to the child's skin so I'm preventing it to happen. And since it is from her small intestine, the drainage would be continous. "
The more she got horrified. Who else would touch those tips of the intestines other than her? Her parents would surely get a heart attack if they would do that! So, it only meant to cause her many sleepless days and nights. How would she also survive?
The only solution to this was to raise the fund needed for the second surgery. The hospital would surely not allow her to do a promisory arrangement on top of her current bill. She could no longer borrow from anybody else because she already had too much debts.
She went out and hurried to the prayer room again. Despite the evidence of God's earlier miracles, human as she was, she couldn't help herself from getting torn! Where would she get the fund? She just couldn't stand still and wait what would happen. Success is the union of both divine power and human effort...so she must do something herself!
Andrew followed her inside. He knew exactly what bothered her.
"Allie, I will arrange for benefit concerts. The proceeds will be for baby Chloe. " He said with a determined expression on his face.
Allie felt so awed. She had just met him and he was already giving so much. She even had not known him yet except that he was a new member of her group.
"How can I thank you enough? "She smiled while her tears were dripping from the corners of her eyes.
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