Post-Op Complications - Or Not?

I am back in the hospital but hope to be getting out today.

My surgery recovery was progressing reasonably normally, but I was more "draggy" than I thought I should be and also, I was running a bit of a temperature. My appetite was way down. This situation did not seem to be getting better day by day.

Finally, on Thursday, Jul, my 25 primary care doctor told me that I should go back to BWH where I had had my surgery.

BWH ran a bunch of tests. First, they discovered that my blood pressure was quite low - 90 / 60. Next, they did a CT scan of the surgery site. Good news there. No sign of any infection or "leakage". All indications are that the surgery site has been healing nicely. This goes along with the fact that my jelly belly has been feeling better every day.

The bad news is that they don't have any idea why I have these symptoms which include:

• Wanting to sleep a lot
• Elevated temperature
• Low blood pressure
• Greatly reduced appetite
• Overall feeling very "draggy". 

Saturday, I suggested to the surgical team that has been monitoring me that my symptoms might be unrelated to the surgery. They could be due to a virus that I picked up somewhere that my immunocompromised body is having trouble dealing with or that I am dealing with long term effects of my cancer or my chemotherapy. The surgical team told me that they had independently come up with the same theory.

So, they handed me off to the oncology team and the oncology team has decided there is no real reason to keep my in hospital. They plan to give me the boot later today. My blood pressure is up to something reasonable. I am feeling a bit better. My temperature is only slightly high. So, I am looking forward to getting outta here.

Barbara and I plan to head to NH. We hope to be there a week and a half before we have to come back to the Boston area.

So, that is the latest update.