DAY FIFTY FIVE

Helen Sadler was in tears as she followed the wheelchair carrying Dean down the hall.  He was being discharged from the hospital.  But he was far from whole.  A week ago he was admitted with devastating abdominal pain.  Now he was being discharged without that pain but the price of that relief was terrible.  He now had a five-inch scar on his abdomen and he no longer had a colon.  Yesterday she was there when the ostomy specialist showed him how to change his bag and care for the hole in his belly that would now be the passage through which his body eliminated waste.  When they got to the car he slid in on the driver’s side.  She was about to stop him but decided that if he wanted to drive he was able to do so. 

When they got home he went to the bathroom and drained his bag.  When he was done he came back to the den.  Without saying much he turned on the computer and connected to the web.  He started browsing pages about ostomies.  He read pages on how to get supplies and book-marked two of them.  Then he hit a page that talked about something called BCIR.  After looking at it for a few minutes he called Helen over to the computer.

“Look at this web site hon.  It says there is a way they can fix me so I don’t have to wear this bag.”

“How can that be?  You don’t have a colon any more.”

‘There is plenty of space in my belly.  They make a pouch and a valve so the stuff stays inside till you want to drain it.”

“How do you drain the pouch?”

“Look here at this picture.  You insert a tube to push the valve open and it drains into the commode.  The valve must be like the one on a tire, it is shut unless you press on it.”

“Do you think they can fix you?”

“It sounds like it.”

“Understand, I love you as you are, but it would be easier for you if you didn’t have to do the bag thing so often.”