Christmas Was Early This Year!

My followup appointment with Dr. Sharma, the gastroenterologist, on December 22, went very well. He said the pictures from the gastrografen enemas were normal. There was no indication of polyps, tumors, or other abnormalities. And, there was plenty of gut left to complete a reversal of the colostomy.

He told me he would refer me to Dr. Galloway at Emory University Hospital, who is a top notch surgeon, and who has done lots of research into abdominal wall reconstruction. To me, that was such a wonderful Christmas gift! I was so excited to just be able to be seen by Dr. Galloway. Dr. Sharma said that I should receive a phone call from Dr. Galloway’s office to set up an appointment.

On December 23, Gail from Dr. Galloway’s office called to discuss the appointment with me. She said that Dr. Galloway has looked over my records and agrees that I am a good candidate for abdominal wall reconstruction and ostomy reversal. He likes to schedule patients for a CT scan on the same day as the initial appointment, but that if we wait until there are time slots available on the same day for both the lab and the doctor, it would be January 3oth before they could schedule me. However, if I was agreeable to making the 85 mile one way trip twice, they could schedule the CT scan on Saturday, January 3 and then the appointment with the doctor on January 7th. I guess you know what I said!

So, between now and January 7th, I have to drive over to Carrollton to Dr. Griffin’s office to pick up the test results to hand carry to Dr. Galloway. Not that I am looking forward to the actual surgery, but I am so excited that this is going so quickly so far. I am really close to having my colostomy reversed and getting my abdominal wall reconstruction surgery.

I am trying to keep my hopes low, in case there is any problem that would cause me to not get this done. Please keep  your fingers and toes crossed for me, and say a prayer if you are a praying person.