Phase 1

Yesterday, last night, and today were incredibly hard on Alana. She hasn't eaten since Monday night and she's been full NPO since this morning. She has another 15+ hours to go before she gets anything and that's done in a precisely measured and controlled environment for 20 minuets tomorrow mid-morning. 

I didn't get a chance to update when she came out of surgery. She ended up needing to remain intubated for a bit longer than usual and then she woke up extremely upset and combative. She screamed and cried and mumbled for almost 3 hours before she calmed down enough to even remotely relax. Right now she's very uncomfortable and very quiet. She is only talking when she really needs something and currently is telling us that she feels very weak and her body hurts everywhere. 

Tomorrow morning this master computer they are talking about will be brought in and all the probes will be attached to it until about 2-3 o'clock in the afternoon. Unfortunately we won't get the results from this for another week but there's nothing we can do about that in the end. 

This by far is one of the worst testing procedures she's had done. She's had surgeries, chest tubes, etc. etc. but this is terrible. She has a tube the size of a straw coming out her belly in addition to another tube (the probe) that's running along side that. This tube (probe) is all the way down her intestines and the other tube is draining all her stomach fluids out. The second tube, the other probe, is coming from her bottom and is all the way up the entire colon. This is tapped to her leg and she isn't allowed to be at more than a 35 degree angle, be on her side, eat, drink, or even go to the restroom. Her whole body hurts and she is miserable. She's off all her meds due to this testing so all her nerves are firing on all cylinders. Tomorrow morning they will be hooking her up and then my understanding is these little probes will stimulate (i.e. cause her pain) her GI system in addition to an enema cocktail while they watch the equivalent of an internal EKG wave pattern. The reason it takes so long to get results is the doctor has to read over page after page of these waves and see if they are all how they are suppose to be. If not what's not right about them and if so then what can we do to improve her treatment plan. 

Thanks for all the thoughts wishes and prayers. We let her know about every single one.