Long day - Mary had surgery today after what was a long night for her. Seems like the mystery of her admominal pain for the last 5 months may be solved along with her recent pains from Wednesday night.

Surgery today revealed trouble with Mary's small intestine. Appropriate term would be small bowel obstruction due to adhesion. Two loops of her small intestine were attached together with scar tissue about 4" below the adhesion she had developed a hole in her intestine known as a perferation.

Dr. Towriss and Dr. Lee presume that the adhesion was most likely what was causing the gastric pain Mary has been having off and on. The hole and subsequent infection is what caused the severe pain on Wednesday night. Investigation of her appendix and gall-blader showed normal function so they were not removed.

Dr. Lee removed about a 2 foot section of the intestine from the adhesion through the perferation. Cleaned up the infection fluid and other matter from the hole, and re-attached the intestine.

Mary is in the ICU unit at Schneck under sedation and on a ventilator to allow her to rest and start the healing process. Post op complications will be the biggest worries moving forward. With her reduced immune system and chemo treatments, infection, hernia and pnumonia are potential issues.