Karen started to get real hungry last night around 1am. To her this meant her body was ready to eat again, and she wanted to be proactive about it. They have to unhook you temporarily from the suction if you want to go for a walk, sit in a chair outside of your hospital bed, or go to the bathroom. So after they clamped Karen for a bathroom break we went walking around for a while and came back to the room to rest in a chair, and then started the cycle over. Karen managed to stay unclamped for about two and half hours before she felt exhausted enough to get back into bed. A clamping trial is usually 3 hours, so she was ready with this news when the doctors came in to see us. They were happy, but told us we should still consider having a PEG tube inserted through Karen's neck for future occurances. Karen said, "not this time" and they agreed to a formal clamping trial.
They ordered an extended clamping trial, which is 6 hours long. We have only done this once before after a false start earlier in the year after her ostomy reversal, which was very traumatic on her intestines. Since the nurse had only reconnected Karen for a couple minutes before the doctors came around she decided to quickly disconnect Karen from the suction and count the earlier time towards the trial. So if everything goes well we'll be on clear liquids in a few hours. We're pretty confident it'll happen.
