Not doing well

 I am still in the hospital. I have a post-op ileus. I had an ng tube, but I continued to thow up, so the doctor had it removed today. The stoma has  produced 30 or so cc's of output and no gas.

I am still in alot of pain, despite the catheter.

Please pray for me that my intestines wake up. I feel terrible. I am on NPO and can only wet my lips with ice chips.

So sorry, I hope things improve soon. Hang in!

Oh, yeah, I forgot about you having the indwelling epidural. Good thing you have that. If you need more pain relief have something put into your IV.

Good luck, keep us posted, Rosemary

Tracy,
Hang in there girl. We're all praying for you!!

Janie

That does sound hard!! I will pray for you and hope things improve quickly.

Output that's green and stinky is bile, and I think everyone has it at first with an end ileo -- but it will be better once you can eat.

Vomiting is awful, I feel for you. I vomited all night when I got home from my surgery,and I think it was one of the worst nights of my life....

Hang in. Hope things start to improve.

Hi Tracy,

Hang in. No, the green smelly stuff is just bile. End ileo output is mostly no odor at all. I think you are in a catch 22. You need the pain meds. Pain meds slow things down in addition to the ileus. They also make you sleepy that is why you can't walk as much as you are supposed to. BUT without the pain meds you'd be on the ceiling. So in time my guess is they will taper the pain meds, thus allowing you to walk more, this in turn will wake up your guts.

I remember practically having to walk to Canada. No I never threw up with my NG tube. When I started to throw up they put the NG tube in and I deflated like a balloon and felt SOOOOOO much better. The suction on the NG tube just draws up and out all the fluids that cannot at this time pass out into your bag. I was like a God send to me. Are you sure they had the suction turned up sufficiently? To my knowledge the NG tube should eliminate the vomiting issue and deflate you so you feel so much better.

If they have to put it back in, have them spray your throat with numbing agent and have them give you sips of water as you swallow it. It's not as bad going in as one would think. THEN make sure they turn the suction on enough. I think the additional surgey of having your colon removed is what made this surgery much harder to recover from. That is why my ileo doc just left mine in me as my situation was different from yours and he knew I couldn't tolerate too much surgery as I had alllllllll those adhesions.

Hang in and try my ideas if you need to. Don't hesitate to ask your questions and concerns. So glad you have people to be with you. Good luck Rosemary

Tracy,

I am not hearing nausea or vomiting or needing of NG tube yet and I am hearing you are walking and that you are having a little output.......so push yourself to walk a bit more each time you get up, hard as it is. Sounds like you may be turning the corner into awakening guts. What was tough with my ileo surgery was I would figuratively take two steps forward and one step back meaning some progress then set back. I thought I'd never get out of there. BUT I did.

Am not surprised you had a TON of mucous in right side of colon, remember your colon did not push poop along so it would not push mucous along. Good that Dr. S will just suction your rectum if you need it. Cannot understand why Hodaya's doc won't do that for her, takes like all of about 2 minutes or less and with only your rectum a minute tops.

Keep walking, walking, walking,

Just went for my B12 shot. The new nurse did sub-Q up in the muscle (IM goes in the muscle not sub-Q) Sub-Q goes in the lower fleshy part of the arm. I don't know what nursing school this lady went to but there was B12 all over my arm, down on my clothes, onto the chair. I must have gotten very little of it in me. I am going to ask for my former shot nurse back. This is not that big a deal but the idea is to have the B12 in me not ON me. Thought you could use a bit of a chuckle at this point, so there it is

Keep walking and keep updating. Cheering you on Tracy, Rosemary

Tracy,

I just reread your post and yes, for Lizzie, things did not turn out well in Cincinnati with the adhesion specialist. Last I knew she was back at her near-local ER but is she now on her way to Mayo? I sure hope they can help her. That was the place that turned me away, basically, because they said small bowel adhesions were too dangerous to lyse. That was one of my lowest moments. I cried all the way home from the place. Hoping the best for her.

Praying that your guts wake up SOON! keep us posted. Thinking of you. Rosemary

Tracy,

I know this does not make it easier but an ileus is very common. My son had one after his first surgery. I know every day seems to be an eternity but it WILL pass. It is easy for us to say but the best thing you can do is get up and walk and walk until you can walk no more.

Post surgical ileus continues. HELP> I have had some output from the ostomy, but not alot and absolutely no gas. Last night was terrible because everytime I would lay down the slightest bit, then my stomah contents would back up into my throat. This has been much worse than I remember the last time being, but I know that our brains can forget traumatic events.

My abdomen is still distended, but I think it may look slightly better??? Wishful thinking maybe. My stomach burned like it was on fire most of the night and morning too. I am going to ask my doctor what he thinks about that? Is that normal?

I still have my epidural pain pump, but the pain medication management team has already informed me that this will have to go no later than tomorrow. I guess I will then get pain med by IV because I don't think I would keep a pain pill down in an empty stomach?

I have been given reglan, pepcid, and zofran to try to combat this relentless nausea.

I hope I never have to have another surgery again. I am so miserable. ANd the nights are 10x as hard as the daytimes.

Tracy,  I had a total colectomy and had problems with ilius before my surgery and still to this day I have problems with it.  If the gas dont move my bowels wont move till the buble moves...  I for the first year and 2 months was in the hospital 2 times a month every month for at least 4 days at a time, so for the past 2 months have not got the gas loops that put me in the hospital but still deal with my stomach making too much gas.  Now I have a ulcer and waiting to see if its a bleeding one or not have not gotten the blood work back yet.

But for the past several weeks I have been so ill with stomach and intestinal issues, I am about ready to give up.  But I wont...In Aug 8th they are doing thyroid surgery for a good possibility of cancer...so have to wait and see on that one.

Supposta see a gastro doc for a endoscopy but we only have 2 gastro docs in our sm. town and my consultation is not till Sept 16th...dont think I can wait that long so going to call some docs a hr away to see if I can get into one sooner.

Im down to 123 lbs...skin and bones as I am 5'10

so the docs are concerned cuz I cannot eat.  Gosh what does not kill ya makes you stronger, so they say.  Well I am still alive 19 surgeries later but im tired of being sick, so don't know if that really holds true.

Plus my sister is visiting from Fla, and cant even enjoy anything.  Well enough of my bla bla bla...  So tracy I know how you feel.

Take good care and blessing for all who are suffering today...

Leslie

Wow Tracy - I wish I could say something to make you feel better but I kind of know what you are going through. The three weeks in the hospital were torture and didn't really improve until I could pass some gas, which was the last couple of days. I felt like I was delivering multiples. I looked like it too!

The narcotics definitely slowed things down...

The green stuff was disgusting and even worse when you are throwing up the same stuff you should be putting out.

I hope things improve for you soon.

nanci