Anyone heard from Rosemary?

I used to like to read but now am just too uncomfortable to focus.

I ended up going for the noodles for lunch. Bad idea. I am now having to break them down with grape juice. I will go to the hotel gym and walk on the treadmill to move things along. Tomorrow I stick to yogurt, cereal, and the rest of the day liquids. I wonder if my guts are so scarred in that I need a transplant if anything else happens.

I had a private duty LPN today and she put a dressing on the wound separation area of my incision. There is definite pale yellow coming out of there.

Also this tiny part of the incision is see thru and you can see into my abdomen down thru it. The area is not very big but what the heck is that?

I am going to call the docs office in the a.m. about that. I never had that before. I think I should have gone to the main mayo in minnesota. More experiences docs up there. This is scary.

Sorry about the occasional odd phrasing, it's the predictive text on my iPad, which is starting to annoy me. It is even worse when I try to write something in German, when they get replaced by random English words, utter mambo jumbo. Off to work now, will check in later today to see how are you doing. ((Hugs))

Why do you think it keeps doing this Rosemary? is it because of adhesions? did they tell you? sorry to hear you're not great.. and hope you get some sleep and help from the Doctors tomorrow. Hang in. x

Hi Rosemary, did you have any luck seeing somebody? Is your stoma changing colour? So sorry that you have, could it be gas pain? Do you take any stronger pain meds, such as tramadol or morphine? They caused terrible gas pain and can your guts make lethargic...but I guess you know this already..

Hi Rosemary!
Just checked in now, it's been a few weeks since I last logged on. So sorry to hear that you are still battling! I really really hope that this isn't another stenosis, and if it is that they can sort it out asap. You have suffered way too long and way too much to still not have a well functioning stoma. Thinking of you lots and praying that you can sleep, have no pain and can pass lots of poo!!!
Hugs Laura

Today tylenol extra strength and liquid only as no food will pass thru this stoma. Just woke after a great nap to pee and empty bag of liquid and change ooze dressing. Then hopefuLly back to sleep. I have hunger but nio way eould I eat and clog that stoma. Will be really weak by tomorrow. But anything except that pain and stoma blockage. Lolly thanks for checking in if this cannot be sorted I will die of starvation. Hopefully back to sleep. Maybe I can have a little milk. That is satisfying. Or maybe my cear liquid protein drink???

Rosemary so sorry to hear this :-( you really need a break and some support pronto. Emotional and medical. Please tell your Dr exactly how much you're suffering.

You need to get on some Ensure meal replacement drinks (prescription from you Dr) and stop trying to eat crackers, yoghurt etc. Don't even try to eat that stuff, but you need to get some nutrition into you. I hear you and I know how hard it is, believe me I've done nearly 3 months of soup, liquids etc.. the turning point for me was accepting I couldn't really eat, stopped trying and the ensure shakes made a huge difference to my energy levels. People survive for years like that.

Let us know what the Doctor says..

The appt semed to go well. The doc stuck her little finger into my stoma all the way to the abdominal kevel. No pain, no blood, and no cracking of stoma. So that was good.

The reason I had the cracking and the pain and the bleeding with the finger exam of the 6ormer stoma was that it was stenosed at the skin level. I specifically asked her about my former stoma. She said it had been made nice and wide at the fascia level but had stenosed badly at the skin level. It sounded like if enough bowel had been able to be brought up it could have just been a skinlevel repair. So that was interesting to hear.

So this stoma certainly all good in terms of no tightness not issues at skin or fascia level.

So due to the food blockages, she did recommend a retrograde gastrograffin enema test thru the stoma. I told her of the one I had at lahey with that severely stenosed stoma and told her that afterwards I had tons of diarrhea that came out ina fire hydrant stream and that I needed an iv. She said that was likely due to the fact that I had the stenosis.

So I had the choice of doing this friday (tomorrow) or monday. It said it can take 1 to 4 hours. I took the monday appt because I thought if anything went wrong I would not want this to be on a friday.

Also I remember at lahey they put in a ton of gastrograffin and then applied a lot of pressure to my abdomen with these paddles to get the gastrograffin to spread through all my bowel loops. I remember at one point they actually accidentally pressed on the actual stoma with a paddle. I do not want this happening again out here. But maybe here it will be different.

So I tried to get ahold of a technician to answer my questions and they just referred me back to the docs office. The technicians usually have all the scoop as they do these things.

I am only 3 weeks post op and have some normal clear yellow wound drainage coming from my incision. I still also have stitches in my stoma so would not want someone to acidentally press a paddle on it.

I asked the doc if it was too soon to do this test and she said no 3 weeks out is OK.

So as of this point I am leaving the test for monday and not switching it to tomorrow.

Has anyone else had a gastrograffin retrograde enema xray done only 3 weeks post op.

I feel like taking a shuttle over to the scottsdale campus tomorrow and asking them my questions. Tooi bad they don't do them here in phoenix where I am.

Plus if I did this on a friday and got into trouble then not a happy thing. I do need to find out what is going on though.

Today I did have some ensure clear shakes, a soft serve, and a pudding. Maybe I should do this tomorrow on fri. What is your take. I have the option.

Thanks me too. RJ

Hi Rosemary,
Just wanted to check in and see how you are feeling today.
Wish we could all fly out to be with you and help :) Good luck on Monday! Fingers crossed for you, and praying hard :)

Fingers crossed for you for Monday.

Oh god what a night so much pain. Went tghru pain pills and sleeping pills. Then so hgungry I ate solids thgis morning: egg and a pancake and a lot of grape juice. Huge error. Then a walk and noithing came out. Lying on my right side. I should have had thge retrograde enema cointrast test yesterday to check for blockages in back of the stoma. And should never have eaten a solid. I just through some oif the pain excruciating was from trapped gas and that some solid might push the gas along as it had in the gospital. No such luck.

I am going to die of this gut scarrig. Monday test is I last that long. I hope I can pass this egg and pancake somehow. Otherwise they will have to get it out if me somehow. RJ