Post blockage, can't eat -- in the hospital

Well, it's not been a good few days. On Sat night I started feeling nauseous after dinner. Threw up six times in the night. Went to the ER Sunday a.m (not trivial w/new snow). I was there all day, and they admitted me.

They put a Foley catheter in my stoma, and that seems to have worked ... lot of watery output, and the blockage seems cleared. But now I'm having acid reflux (never had before), and I'm starting to manage to drink fluids. I felt better yesterday morning, but when I ate some crackers and drank juice I felt a lot worse.

I have been out of the hospital for a while, forgot some how frustrating it is to get awakened so often in the night.... my BP was low, needed a new IV, etc.... nurse even woke me up to tell me he was upping my fluids....

So, I'm tired and cranky.... supposed to be going out of town for a family event this weekend, not sure I'll be up for it... sigh.

But I'm wondering if others have taken a while after a blockage for things to work again. I just feel crampy and sore (partly from the vomiting, probably from the blockage itself). Food does not appeal at all, not much liking the
gatorade either....

Docs seem divided on whether the issue here is an adhesion/kink in the bowel, food blockage, or both.... The adhesion thing is very scary..... my surgery was lapro, was hoping that wouldn't be an issue.

Appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks, UC what. No clear suspects in the food, but I was tired and stressed from work, and I ate too much and very well might have chewed too little.

Nurse just said that I don't have to eat to leave today, so that's good.... feeling a bit better as I keep pushing the fluids....

Thanks, NCOT. The blockage was right behind my stoma, so that's not a normal width bowel. The resident deferred to the more senior surgeon, said he was right and it wasn't adhesions.

I'm happy to hear you are back home and hopefully you get to feeling much better soon!

Thanks, Summer. There is definitely a mental part to this -- I find myself reluctant to have a particular kind of tea because I threw it up a few days ago, even though I know intellectually that the flavor of tea had nothing to do w/it.

Mine wasn't as severe are yours .... off foods/liquids for about a day and food for three days. I ate some yesterday, and that went OK, just little bits of white things here and there. Got some sleep, which is good.

I had to cancel my trip -- no way I'm up for going on a plane in the winter etc, when I don't even know that I'll be up for going to work tomorrow. Really sad and disappointed last night, but trying to think of all the trips that have worked out since my surgery -- I have been able to do a lot of things I wanted to do, just not all of them......

An x ray was almost the first thing they did when I got in the hospital. That showed a blockage, but it wasn't clear enough to see where, so I had a CT. I was a bit hesitant w/the Ct because I've had so many of them, and you get the equivalent of one to two years worth of background radiation in an abdominal CT, but I went along with it....

Your warning is helpful, though, Active. My partner was more hesitant about going to the ER (well, partly because she had to shovel for an hour to get us out, and didn't want to do that at 3 am), but I was conscious that this could be something very bad, even though it probably wasn't... but it was more than something that would easily clear on its own. (we waited until it was light out, and it worked out....)

How are you doing now?

Wow, that's so scary. Very glad you were alright and that things are on the upswing. Hope your stoma gets more comfortable!

hey blue. sorry to hear about that. but post blockage or partial blockage or whatever you had... can cause the intestines to be inflammed for awhile. That inflammation can cause pain. So you need to baby those intestines for a few weeks. Easy foods.
Also - watch out for that gatorade. Very sugargy and can definitely cause weird upper gi stuff.. like acid reflux. go for a true WHO electroylyte beverage for a few weeks - pedialyte, ceralyte, or jianas brothers oral rehydration salts.

also... I have been told they can't see kinks on normal xrays or CT scans. you would have to do a small bowel series. But if you just had a blockage behind the stoma and it cleared with sticking that straw in the stoma.. you should not worry about future things. No need for that radiation. I mean really.. if it was adhesions... there ain't nothing going to be done about that. If it was a kink.. they would ignore it as long as possible.. in hopes to avoid more surgery.

So just take a chill with the intestines for a few weeks. Tons of electroyloyte liquids and only gi soft foods.
hang in there.
liz.