Obstruction

 am back in the hospital!

   I came in through the Emergency Room aournd 1am on Tuesday night (or I guess that would be vey early Wednesday morning).
I had really bad pain that started around 5pm that was not responding to Percocet /Tylenol 3s nor had I gone to the bathroom since Sunday.
   Free healthcare in Canada meant I only waited 7 hours in unbearable pain before a doctor was free to see me.

I have to say Canadians have become used to these crappy wait times but the the situation was made worse during my 7 hour wait not because of the the unbearable physical pain but the fact that the 3 idiots who arrived after me that had been in bar fights that night were given priority because they were bleeding.

I wish I had the choice to pay for healthcare....

It appears I have an obstruction which I am sure some of you are familiar with.  It took 36 hours of constant morphine to get the pain under control (which happened around 5am this morning).  Now that I am pain free I am constipated and the nurses do not understand why I have not had a bowel movement.

   hmmm.. could it be the pain killers or maybe the fact that I have not had any food in almost 48 hours?!?

Another great thing about our free healthcare!

The only unit that had a bed available was the Pallative Care unit and it did not have a room free, just a bed.

I am parked in the hallway,which is one of the new initiatives our government has decided to use to deal with our overcrowded hospitals - rather then invest the necessary money.

   I have been going for walks but only passing gas so far... cross your fingers for me as my brother and I are having a halloween party on Saturday!

 

I hope u get better and do what I do in these hospitals. Scream ur brains out and get attention because if u wait to long things can become worse than they would of been. This is not the time to be shy. Good luck please keep us posted and I hope u make it out for ur halloween party!!

I am finally having bowel movements, but had a major scare last night.

 My temperature and blood pressure spiked and I started having unbearable sharp pains in my stomach.  The doctors were concerend I may have perforated my bowel.  I have had lots of pain in my life but this was a new one.  There was no way I could get comfortable!  They ordered Xrays and a CT scan asap and I am not sure exactly what happened but after drinking all the Telebrex and having the CT scan I had a normal bowel movement.  My temperature dropped and I felt actually pretty good. The doctors said my scan and xrays looked normal. 

The only thing I can think of is that whatever was blocking my bowels was BIG combined with the fact that I havent used my muscles for going to the bathroom in 18 months meant the pain was unbelievable!  Man oh man, I would not wish that on my worst enemy.  So I have been running to the toilet every few minutes and finally allowed to have fluids.  I snuck some toast to my room tonight as I was starving - so far so good!

Hey Peggy,

thanks for the post.  I feel like such a baby for taking so long to recover!  It does hurt to walk and I am soo tired.  I feel like I should be up and about.  I think I recovered from the ileostomy reversal better then I am recovering from this!  I am glad to hear thats normal... whatever normal is.

I am allowed solid foods today but am taking it very very slowly.

  I am so sorry that you had to go through all of this and I hope you are on the mend.GOOD LUCK.

Isn't it wonderful to be home? I'm so happy for you! And not to pay anything for all of that medical care and testing is amazing. Who knows, the US might be headed in that direction.

Hi Angela,

Thank God eveyrthings back to normal.

I've had these pains as well. I have an ileostomy for nearly 4 years now and had 5 years with a colostomy. I prefer the ileostomy better.

At first I didn't know why I got these pains. but I then realized it was what i had eaten earlier that day. once I ate too many peanuts. Have you ever tried that? Don't!! lol

It blocks you passage way and so does popcorn. And the PAIN! It feels like you need to EXPLODE! Like you're a walking gas bomb and it's backfiring in your own body.

Once while on the colostomy I've eaten mountains of strawberries and some seeds had punctured the inside walls of my colon. And the BLOOD - WOW! it was poring out of me.

But I went STUPID - I didn't know that the strawberries were the cause. I thought I was having a CANCER ATTACK and this was it. So if this was it? Silly me played my Softball game - Dump 2 pounches of blood behing a tree. Had a few drinks.

funny thing I had no pain and yet all this blood.

Anyway in the wee hours of the morning 4:00 Am I had to go to the washroom coz blood was leaking through my flange. My wife notice my staggering to the bedroom and thought it was coz I was still drunk from drinking.

As soon as i reach my private toilet the pouch was full - right to the top of all 10 inches. I passed out right there. fainted - fell to the floor - blood all over me - Next thing i noticed was waking up in the hospital with tubes of fliuds stuck to my arms. One of them was RED!

The strawberry seeds nearly killed me that night. And I thought it was the END! I lost nearly 5.5 pints of blood. Now i don't assume anymore. It can always mean something else is wrong with you.

Cheers!

Lonnie

PS: btw: I was up and running - playing ball the very next day. Sigh...

Hey Angela!...The wait in emerg here is about 3 to 4 hours, although it can be longer.  I had my surgery in Kingston.  I also had surgery there 2 years ago and the diffference in the two years is unbelievable!  The care I received this time was not half as good as in 2006.  I felt bad for the nursing staff as they are so rushed and stressed!  Some can handle it and some cant...it's the "cant" ones that are sometimes nasty and short with patients.  All in all though, we still have it pretty good here in Canada eh? I wouldn't live anywhere else!!!  Hope you are feeling better!Cheryl