Hi All , Long time to talk.....
Just wanted to give you the low down and my story...I will need to read through all the other posts and get back to you guys. Hope everyone is doing well.....
So…I went in for the surgery on June 24th. I was there for a week and then a home with my folks for a week. I took things slow, eating and moving around – and I was going to the bathroom everyday 3-8 times a day (about), and feeling much better. I just had to get used to the pain, the meds, and getting fatigued.
After the first 2 weeks, my friends from Canada came out to see my new house, and to visit me during my recovery for 5 days. One the 3rd day, I started feeling really sick to my stomach. I wasn’t sure what it was exactly – and I just went to lie down…but it just kept getting worse. I took some nausea pills, nothing. Thought maybe I just needed to eat some bread….ended up throwing that up. Then had some Gatorade so that I wouldn’t dehydrate myself. I was up to about 4 in the morning, feeling like complete poop and throw up 4 more times.
about 9am the next day, on July 11, I called the Nurses hotline for Kaiser Permanente and told her my situation. She asked me to stop eating, drinking, or touching my tummy – and to go to Urgent Care right away, tell them I am post-op and tell them I need to be seen right away.
I called my mom and she came and got me and my friend Kelly and I was admitted into the Urgent Care room around 11:00am. I had an xray, bloodwork, and CT scan completed, and at that point they determined that it looked like a blockage. They called in the on-call Gastro M.D. She pulled up my CT Scan showed me that my stomach was largely distended, I had a intestinal obstruction in my small intestines and they were also distended in areas. She said that I would need an NG tube place through my nose into my stomach to stop and help the vomiting…and that I would be readmitted into the hospital.
I cried…I didn’t want either, but I knew it was coming.
The NG tube…was the most horrible experience of my life. I don’t want to sound overdramatic, but I will never allow that to happen again while I am awake. It was awful. I cried during this too, but big large baby tears. I was already sick, and putting that large tube down my nose, into my throat (which made me vomit while they were doing it), into my stomach, was just bad. Once they finally got it in. They tapped it up hard to my nose. They nurses were very nice about it, as nice as they could be but it was still horrible. It made the nausea go away almost instantly though, which I guess is the good thing…
Still I had the tube in me for 2 days. So many times, I just wanted to rip of the tape and pull it straight out my nose, but I didn’t. I was just in a depressed physical state. The irritation of the tube was getting to me. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, see anyone, or be awake because I was so uncomfortable.
Finally the doc took it out, and that was gross and awful too…but around an hour after I was feeling more bubbly and healthy again. I was able to have coffee and clear liquids. The next morning I had solid foods. I was released on July 15th.
During my stay I had one of the worst and one of the best roommates. The first few nights, I had a crazy lady – they call her “frequent flyer” cause she is in and out every few months. She was literally insane. She was complaining, and up all night. Left her TV on loud, demanded that the room door stay wide open, even throughout the night. Complain about everything. Would call the nurses every hour, if not more. Really the worse person someone trying to recover can be placed with.
Finally they moved her to another floor a few days later, to let another floor of nurses have their turn. Then I got a new roommate later that day. She was the nicest lady, complete opposite of the first lady. She was in to get a 20lbs mass removed from her abdomen (can you believe it). It grew fast, in only a month or 2 and she finally came in. Good thing they removed it. She recovered fairly quickly, and probably left the day after I was released from the hospital.
Now I am home, and I am doing well. I wanted to make sure I took things a little easier this time, just to make sure I didn’t over do it. When I asked the doc he said I hadn’t done anything wrong, or anything that would cause me to have the obstruction. I still took it easy, cause that was a scary experience and I didn’t want that to happen again.
We did decide however, that it most likely happened in the process of my small intestines “finding their new home”. He said there was A LOT of room in my tummy and the small intestines had to figure out how to situate in that new area. In the process, something could have been slightly twisted or maybe I had an ileus and a part of my small intestines feel back asleep. ?? Whatever it was, it sucked and I don’t want that to happen again. Funny thing is when I first got out, I could literally feel my insides moving from one side of my tummy to the other (when I laid on my sides), but now things feel much more settles.
I do have to go to the restroom a lot about 5-8 times a day – sometimes a lot sometimes very little. In the mornings I have more solid mass, and throughout the day it is pretty loose. My bum does get irritated and I have to use the butt cream from time to time, but it is worth it. I can eat pretty much anything, but I try to stick mostly to the low residue diet…The only bad thing is that I can eat white bread – and I am loving it. Don’t want to gain weight so I have to be careful. LOL
I am exercising a little now. I take my dog, Beans, for a walk and I will do light arm weights, but I don’t over do it. I go back to work on Aug 9th. It has come pretty fast, but it will be nice to see people during the 8-5 hours and get back to my work (that I enjoy).
So at the end of the day I am happy about this decision, even with the complication. This was a good move.
Hope to catch up soon, and see how everyone is doing. Thanks for your support up to my surgery. It was so greatly needed and helped me so much.
Love, Barb