Hi all. I'm a newby and really appreciate the posts I've read elsewhere on here. My husband (57) suffered a badly perforated small intestine due to being put on 2 drugs that shouldn't go together. This was back in July. He was on blood thinners and bled out before he got to the er. When they figured out what was wrong, he went straight to surgery with little expectation for survival where they removed all but about
4 feet of his small intestine. Two weeks later he developed a leak and they had to do another surgery and remove a little more. Dr.s really thought he would not make it that time. He spent 31 days in icu but he survived. After another 30 days in step down, he was released but almost immediately he got very weak, malnourished, and dehydrated. His picc line became infected, his incision got infected, and he had surgery to debreed that. Since being released from the first hospital, he's been in 3 more times, each time he was dehydrated.
I (not the dr.s) finally figured out he needed to be on iv fluids and have since taken over all care of his picc line and wound care. He's doing better but very weak.
He is TPN dependent although he eats regular food - it ends up in his ileostomy bag in a matter of minutes - and even water is not absorbed so he's also getting iv fluids through a picc line.
I'm wondering if anyone else is tpn dependent and how they are doing on it?
Also, we've been having a LOT of problems with the seal breaking on his flange latey. It gets bent when he sits and wrinkles up. After reading some of the other posts, I've about decided I've been using too much paste lately AND he insist on skin prep, but I see people who say that could be part of the problem. I'll have to work on that one.
We are going to have to order some more supplies right away now. Any suggestions on good, cheap suppliers? We live in a very rural area so I will have to mail order.
Thanks so much for your feedback. Being out here in the "sticks" makes one feel very much alone. I'm glad I ran across this site where I can "talk" to others in the know. 