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feeling terrible post surgery..shaking help

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Posted 8/6/2007 4:03 PM (GMT 0)
help! I just had surgery 9 days ago. ileostomy. colon and rectum removal. I am home but not doing well. Surgeon on vacation till the 24th. Do I call my PCP or a gastro to care for stoma questions and care abou this?

ALSO: I am very weak, and have spells of sweats and shakes that make me feel like I am goinmg to die. My heart races. What could be wrong? this part of recovery? I am scared something is wrong. I am taking 5 mg pred and tylenol for pain. I stopped taking the pain killers thinking they had been the problem. But no.  

They sent me home on a regular diets and push fluids. Is that right? PLease write I am, so SCARED.

LINDA

Posted 8/7/2007 12:04 AM (GMT 0)
Definitely drink more fluids than prior to surgery, I am having shakes sweats etc but mine is due to me cutting down on my pain med strength slowly since I have been on Fentanyl patches since April...I had a total of 3 surgeries with many complications though. !st was resection & removal of fistula, complications ...toxic megacolon abdominal abscess...2nd Sx 1 week later was the temp ostomy, wound got infected thanks to an incompitant resident, stoma did not heal right and caused another abd abscess....actually 3, 3rd Sx was June 20th and was reversal of ostomy, more of large and small intestines removed, abscess removal..scraping of abd walls due to inflamation and infection and many adhesions...nowI have a local infection due to sutures grown into skin so part of the suture made its own way out after the Dr removed the knot.

I also had weakness and dizzy / sweats I feel that may have been due to dehydration but I dont really know for sure. As for heart racing I have that issue all the time my avg pulse is 105. Through most of my recovery it was slightly higher but while in the hospital mult times when I was having issues it was going as high as 151. Make sure you keep tabs on your tempurature. I would call your GI first since they specialize in the areas removed and inform them tht your surgeon is away.

I also had many issues with vomiting after my ostomy surgery luckily you are not having that happen.

Good Luck wish I could hep you more, make sure to monitor your vitals to the best of your ability and go to the ER if you have too
Posted 8/7/2007 12:24 AM (GMT 0)

Linda,

Were you on any steroids prior to surgery?  Are you on any now?  Symptoms almost sound like "cold turkey" from prednisone or pain meds, with the exception of no nausea present.

P

Posted 8/7/2007 1:23 AM (GMT 0)
You didn't mention if you have a fever or not. If you do, I'd either get to an ER or call whoever is on call for your surgeon. If you're not running a fever, I'd at least put in a call to whoever is taking over for your surgeon while he's gone. The symptoms you're mentioning could be caused by a lot of different things and it's better to be safe than sorry.

Posted 8/7/2007 3:14 AM (GMT 0)
Did the hospital set you up with home visits from an ET nurse? If not, you may want to ask about it. They know more about stoma care than most surgeons, lol. As far as the other symptoms, are you tapering the prednisone? If you're really worried, your surgeon has to have someone on call for him while he's gone, it wouldn't hurt to call him/ her.

Good luck.
Posted 8/7/2007 5:15 AM (GMT 0)
I had surgery 4 weeks ago and for the first three weeks I got the shakes really bad. I was on 40mgs of
predinsone and had been taking pred for a long time before surgery. The pred was making my blood sugar
wacko. My doctor has me eat peanut butter and cheese when I get the shakes and that seems to help. I am
cutting the pred doze and that helps. I do get night sweats could still be pred. The biggest thing to remember
is you just had surgery and it takes time for your body to adjust and recover. Your body processes food faster now you need to be hydrated. When I got the shakes I assumed it was related to the surgery but my
doctor told me it was not a normal side affect and thought it was predinsone and my blood sugar. Talk to your
doctor the least it will do is put your mind at ease. Good Luck. Fruitcake
Posted 8/7/2007 5:19 AM (GMT 0)
It sounds like you are going through what I went through after surgery. For me, though it wasn't pleasant, it was just my body detoxing. I felt miserable for about 2 weeks. I agree with a previous post in that you should double up on fluids. I bet you'll feel better in a couple of days.
Posted 8/8/2007 2:27 AM (GMT 0)
Thank you so much for responding. I am in awe of all of you and what you have been through. Surgery so SO HARD. Well, I called my surgeon who was going to send am ambulance to get me to go back to the ER and have them "fluid" me up and do some blood work. As we talked and ruled out fever...stoma woring, wounds all going well, he said it started to sound more like when I was in the hospital I had a few "rough" patchesd emotionally so they gave me a RX for 2 mgs of Ativan/Lorazepam. Well folks, I immediatly am back and of stable mind, able to sleep and feeling hopeful.  WOW. Crisis one averted. Thanks for your help guys!

To answerr a few questions, I was weaning down before surgery and got to 10 mg pred. Left hospital on 20. 10 in the am and 10 in the pm. just went down to 5 in the am and then 5 in pm. I am taking Lexapro and birth control and tylenol for pain. Right now my back and butt are the worse. Why does my back hurt so much?

Posted 11/11/2011 11:12 PM (GMT 0)
Hi, Im a little new to this entire event and not sure which direction to go in and Im hoping someone here will be able to steer me in the right direction. My mother is 60 and lives with me ( just moved in recently) she has a ostomy that she has taken care of herself for well over a year. She has had repeated fistulas. The last surgery she has was to fix a fistula between her bladder and vagina. She was in the hospital for 4 days and came home last Thursday. On friday her staples were leaking Very bad. I called the surgeons office and he told me this was normal. As the day progressed I took her to the emergency room. They then called a ambulance and transferred her back to the hospital that did the surgery. She was in ICU for 4 days.. what the doctor explained to me was that her small intestine had developed a hole after the surgery and it was leaking inside her.. Understand that I have NO experience with any of this. She now has TWO drain lines in her stomach, her original ostomy, a cathiter, And a wound vac on her stomach where the original cut was made. Hes planning on sending her home this way and Im extremely worried about it. I have hired a nurse to help me but at this point he has her on IV food until the drains stop leaking. I honestly have no idea why or how? I dont understand how we got here and I guess I was just looking for someone who understood this or should I just take her to another doctor? Not sure if this leaking is his fault and not at all which direction to go ... Help .... anyone,,,
Posted 11/12/2011 12:06 AM (GMT 0)
Welcome. What an ordeal -- that sounds really hard.

I don't know a lot about your specific situation -- you might want to start a new thread, with a more specific title to find people who do.

Does your mom have Crohn's or something else?

It sounds like you need to talk to some people at the hospital who can actually help you with how to manage -- perhaps the occupational therapist for things like how to get dressed etc and a nurse. Is it possible for her to go to a rehab facility for a while? Might be too much to manage.... even w/a nurse unless the nurse is going to be there all the time....

My surgeon sent me home to be on bedrest for a few weeks with the instructions, "it's tough." It was the nurses, PT, and OT people who told me what I needed to do practically.

Hang in and I hope you get some better information and help soon.
Posted 11/12/2011 3:03 PM (GMT 0)
Linda - my husbands back really hurt and was very weak after the surgery. When he went for his post op appt with the surgeon he pressed on a few places and wasn't overly concerned. My sister who also had the same surgery 2 weeks before my husband had the same situation so it seems common. The front incision was fine and healed beautifully...it was the rear and buttocks area that was so sore for about a month.

I finally got him to a chiropractor who was highly recommended as she is also a dietician, acupuncturist, massage therapy etc. I told her I wanted her to be very conservative and not start with any kind of spinal manipulation but to be gentle since he does not have back issues.

His hip was out of alignment and one leg shorter than the other as he was compensating while healing walking, sitting and laying differently than usual. She used some kind of "thumping" impulse machine. The very first visit when we walked out of there...he said...you're gonna think I'm crazy but I feel fine. He went for 2 more visits and is fine now.
Posted 11/12/2011 3:08 PM (GMT 0)
Oh I forgot....yes yes yes on increasing the fluids.

My husband was also on a pain management regimine before surgery and needed to be released with the same regimine. (75mcg Fentanyl patch, 3 oxycodone daily and another nerve blocker pill) or he would have had reactions if quit too soon without a taper. So certain meds definitely need a methodical taper for your system.

When we got home we already had a tapering process to start to follow with his pain Dr. In 2 months he successfully weaned off everything which was great and his Dr was quite pleased as well as were the two of us too!
Posted 11/12/2011 3:27 PM (GMT 0)
UC wife -- this is a very old post that you're responding to.

Mashaine -- this is why it's better to start your own thread -- people are going to respond to the initial question from 4 years ago, not to your questions from yesterday.
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