Update on me.
Hi Maysters,
I haven't posted on here much lately, but thought I'd stop by to give you guys an update on me, more for an FYI than for support for me.
2 weeks ago I woke up one Tuesday morning with extreme pain in my left side, and my left shoulder. Didn't know if they were related. I thought maybe I pulled some muscles or something because I was helping shovel some concrete and heavy lifting that weekend. I also thought possible constipation/bowel problem so I did an enema and a Fleet Bowel prep, took some Tylenol and rested. I called my PCP at 10am but the office said she wasn't in that day and I would have to go to their Extended/Urgent Care which opened at 2pm.
So I waited to see if things would get better, but they got worse. At 5pm I went to the Urgent Care. They assessed me and did some xrays and could see that I had air in the abdomenal cavity near my diagphram where it isn't supposed to be. They said that I needed to get to the hospital immediatealy and it couldn't wait, and that they were calling the paramedics. I FREAKED OUT. My husband is 3 hours away, but was out on a jobsite and was not reachable. My Mom was watching my daughters. I was in between health insurance with Hubby's old job and new job, and just FREAKED. I called my brother, and he came down and took me to the Hospital. The ER Doctor was wonderful, kind, and talked to me like a person, and talked about me like a person, not a clinical case. I heard him on the phone requesting a surgical team STAT, again I FREAKED. I heard him on the phone with UCLA (where I had my bypass) saying "no she is not stable enough to transport to your facility".
I didn't think I'd make it home. I knew I needed to stay calm, but I couldn't calm down. My brother stayed with me. I made him tell me stories of his recent trip to Zion National Park.
I had a CAT Scan and then the surgeon came in sometime around 3am. My husband got there at the same time. The surgeon Dr. Castillo, was so nice. He said he was going to make a tiny hole, put in a camera and look around and hopefully find my leak and fix it. It seemed so simple. I wasn't scared anymore. I just wanted to get fixed up and get home. I was in surgery by 4am, and into my room around 8am (I think). I had an NG tube (totally sucked), a JP drain in my side, but I was ok, and alive.
They found a small 3mm perferation in my small intestine about 1 inch below where it connects to the new pouch. There was an ulcer which ruptured basically and was leaking into my abdomen. Dr. Castillo was easily able to repair it.
I had an easy hospital stay, everything was pretty routine, all my stats were good, and everything is working like it is supposed to.
So for now I'm ok. Now the task is to find out why this happened, and what to do about it. I'm on a strict medicine routine, possibly for life.
So that is it in a nutshell. I'm doing better, still weak and I get tired easily. Hopefully the different doctors I'm seeing will be able to figure out why my body is producing so much acid, which the intestines can't handle. The scary part is that one of the Gastroenterologists I spoke to said that a reversal of my bypass might need to be done. I don't like that option, so hopefully they'll figure out something else.
Deanna
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