Colleen 34 wks PG-emer bowel surgery, am home now and OK

Colleen and baby doing okay, maybe, barely! Hi folks, I had a horrific scare for the last 5 days. I'll share what I can and will reply maybe once a day to emails but if I don't answer emails it is only because I am staying mostly in bed and resting. Wed. night around 7p I had tummy pains, like bad gas, not a biggie, I ate a very light dinner and rested but the pains got worse no matter how I positioned myself it hurt til I was crying. there were no tummy tightenings so I didn't think it was contractions but to be safe I called my OB. She suggested maalox, rest and call if not better in an hour. It got a little better for an hor then I was retching but nothing coming up (I haven't had regurgitation since my stomach bypass, just dry retching, no solids). She had me come in to the ER. By the time I was at the ER I could barely walk or talk and was a mess of pain. I was begging for anything to alleviate the pain and nothing worked. I was screaming just from the pressure of the elastic bands monitoring the baby's hearbeat and the contractions. There WERE contractions but the pain areas were not consistent with labor pains so they called in my gastric bypass surgeon to help figure out what was wrong. 3-4 hours later I was vomiting up the last food I had eaten and that actually scared us more than anything because it meant food was not getting thru and could come back up. After an ultrasound the surgeon told me he found buildup in my gall bladder, a problem but not enough to be giving me this much pain, at that point he went to cat scan with me had them focus in on specific things and told me I had a bowel obstruction with 3 means of repair, medication, a NG tube dilation or surgery. he thought surgery was best, most thorough and quickest, but with baby trying to be born it was also risky. we did opt for surgery with that as HIS and our best hope. It took less than 15 minutes for them to prep me and put me under so I guess everyone was taking it pretty seriously and urgenltly. I don't remember much except crying and begging for pain help. I woke up and already felt better, groggy, but better! I was still having contractions and they kept me on terbutaline injections the entire time I was there in the hospital. Baby is doing great even now. They found a half dozen adhesions, a hernia and a severe pinched bowel that they released and doc was grinning ear to ear as he told me the adhesions were abolutely nowhere near the uterus (their big fear). They went in on the exact incision line that my originial stomach surgery used so i do have 8" of staples on my tummy again, but I am hoping it will heal cleanly and smoothly and not be as keloided(scarred/stretched) as the original wound since there is less weight pulling on it. I got released last night 8p or so after roughly a 5 day stay. I am on soft low-residue diet-(think nursing home food) (nothing that will be hard on my system) and have tylenol 3 for pain. for next 3 days I am still on terbutaine but since I just now made the 34 weeks pregnant point after that if baby comes and starts labor again, then we will just let it happen. Natural delivery will only be possible if there is at least 2-3 weeks of healing time for my incision, so if Edward tries to come earlier than Dec 28 it be Csection time for me, but after that scare, any birth plan or happy joy flowery ideas of a hippie chick earthmama birthing are melted into a simple one word wish...BABY!!!!! okay 2 words, HEALTHY BABY!!! I am just glad to be in my own bed even if I am hurting and weak. This is exactly the same issue that had resulted in the death of a woman 8 months pregnant who had also had WLS surgerywith wman and baby both dying from the bowel obstruction. my doctors mentioned it to me before my surgery but also reminded me she was still very overweight (over 350 lbs-I am 230) she didn't seek treatment as immediately, they didn't catch her problem as the cat scan is unreliable and difficult past a certain size etc etc, but the the main thrust of it all was yes, this could have happened after ANY abdominal surgery during pregnancy, yes it could have been devastating but with luck and great docs I am going to be just fine. I am on modified light activity so no shopping or housework hahah! I am jus****ching TV walking little bits around the house to keep my legs moving, and taking the meds to keep the gall bladder cleaning out and keep the labor from starting up for a few more more days. If Edward wants to come this week, he can, but I need him to wait til thurs or later. I am schedeuled to go into OBs office every 2 to 3 days from now on to check progress. as of my hospital release there were still 1 one 2 contractions per hour but not more because of the terbutaline, i was a fingertip dilated and 50% effaced. water didn't break tho and I still couldn't now descirbe what a contraction feels like so it will be hard for me to gauge. it all just felt like bad gas to me. The good aspect of all this was that the entire time I was at St. Alexius, the nursing and medical staff were not just kind and attentive they were 110% interested in helping me and learning how to meet my needs. I mean when I was calm and not in pain they were picking my brains about the mechanics of it all, how best to hep other bypass patients etc. I was the first WLS post-op for many of them and they WANTED to learn. that made me SO hapy because it means not jsut for when i come to deliver Edward but for any ohter bypass mommies coming there these gals are ready and waiting to do their best and not just hope they know what to do or do the same things as they would for others and hope it is the same for post-ops. I LOVED the nursing staff and cannot wait to have my baby there. they were as worried for me and Edward as hubby and I were. Anyway , that was my 5 day adventure! Colleen 34 weeks along now no clue when baby will come! sometime between now and Jan 23rd

WOW! Thank goodness you and the baby are fine. Good luck, I hope you are able to wait on the delivery (or that Edward is able to wait, I suppose!) as long as needed. I'll be thinking of you, I'm so glad to hear that you were well taken care of. Jennifer

You just can't make this easy can you???? I am SOOOOO happy that you are both ok. How terrifying!!!!! You are SOOO close. At this point, the baby has such a great chance if he has to come out. Thank goodness he didn't have to though. It's always better on the inside! If you need ANYTHING, please do NOT HESITATE to ask. I am SO excited for you guys. The end is near...you're gonna be a mom to a really baby...not that fake in your belly kind! Hugs and Belly Rubs Melissa

Hi Colleen, I am so glad everything is ok now.... Hang in there and we are here for you. Take care, Kathy

Colleen, I so happy everything work out so well for you, who did your bowel surgery? What is really strange is I had my RNY one month before you and had a bowel obstruction on October 29th. I was in such terrible pain I just drove to the ER, I was also dry heaving as I had nothing to eat. They did a CT scan and I was not back in the ER but 5 minutes and Dr. Rantis came in and told me I had to go to surgery now. He made a few calls and I was in surgery. I also spent 5 days in the hospital. Take care, D

Dr Guske did my bowel surgery. he came over as soon as his office hours were over and went to catscan with me and thenn gave me my choices. it felt like he had the surgery guys ready to roll the second I said yes to surgery too. I can only hope labor is nothing like that pain it was just terrible. anyway Dr. guske was great! Colleen

I have to say I've seen almost all the Dr.'s at SSCS at one time or another over the last 20 months and they have always provided great care. I've had 2 kids, natural deliveries and I must say the bowel pain was much worse. At least with the labor you get a little relief between, where the bowel pain was so intense and constant. Hopefully Edward will stay in a little longer, take care and stay resting. D

Oh my goodness honey! What a time, but thank God that little boy is HEALTHY and doing GREAT!!! My son (who turned 5 yesterday) was born at 35 weeks - and you'd never know it now!!! Time flies to fast! I'm thinking of you!!!!! Katie