Surgery Complete! A couple of hiccups and finally home for the 2nd time! (long post)
Hi
Had my surgery on the 29th at HRRH. Had Betty in my room for the first night and Carmella the second.
Surgery was routine, nothing exciting and really I felt pretty good, pain was managable and Dr. Starr suggested I go home the next day...if I wanted. I was a bit unsure so decided to stay the normal 2 days. Wouldn't you know the next morning I woke up with a 38.1 temp. However it went away by the next measurement and I felt fine.
They suggested a chest x-ray, because I had been coughing and said 1-2 hours.... well 5 hours later I finally had it, only to have to wait forever for the porter to come and take me back to my room. I ended up sliding off the stretcher grabbing my chart and marching it to floor five. LOL. Then I was supposed to wait until they read the exray... and I waited, and waited. Well Dr. who was covering was in the OR. So I decided to leave anyway and they agreed to call with results( if there were any).
Dr. Starr called me at home a short while later to report no concerns on exray and to check in on me. I was impressed. He called on Saturday. I told him about the "walking the chart up" and he said he would have done the same thing. He was great. Then he said he'd call me on Sunday to check in. What? Another weekend call from Surgeon on Sunday just to check in? Wow what a great Dr.
On Sunday, I had managed to get down about half of a protein shake in my 15 minute intervals, made a schedule of when to take all the supplements and was feeling pretty good. Until about 12 noon....after I drank my first 15ml of the Calcium supplement. All of a sudden I started having the oddest of pains from the bowels upwards. I think it was gas and hope it would pass soon. Very painful however. As promised, Dr. Starr called shortly after that and confirmed likely gas pain - will last 1-2 hours. He said he would call again later on. 4 hours forward.... pain is so bad now I was sweating profusely (sweat through an entire set of pj's) and my steri strips came off... Then the vomiting started.. I can tell you I thought I was going to die. The pain was so severe followed by the vomiting, and dry heaving. It just went on forever it seemed. Off we went back to HRRH... I was getting concerned as I was not able to keep even water down.
Dr. on coverage was very nice- seen fairly quickly and bypassed emergency doctor. They did exray's and blood work. Both came back fine except I was dehydrated. Dr on call called Dr. Starr at home and he decided to admit me till next day, back on IV. They were worried about constipation and the inability to pass gas as a result. Long story short, and with the start of the snow storm that night, several nurses did not come to cover their shift on the 5th floor, so although they had beds, they did not have the capacity to have me up there. So I was left in a busy hallway on a small and uncomfortable stretcher from the afternoon till 11:00 a.m. the next day. At 3:00 a.m.. I begged them to bring me to a quieter area because I could not sleep at all- too bright and too much noise. They finally accommodated me and I got 2 hours of sleep.
Next a.m. Nurse wants to give me Apple juice to drink... Nope no can do..way to much sugar. Then I had some of my own meds that needed to be crushed and taken with apple sauce. No sais the nurse, they have to be taken in water... these are extremely bitter when crushed... I told her this will make my stomach upset again.. but no she would not give a tablespoon of apple sauce. Man I drank that bitter stuff and within seconds I was wretching and throwing up again. Now they had to add gravol to my intervenous feed.
At 11:00 I got into my upstairs bed and slept a few hours. I was put back on a liquid diet and felt fine. Dr. Starr came to see me after his last OR and I was able to go home again.
Now home and managing well.. back on full fluids and trying to get all my liquids and supplements in. Thanks to everyone for the very informative posts leading up to my surgery. It has all been very helpful and supportive
You are a real trooper to make it through all of that. Sure hope the road is easier from here on! Take care!
Dr Referral Jan/14, Guelph Orientation Feb 27/14, Nurse, Nut, SW app't Mar 14 & June 16/14, Nut, SW Aug 26/14, Internist Dr. Agarwal app't Sept 15/14, Surgeon App't Dr. Bhojani Dec 11/14, Start 3 weeks Opti Jan 6/15, Surgery Jan 27/15. Eating to live...Not living to eat!
Freewheeler · 0 replies · 261 views
