GI BLEED

Post Date: 11/12/10 9:41 am
I have to warn everyone not to do what I did becuase I almost died ignoring the symptoms this is rather long so hold on for the ride.
10/22/10- had a sharp pain in my stomach but thought it was a stomach virus
10/23/10- noticed I had black tarry stools but thought that was in reference to all of the dark green lead salad i was eating and the two snack size snickers i had eaten. Cooked dinner later on in the day and ate 1/8 cup of  white rice. Had gotten sick to my stomach and thought it was the rice..brought the rice back up ( to put it nicely) but it looked like blood was with mixed with the rice. thought it must have been the fruit flavored crystal lite i had drunk. Then later that night felt weak and nauseas and decided i was getting a stomach virus. Didn't sleep all night long tossed and turned.
10/24/2010- got up to go to bathroom and the room started to spin.. just thought I had gotten up to quick.. layed back down and got up 5 minutes later to bathroom. got up again and was dizzy called my husband to help me to bathroom.. once again the stool this time was a dark red color. as soon as i got up off of toliet i thought i was going to pass out and asked for my husband to call me and ambulance... get taken to er just was very nauseas but felt OK... then asked to go to bathroom husband took me there and once again i had blood coming out.. then i had to drink this contrast stuff to make sure nothing in my bowels were bleeding so they could do Ct Scan.. About an hour later came back from CT Scan  and once again had to go to bathroom. Husband got a wheelchair and took me to bathroom. It was literally 6 steps away from my ER room and  by the time he got me there i started screaming im dizzy put me back in bed.. he said at that point I had passed out and started seizing(sp) he started hollering for the nurses and he said as he was wheeling me back to my room he noticed the front of my gown was blood stain and the stain was getting bigger. I was bleeding from my rectum but due to me sitting it was pushing up and all over the place.. he became frustrated becuase the nurses couldn't figure out how to get me in the bed.. My husband lifted me up and then layed me in the bed. He said after he picked me up his hands were literally dripping with blood.  Traumitized him. They then called in surgical consult and sent me up to MSICU.. there they did an endoscopy and cautierized the bleeding and put medicine in the ulcer. I had to stay there for 3 days and 4 pints of blood later before they moved me to another room. They then sent me down to another floor for another 4 days before they relased me.. I was told I was close to death with the amount of blood I had lost.. They weren't really sure that I would have survived.

The moral of this story is to take care of yourself.. if you have an ulcer please, please take the meds and keep all of your appointments witht he GI do****pt putting it off and had an excuse it was either work, the kids or my parents I had to take care of. Ulcers will get you when you least expect it... We as Bypass patients shouldn't play with those becuase mine was right where the connection of the bypass was done on the major artery and that is why I almost bled to death.. Had I waited any longer I would be dead.

I praise the Lord for my husband becuase he saved my life and GOD put him there at the right time.

You are lucky and very blessed.  Thanks for the reminder not to let anything slide where our health is concerned. 

Thanking God that you are still here with us and able to tell the story. Take care of yourself.

Thanks for sharing & the reminder to not ignore and put off health care maintenance.  As women we tend to put everyone else first; we must stop that :)  Take care of yourself and stay blessed.

OMG!!!!   How scarey,    I know how scarey stuff like that can get especially considering I just went through it with Becca. 

You are so right, we really have to take care of our bodies and listen to what it is telling us.

So glad your ok.  

Thanks so much lee,

I pray that Becca is doing well and has recovered from her illness... it was something scary always tell people  I never had had any issues with my bypass... But this was the first real one I had.

Thank you so much for sharing your story. I'm so glad that you are still here to share the signs and symptoms with us. It's good that you had your husband with you as a patient advocate because sometimes patients get ignored if a test doesn't show anything. We all need someone with us to help us from time to time.

OMG........how scary................

WOW! This brought back memories.  The same think happened to me about 5 weeks after surgery.  I was in a rehab facility and they tried to tell me that it was normal after surgery.  I knew that something was wrong, so I signed myself out, called my buddies to take me home.  I was in and out the bathroom all night long bleeding until I couldn't take it. Called ambulance, got to ER and I too had an ulcer.  I stayed in ICU for 2 weeks.  I take nexium to this day.  I'm happy that you are doing better!

i'm so glad that you decided to take control becuase who knows where you would be today..i am so thankful for my husband to have helped me. If it wasn't for the Lord putting him in the correct place i stop to think where would i be?? The Lord wasn't ready for me just yet that is why he put my husband in the right place at the right time.