Nothing is ever easy -- Recovering from Hernia Repair/Abdominoplasty
I've been away from the boards for a couple of weeks and have just now felt up to getting back "on-line".
I had surgery on Sept 21 for a hernia repair, an extended abdominoplasty and a replacement of mesh from a hernia repair that was done 10 years ago. As they say, “nothing is ever easy". What was supposed to have been a fairly easy surgery turned out to be not so easy. The original surgery went well, I felt better than I expected in the hospital and was released around noon the next day. However, things started going downhill at home. Within a space of 6 hours, I went from being able to walk around the halls at the hospital multiple times, to not being able to stand up without passing out. My wife called 911 and I went back to the hospital via ambulance. It turns out my blood counts had gone down and continued to drop over the next couple of days. On Friday (9/24) they gave me 4 pints of blood as well as a unit of plasma and a unit of platelets. A CT scan showed that I had a huge hematoma on my abdomen (very similar to what happened with my original RNY) and they decided they needed to open me back up on Saturday (9/25) to find the location of the bleeding. During the surgery, they drained 2.5 liters of fluid. They didn’t find an active bleeding location but just a general “oozing" (sorry). Given that this is similar to what happened last surgery, they began to be suspicious that I had some sort of bleeding disorder. After consulting with a hematologist, they gave me a treatment which would be used for a common disorder but wouldn’t hurt me if that wasn’t it. My blood counts stayed up and they released me from the hospital on Monday (9/27). They believe I may have something known as von Willebrand’s disease. It is a genetic blood clotting disorder that only shows up during times of physical stress (injury, surgery). Approximately 4% of the population has it and it is readily treatable once diagnosed (treatment only needed during those injury or surgery times). At this time it is only a tentative diagnosis and will be verified via blood tests in about 6 weeks (after the transfusions work their way out of my system).
I'm feeling MUCH better now and will probably go back to work next week. However, this was a bit more than I had expected. On the good side, my incisions are healing nicely and I'm very pleased to be rid of the extra skin. I gained 22 pounds of fluid in the hospital but that quickly came off over the past week and I'm now 5 pounds below my weight on the day I went in for this surgery.
Syd
I had surgery on Sept 21 for a hernia repair, an extended abdominoplasty and a replacement of mesh from a hernia repair that was done 10 years ago. As they say, “nothing is ever easy". What was supposed to have been a fairly easy surgery turned out to be not so easy. The original surgery went well, I felt better than I expected in the hospital and was released around noon the next day. However, things started going downhill at home. Within a space of 6 hours, I went from being able to walk around the halls at the hospital multiple times, to not being able to stand up without passing out. My wife called 911 and I went back to the hospital via ambulance. It turns out my blood counts had gone down and continued to drop over the next couple of days. On Friday (9/24) they gave me 4 pints of blood as well as a unit of plasma and a unit of platelets. A CT scan showed that I had a huge hematoma on my abdomen (very similar to what happened with my original RNY) and they decided they needed to open me back up on Saturday (9/25) to find the location of the bleeding. During the surgery, they drained 2.5 liters of fluid. They didn’t find an active bleeding location but just a general “oozing" (sorry). Given that this is similar to what happened last surgery, they began to be suspicious that I had some sort of bleeding disorder. After consulting with a hematologist, they gave me a treatment which would be used for a common disorder but wouldn’t hurt me if that wasn’t it. My blood counts stayed up and they released me from the hospital on Monday (9/27). They believe I may have something known as von Willebrand’s disease. It is a genetic blood clotting disorder that only shows up during times of physical stress (injury, surgery). Approximately 4% of the population has it and it is readily treatable once diagnosed (treatment only needed during those injury or surgery times). At this time it is only a tentative diagnosis and will be verified via blood tests in about 6 weeks (after the transfusions work their way out of my system).
I'm feeling MUCH better now and will probably go back to work next week. However, this was a bit more than I had expected. On the good side, my incisions are healing nicely and I'm very pleased to be rid of the extra skin. I gained 22 pounds of fluid in the hospital but that quickly came off over the past week and I'm now 5 pounds below my weight on the day I went in for this surgery.
Syd
Start 303/Surgery 273/Current 188/Goal 185
(((Syd))),
I'm so sorry to hear that you had such a heroing experience... again. I hope that this is the last of it and that the condition is able to be managed from here on out.
Wishing you a gentle and swift recovery,
Barbara
ObesityHelp Coach and Support Group Leader
http://www.obesityhelp.com/group/bcumbo_group/
High-264, Current-148, Goal-145
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