what can go wrong can.....

I am writing this post as the husband of my wife who spent 5 days, yes I said 5 days, in ICU after her what was to be a normal operation has turned out to be a living nightmare for me and my daughter. If anyone has any ideas on how to take care of your self after going through this ordeal, please let me know since she might be coming home tomorrow. I did stay by her side the entire time and am trying to be as strong as I can. Please help me with anything. Josh

Josh - Not sure I can offer words of wisdom, but I wanted to extend my sympathies for your family going through this. I'm not sure what complications she had, but I'd say when she comes home to just make sure if she is having abnormal pain that is new or shortness of breath, get her back to the hospital right away. Be Henny Penny and annoy the crap out of the staff (okay, well, I mean that in the nicest way...). If you aren't sure if something is wrong, CALL THEM. Better to be safe than sorry. Let us know if you have any other questions. I will try to answer what I can. Take care! Dina

Josh: I'm so sorry that your wife has had such a trauma. But the good news is that whatever went wrong is apparently good enough that she can come home. I hope there are no lasting problems. Let us know what happened so we can give you advice on what to do. Operations are never normal; there are risks involved. Again, I'm glad she's coming home to loving, concerned husband. -Lesa, Portland, OR

some of the problems were that her muscles did not relax enough in order to get the tools in so they had to give her a lot of relaxents which relaxed her a little to much so her weight relaxed on her kidneys, and made the muscles around her lungs stop working so she was put on a ventilator(sp) in order to breathe(sp). thats why she was in the ICU for so long. The pre op support groups never told us what could go wrong which made me mad since I was under the impression that it would be a simple operation, not in this case. Thank you for your support.

Josh, Thank Heavens for your support, just remember she did this for you and your daughter not to mention herself. The path might not have been the one she hoped for but she has made it this far, and hopefully when she gets home she will recover more quickly. I know my husband and daughter were terrified, on my 3rd day I took a big downfall. But I assured them that I would have rather died trying than to have continued on my weight gaining and health deteriorating course. Keep her comfortable, and reminder how much you appreciate what she has done for your family. I'm 3 mo. post op and feel 10 yrs. younger and my co-morbidities have almost completely disappeared. Oh, and my Husband and Daughter now call me "The Incredible Shrinking Woman"....Good Luck, We are here for ya, hang in there!

thank you to all that replied to my post. We got home tonight and are doing just fine with a few bumps in the road. The nurses did not let us know when to give the pain meds,so she was in a lot of pain but the pain meds just kicked in.

Josh, Will you please share which surgery and who the surgeon was? Thank you, dina BPD/DS July 2, 2002 Dr. Aniceto Baltasar in Alcoy, Spain SW: 365 lbs, BMI 64 CW: 160 lbs, BMI 25.8 GW: 130 lbs, BMI 23 Read my story at: http://www.duodenalswitch.com/Patients/Dina/dina.html See my photos in the Photo Gallery at http://www.bodybybaltasar.com/