[SPAM]RE: Help and information needed - husband in hospital - off topic

[Guest guest]

Diet can dissolve gallstones. We have to give the gall bladder a rest. It wiil

do the elilmination, itself. Use a diet close to fasting. Alkaline foods are

best.

Unlike the medical industry, there's nothing to buy.

Bob C

Help and information needed - husband in hospital -

off topic

Hi all,

I hope you don't mind this - it is very off-topic - but my husband and I

have just had one hell of a weekend and I am feeling a bit helpless in the

hands of the medical 'system' and would love some advice, information, etc.

About a week ago, my husband woke up in the middle of the night with really

severe stomach pains. He said it felt like someone was pushing their fist up

under his ribs and it was hard drawing in breath too deeply because it made

the pain worse. We almost went to hospital then but the pain passed in about

an hour and he was fine the next day.

Then, Saturday morning, he went for a surf (he is a very fit and active 52

year old with no real history except for diverticulitis) and came home with

some friends of ours for breakfast. He started to feel ill at about 10 am

and by 11, he was doubled up over a chair in agony. We didn't know what to

do? He thought it was heartburn so I raced out for Mylanta for him but it

did nothing to ease the pain and it was sounding so much like heart trouble

that I suggested we go to hospital which we did. We went to the emergency

room where they took blood and gave him morphine (he said the pain on a

scale of 1-10 was 9-10 - and this is a man who doesn't believe in giving in

to pain so it was pretty bad!).

The blood tests showed that it was not pancreatitis and his liver enzymes

were fine so they sent him home saying it was either gall bladder or reflux

and he should make an appointment during the week to see his GP and get a

scan done to work it out.

In the middle of the night, the pain got worse as the morphine wore off. It

also changed. Instead of feeling like a fist pushing against his ribs, it

became sore and tender all through his right side - making me think liver.

He bore it all day and tried to sleep sitting up as he couldn't lie down and

catch his breath.

Finally, after dinner (he has hardly had anything to drink or eat for 36

hours. I have given him Nux Vomica and have tried to get him to drink an oil

and lemon juice mixture recommended for gall bladder problems, but he

couldn't seem to take anything by mouth) - he gave in and took 2 panadol and

lay down to rest.

½ an hour later, he came out into the lounge room and asked me to put the

gas heater on. He was shaking like crazy and said he was freezing cold. He

sat directly in front of the heater and was still trembling. Scared the

daylights out of me! I decided then that we would go back to the hospital

which we did.

After more blood tests taken (which showed elevated liver enzymes - maybe

the panadol he took overloaded his already stressed liver) and a culture

which will take 48 hours to get back, they took x-rays which seem to show

that he has gall stones.

Now, I don't want to go into everything that happened or how frustrating I

found being in the hospital where people seem to be doing their best but

never ever consider anything they haven't been taught at school - ARGH!

A surgical doctor came in and poked and pried at Ken and left seeming to

assume that Ken would now be her patient. And that was right. The ER doctor

came in afterwards and said that Ken was being admitted and that they were

going to be treating him conservatively for gall stones. Conservatively

means that they won't operate until the infection is gone!

I asked the doctor about a treatment my dad had when he had kidney stones

where they zapped them with sound waves (I think that was it - it was a long

time ago) and he didn't need surgery. I asked if the same thing could be

done here and he said no because there is nowhere for the stones to go from

the gall bladder. Well, I seem to remember in my college anatomy learning

about the gall bladder and there are ducts that empty bile directly into the

intestine - aren't there? So couldn't stones be broken up and passed through

there?

Has anyone got any knowledge, experience or information they can share with

me? It is now almost 1 am and I will be going back in the morning. Ken is

horrible about 'making a fuss' and I think he would go under the knife just

to keep everyone else happy where I am the opposite and want to do anything

to avoid something as invasive as surgery and not being able to eat what I

want for the rest of my life.

When I left the hospital, I asked the doctor if Ken would be on antibiotics.

He said yes, they were going to put not one, not two, but three of them in

via his drip! Talk about overkill! I have a couple of questions about this

now.

1- If antibiotics are administered via a drip, can they gut still be

affected and should he still be getting probiotics?

2- In NSW, is it possible to ask for and get IV Vitamin C in hospital?

If you've gotten this far -congratulations and thanks for reading this all.

I will be up in a few hours and hopefully, some other night owls (or

overseas people for whom it isn't the middle of the night) will have written

in. Thank you again - it is so frightening when someone you love is sick and

you lose control because of this horrible sickness system. GRRRRRR

All the best,

Meryl