CYNTHIA Is Back In The Hospital

[Guest guest]

Well folks, has gone back in the hospital.

You may recall that she was having unusual pain and it wasn't

being managed well. In fact, the doc's kept asking her why she

was hurting so badly. It perturbed her that they kept looking to her

to solve the pain problem. She kept saying to me, " they're the

doctors, they should be telling me why I'm in so much pain; not

expecting me to tell them. " That's sweet but feisty . ;-)

went home on a Tuesday. I spoke to her on that day and

I spoke to her again on Thursday. She sounded good except for

the fact that the pain was persistent. Well, Thursday night (in the

middle of the night) 's sister awoke to discover

desperately trying to get her asthma medicine. She said she

was having trouble breathing. Finally, asked her sister to

open the door because she was having so much trouble

breathing. At that point, Gloria woke 's husband.

Together, they decided that should go to the emergency

room.

's husband called PacificCare six times but the doctor on

call never bothered to call them to find out why they were trying to

page him. Can you beat that? Here in the midst of an emergent

medical need, the family is worried that benefits will get denied

because they didn't get pre-approval. Boy, that makes me mad

the way managed care is so haphazard and folks think that

maybe they shouldn't go to the emergency room.

So, was taken (despite not hearing from her PCP) to

South West Washington Hospital. They do not do bariatric

surgery there so they didn't know what to do with her. I believe

they may have medicated her for pain though and put her on a

respirator. The next morning, she was transferred by ambulance

to the emergency room at OHSU. Finally, they readmitted her.

told them the pain (which at one time was only upon

sitting up and swallowing) was now persistent and on her side

and her neck. They tried to pass the whole thing off as not being

related to her surgery. I think the attitude was, " we never touched

your side or your neck. We didn't do it " . However, by Friday

night the situation was untenable. She was zonked out on

morphine; her blood pressure had dropped to 70 over 34; and

she was intubated.

So, OHSU took her back into surgery and guess what? Part of

her intestines had atrophied and peritonitis had set in. So they

removed that portion and closed her back up. Apparently, they

also rapped her intestine in netting for some reason, but I don't

recall what the reason was. Fortunately, she STILL has the

DS/Switch. I didn't get an exact location of this problem but of

course, it was in conjunction with the WLS.

I am told that is really out of it. She's conscious but

her awake time is very limited. I won't be talking to her directly

for a few days or however long she needs to feel strong enough.

However, what she needs from us more than anything are our

prayers. Please join me in praying for a speedy recovery for one

of the sweetest angels alive!

Gobo

" Sometimes We Never Know How We Influence the Lives of

Others, Yet We Touch Those Lives Just the Same "