appt with surgeon

[Guest guest]

I had my appt with Dr. Kitchens, the surgeon Dr. Sigman (my GI) referred me

to, today. He is going to do surgery on Monday, Dec 9th, to repair the hernia

that is right about where my left ovary used to be. He'll also look for

adhesions in the area of the bile duct and pancreas. He said he believes it is

unlikely that there are adhesions severe enough to cause actual pancreatitis but

he will look and will remove any adhesions he finds. As soon as he felt the

hernia, he said it could be the source of most of my problems. He said if it is

bad enough that I have to push it back in to have a bowel movement, it could

absolutely cause all sorts of problems and pain in other areas.

He said while the hernia could be responsible for the pain even though the

pain is in the RUQ of the abdomen and the hernia is in the lower left area, that

he really has no explanation for the elevation of liver and pancreas enzymes.

He said that all potential causes of pancreatitis should be eliminated just on

the off chance that they are the cause. He said the first thing would have been

to remove my gallbladder, but, of course, it is already gone. The next thing

would be to tell me to never drink alcohol again, but I don't drink or not

enough to cause a problem. Next, he would monitor my triglycerides on a regular

basis. (they were elevated to the 600 range back in 2000. They've only been

checked once since my weight loss surgery and they were 135. They haven't been

checked since my latest rounds of pancreatitis) He said he has seen cases of

acute pancreatitis caused by triglycerides that are elevated only moderately.

He said he would also eliminate any medication which could cause pancreatitis.

He said that he would recommend that I not take Maxzide or anything with HCTZ

for my blood pressure. I told him that my main problem is more fluid retention

than hypertension. He said lasix would be safer than HCTZ in someone with a

history of pancreatitis.

He believes the hernia is an incisional, not inguinal, hernia. He said he

won't know for sure until he gets in there. He said if it is incisional, the

surgery is done a little differently and normally causes a good deal more pain

than with an inguinal hernia repair. He will most likely keep me overnight

unless the hernia ends up being inguinal and I want to go home that day. He is

going to check my triglycerides on the day of surgery just on the off chance

that they are elevated.

I ended up in the ER last night. I began having an episode right before we

got home from Brimingham, around 5 p.m. It never really let up despite the

lortab. At 1:00 a.m., it began getting much worse and the nausea was horrible.

I drove myself to the ER. It's only 5 minutes from here and I didn't want to

wake my husband. I figured I'd have them call him when I knew something. I

figured if they decided they wanted to admit me, I'd have my hubby take me to

the hospital in Birmingham. My amylase was normal but my liver enzymes were

moderately elevated. They gave me a shot of demerol and phenergan and told me

to be sure to follow up today with my pcp or the surgeon in Birmingham. We left

my car at the hospital, but I'll get it later. We got home about 5 this

morning. I threw up right after we got home but then was able to sleep about 5

hours. I'm still feeling rough but the pain is much better.

My pcp just called and said he was going to call in lasix for me to just

take as needed for the fluid retention. He said it did make sense to stop the

maxzide and stay away from HCTZ. He said to make sure I come by and get a copy

of the labs to bring with me on Monday.

I don't really know what the deal is with the fluid. My hands were so

swollen this morning that I had to run them under cold water to get my rings

off. This was despite having had 20 mg of lasix about an hour ago. This is

really frustrating because at times my rings are so loose that I have to take

them off to type cause they flop all around. However, I can't have them sized

any smaller because they'd cut off the circulation at times when I'm having a

lot of fluid retention. They used to blame my fluid retention on being

overweight. They can't blame it on that now, so they just say they don't know

what's causing it! I am up 4 lbs in the last few days. I'm sure it's just

fluid because my skin feels so tight. My stomach is also really bloated.

W