Life as a complication to MGB.

[Guest guest]

dear bobby,

wanted to take an opportunity to say hello and send my love while i am home.

it has been great hearing from you giving my recent circumstances, hate that

i can't stand to " write " or " print " a letter only to have to type it! i am

sure you can understand.

makes you wonder where we all were years ago before computers etc. actually,

i do remember, you and i sitting at the kitchen table so many times having

contests to see who could type the fastest and stuff. Remember?

Well, where do I begin? I am sure Janet has kept you updated with what all

has been happening over the past month. I went to the hospital on august

25th for a revision of my surgery so that I could loose an additional 50-60

pounds. Also had a repair done to a ventral hernia at the same time.

Nothing drastic, same as before with simple hernia repair.

came home on Sunday the 27th. went to work on Monday feeling sore but okay.

what a joke! had no idea what was happening to my body as the day

progressed. started having extreme lower abdominal pain with a fever that

kept creeping higher and higher as the day went on. hmmm, just being a " LPN "

i still knew something was wrong ... amazing. the education paid off! had

someone from work take me to the ER. Well, after several hours and soooo

much pain, they finally medicated me. Did some labs, and x-rays only to find

out I had a leak. What is that? Rutledge cut my large colon in the process

of the surgery (risk well known in advance) and now I was sick from

peritonitis. Solution: need to do emergency surgery before sepsis sets in.

Well, off to the or after midnight for round 2. Never in my life could I

imagine how horrible things could or would be. Yes, he explains the risks

but what he doesn't tell you about is the turmoil that lays ahead.

after days of a tube down my nose to my stomach draining off gastric juices

and poisons, i was allowed sips of water. had drains coming from both sides

of my abdomen just below the waist. woke up one day to see this brown stuff

draining on the left side ... feces! how, where ... explaination -- it

happens. it is normal and will eventually clear up. drain on right stopped

after few days and was pulled. Had a great iv called " ej " in the side of my

neck. Was great only because they put it in while I was knocked out. (hate

needles after 25 years still).

nursing care on the floor i was on was the pits. the nurses were too busy to

really do much of anything. thank goodness, i was able to get around on my

own and had a sense of what should be happening. even the first day post-ops

with all that was happening, no one even offered to help me wash my face. a

small gesture of caring that could have meant a big difference. It wasn't

until I had a nurse that because she was running behind increased the rate of

my iv so that the " ej " infiltrated and had to be pulled.

my veins were horrible and it hurt so much but i allowed multiple sticks to

keep an iv for antibiotics. i complained to dr. r who was very understanding

and moved me to a unit down the hall. what a difference! felt like I went

from being on a homeless ward to the hilton. my gosh, who are these people

that keep checking me. the care could not be compared. finally, nurses that

cared about the patient.

by this time the tube was out of my nose and life improved dramatically.

still, i was not comfortable with the persistent abdominal pain and foul odor

from the feces draining from my body. i just wanted it all to be over.

several days of more iv antibiotic therapy and still no real improvement.

wasn't passing gas like i should, nor having bowel movements. in the medical

field we have a saying when a patient has abdominal films and they come back

" fos, " i was in reality full of shit! Constipation prior to surgery was now

also haunting my improvement.

The nurses were patient with me listening to my concerns. Each shift

watching and listening to my stomach closely. Then one day, dr. r wanted to

discharge me. When he pulled the drain from my side that was draining feces,

it hurt so bad. Taking my breath away, I was panic stricken wondering now

what. After two pain pills and no moving, I went home.

stopped for my meds and then home to the couch. every now and then i would

go to work for a few hours to keep my mind off me.

actually, it was my way to have a provider check my bowel sounds that were

still absent since my surgery on the 25th. then it hit me.. 4 days on oral

antibiotics and the pain is increasing. gradually the fever started to

return. had my primary care provider at work look me over and do labs/xrays.

she suggested i see someone immediately. i saw dr. Rutledge that Tuesday

and was readmitted back to the hospital.

underwent another cat scan on Wednesday to see if i had another leak, but was

told the cat scan was normal. just not absorbing oral meds and need more iv

for minimum of two weeks.

fine, what ever it is going to take to get better at this point. i agreed to

a central iv line since that is able to last for months. i also started to

force feed myself to prevent tube feedings for malnutrition. this was and

still is not pleasant with the size of our stomachs now, eating a lot takes

sooo much time and not an easy task. still, i ate what seemed like round the

clock. as a few days passed i watched and monitored a hardened area on my

stomach wondering what was happening. finally, it occurred to me that a pus

pocket had developed under what Rutledge was calling a cellulitis. where the

drain was on the right side it was beginning to swell ready to burst. then

finally it did ... what a change in the pressure. so weird how much better i

felt deep inside of my stomach. dr. r was pleased that he didn't have to be

aggressive with this area and lance it. i was pleased in that this stuff had

to come out and it was!

plan of care ... monitor drainage and continue two weeks iv therapy as

originally planned. well, that was fine until the insurance company realized

that the only thing we were doing were simple dressing changes and iv

therapy. had the pleasant experience of being tossed out of the hospital by

my insurance company. which really did not bother me too much. was assured

that i would be having a nurse come by daily to do my antibiotic with central

line and check me out. she then will be communicating closely to dr.

Rutledge. sounded great to me! ha, where was my nursing background. this

was too good to be true!

reality was and is, once discharged no one gives a rat's ass about my

healthcare. i can only be thankful that i am aware of what to be looking out

for. was discharged to a nurse coming once to show me how to manage and iv

push my med here at home. yes, iv push where two people both told me that i

would be hooked to a pump for this. after much fear, anxiety about the

process, i had no choice but to learn how to do it. and guess what, today i

was able to do this fine.

what bothers me the most is that had i not been a nurse or had a medical

background what could or would have happened to me. this is so much more i

want to say but have decided after writting all this to just stop for now. i

think i will post this letter to the onelist hoping that it enlightens others

to see, that repairing a complication is not as easy as sometimes made to

sound. i still drain pus/green stuff from that area on my stomach and will

be on iv therapy from home two weeks. after that i guess we are going to

switch to oral. i can only hope and pray that this kicks in and i do get

better. at this point in my life, it is out of my hands and in god's above.

i know you have been praying for me and i thank you so much.

It is still going to be a rough road ahead with no answers as to what my

future holds.

But still, I would and do want others to have the surgery it saved my life in

so many ways. Will write you more when I feel stronger. Until then,

remember how much I love you and miss you.

Love,