Surprise Surgery! Part 4

So... I guess I wasn't ready for pancakes.

I was getting ready to head home on Thursday, but the weekend's disaster had taught me to be cautious.  The Dr's were all set to discharge me, but Thursday morning came around and I said... I'm feeling pretty bloated and uncomfortable, I think we should wait a bit and see what happens.  Turns out my instincts were right!  Thursday came and went, and nothing came out of my ostomy... so my stomach got bigger and bigger and more and more painful.



The dr's make their rounds early, between 6 and 8 am.  Optimistic that I would be feeling well soon, they disconnected me from the IV fluids, so that I could try to prove that I could stay hydrated and process food all by myself.  The doctor's instructions to try to get my intestines moving were "walk, walk, walk!"  So I did.  I put on some real clothes and spent an hour walking laps around the main hospital atrium, and even bought myself an iced decaf coffee so I could feel like a "normal" person (I managed about 4 sips). By 11 am, I was starting to feel nauseous as well as crappy, and had the nurse send the dr's a message saying I was becoming nauseous again (a sign of an obstruction).  One of the residents stopped by at about noon, and said he thought I should still try to eat a light lunch.  I was trying to drink enough to stay hydrated, but between the nausea and trying to get in food as well as liquid I wasn't doing so well.

Meanwhile, I was advised by my nurse that because of my c.diff infection, I wasn't allowed to leave that floor of the hospital afterall, and could only walk around if i was wearing a clean gown and washed my hands really well.  So... I had to take off my clothes and put a gown on again, so that I could walk up and down the hallway.  So silly!

My parents arrived to visit me around 1pm, and they watched me go downhill pretty fast.  The stomach cramps (gas pains I think) were getting pretty bad, enough so that I couldn't stand up straight and walking was very difficult; I would often need to stop and hold on to the wall.  We paged the doctors again, and the same resident came back and said "oh, ok, let me go check with my supervisor."  The surgeon and I had spoken early morning about possibly using a catheter again if things didn't clear up... so that's what the resident was supposed to be going to get.  A few hours later we still hadn't heard anything... so we paged again... and a different resident came by and said "oh, ok, let me check with my supervisor."  GRRRR.

Eight O'clock came and went... and still nobody was coming to help me... my dad's face was purple he was so mad!  Waiting is awful, but waiting when you're sick or watching your kid be sick is REALLY awful.  So, I sent a text message to the surgeon directly.  He promptly responded "I'll deal with it', and 20 minutes later the same resident came back and basically said "what's wrong?"

I wanted to punch him in the face.  But wait, it gets worse.

He went and got a catheter, and brought it to my bed where he had me lie back.  I said "don't we need some kind of protection in case this makes a mess?  He said "No", and then proceeded to make a giant mess, poop all over my pants.  Now I wanted his nose to break when I punched him in the face.
Then he said "let me go get my supervisor..."

UGH.  At least this time he did actually come back with his supervisor.

We had hoped I'd see some immediate relief from the catheter, but I didn't.  So the supervisor (who happened to be the same girl who put the 2nd tube of death up my nose) stepped into action and ordered some X-rays.  We had to wait a while for a negative pregnancy test first (my 4th or 5th in 2 weeks, haha), and I finally got the X-rays at about 11pm.  By then, the catheter had started working and I was feeling quite a bit better.  The surgeon was texting me at 11:30 telling me that my X-rays looked ok, much better than they had over the weekend, and that if the catheter was helping we should wait it out and hopefully avoid another nose tube of death.

While all of this was going on, my poor husband was feeling stranded at home with our sleeping kids, very worried that I would be getting another nose tube and he wouldn't be there with me to hold my hand.  My parents were still with me at the hospital awaiting some kind of resolution to my discomfort, and we decided that while i waited for the x-ray, they would drive up to Stamford while my husband drove down to NYC, so that his mom would only be alone with the kids for an hour (she had surgery too and can't lift anything, so if the kids had woken up and needed to be picked up she'd have been helpless or risked injury).  My dad dropped my mom in Stamford before driving home to his house for their medications, and my husband arrived in NYC while I was getting my X-rays.  He spent the night sleeping in a chair again, poor guy, and my dad got up bright and early to bring mom her meds in Stamford before driving back down to NYC.

I was feeling much better on Friday morning, and did my best to walk around (with the catheter in that's kind of uncomfortable) and eat cautiously (liquids for breakfast, then moved on to pudding and yogurt for dinner), while trying to convince husband and dad to take turns napping in my hospital bed.  Husband did it!  I'm glad, I don't think he could have driven home if he hadn't.  Friday was a lot of waiting around to see if I continued to feel ok, which I did thank goodness... since the doctors all ignored me!  One of them stopped by and started talking to me, then his phone rang and he said "'m sorry, this is an emergency" and he literally ran out the door.  I don't mean walked, like actually ran.  At 9pm, I once again texted the surgeon and said "can I take this catheter out myself?" to which he said "yes," so I did.   Around midnight a dr came by, and I yelled at them for ignoring me.  I also managed to confuse the heck out of her since I thought it was 6am, not midnight... that's what she gets for waking me up after ignoring me all day, haha.

I spent Saturday testing slightly more adventurous eating (chicken and potatoes), and things appeared to be up and running again.  The theory is that I was still very swollen and inflamed, and things were having a tough time fitting though.  In an effort to prepare myself for the possibility of this happening again, the surgeon showed me how to insert a catheter myself, it's so strange!  It's literally pushing a stick into your abdomen, like I'm stabbing myself with a soft rubber tube sword... but it doesn't hurt.  Feels weird, but no paid receptors there.  So the plan, if I start feeling blocked up again, is to switch to a liquid diet, wait a bit, and then use the catheter on myself if I feel the need.  I hope I don't feel the need!!

Scared to the point of tears, we all agreed on Sunday morning that I was ready to try going home again.  I was (and still am) terrified that I'll get sick again, but I'm home!!  There's no place like home!