Emergency surgery for bowel obstruction. OUCH

Jan 17, 2010

Let me start off by saying that this may turn into a ramble, I'm still in the hospital and all sorts of drugged up right now..

So as I has announced, I had my quad hernia repair & bonus TT on Jan 4th. That went really well and I was discharged on Jan 7th.. Was home and things were going great until Wed night (Jan 14th) when I started to not feel so well. Thurs I went into my surgeon to have my drains removed and was in a LOT of pain (7-8 on the pain scale) and told the doc "It feels like a bowel obstruction." He said no, I had been passing gas so he didn't think that was it.. To just give him a call if I continued to have issues. I KNEW it was not related to the surgery I had just had as my insides were just killing me.

We left there and headed up to Seattle (3 hour drive) to see my brothers whom I hadn't seen in 3.5 years and were only gonna be in town for 3 hours on their layover.. On the way up, my pain increased to a 9-10 on the scale and was starting to move into my back. Told my husband that I didn't think I could make the drive.. I sucked it up and told myself that I would, felt like someone had a voodoo doll and was stabbing me over and over again. I feared i wold disappoint everyone else in the car so I suffered in silence all the way up..

We saw them and it was a great visit other then the shit ton of pain that I was in, my middle brother noticed how much pain I was in and was concerned but I kept blowing it off.. We left them and headed home.. It was then I finally figured out that I hadn't eaten the entire day and ANYTHING  I was trying to eat or drink was causing extreme pain/discomfort..

Got home and into bed at 11pm. By then I was in the worst pain I think I had ever been in. I called the on call surgeon who told me I had to come in.. Got into the hospital, they saw me pretty much right away. They put me on a ton of meds that were relaxing me but NOT easing the pain at all. Took 3 hours for me to get the CT scan dye down.

5am CT scan done, 6am, Told I had an obstruction and they had to operate right away. My surgeon came in and spoke with me.. He said the words I had been wanting to hear for YEARS "This is the pain you have been reporting for the past year."  I looked to him and said "It wasn't the hernia pain?" He said "Nope, it was this".

I can't tell you  how many trips to the ER & Dr's office I had made for this stupid thing, apparently it had kinked several times but always worked it self out by the time I got to the hospital. I ended up having part of my small bowel removed that was severely damaged from adhesion's.. I suspect this is the same part of my bowel that back in 2006, when I had my hysto done, I was told was damaged. (I had a hysterectomy because my bowels were adhered to my uterus and were causing blockages)

So I can say that so far I have spent more time in the hospital then out in 2010, hoping things get better! 
OH and after most of my scaring was gone, I have a nice new one running from my breast bone alll the way down my tummy again, right into the TT ones, go figure sigh..

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