[Spikey1341]

Sorry to have gone MIA on you guys without warning but it wasn't my choice.

Frank and I were out camping on 6/9. I didn't keep breakfast down but I tried eggs again so I figured well it's being finicky again. I didn't eat anything for lunch because I wasn't feeling all that great, but we had friends that usually camp with us coming out to go to a favorite pizza place with us. First of all when I say a piece of pizza I am talking a MIDWEST piece not an NY. The way they cut them here each piece is about the size of a saltine.

So we go to Manny's and their pizza is such a thin crust that it is more a soggy layer to hold the toppings than it is crust. I ate two little pieces of just cheese. I blotted the grease off each piece. I wanted more because it is really good, but I was full. The food stage I am on I can have saltines, cheese, pureed vegetables so I thought I should be okay.

I was for a while and then I started feeling very uncomfortable. We went back to camp and I was miserable. I was walking around trying to get things moving a little an feel better. By the time we went to bed it wasn't better but worse. I ended up on the RV couch and my belly was hurting. Then I started throwing up. At first I would feel better and then I would hurt again, then again, and hurt again etc. I also was getting very hot and sweaty and then would cool down, so I am thinking I am dumping.
By 2:00 I realized that it wasn't pizza sauce that was coming up that was all gone it was blood. So off we go 50 miles away to the nearest ER. I was so uncomfortable I didn't know how to sit. I was wiggling all around until I finally found a spot that was bearable. It ended up being hunched to one side with my head leaning down.

Poor Frank, he looked over and thought I passed out. He yells, "Jeanne" and starts to shake me. He said I took ten years off him.

So we get to the hospital and when I tell the EMT monitoring the window that I had WLS a month ago he rolls his eyes. When I tell him I throwing up blood he rolls them again and tells me to come back for a history. This infuriating man knows I am in obvious pain 1. because I tell him so, and 2. because I cannot sit still for long I keep moving trying to find a comfortable spot.

To make a long story a little shorter I'll skip a bunch of stuff that happened in the ER. I finally get taken back and after the initial e-val I am given something for nausea and pain. They had to give me the pain med again because it didn't help. All along keeping in mind I am blood. They take x-rays and ask me if I want to be treated their or transported an additional 70 miles back to my hospital. When I say I don't know, my surgeon is down there, the dr repeats, do you want to be treated here or there. I finally say there and they call the transport. So here I am strapped to guerny puking and not knowing what is going on.

My poor husband has to go back to camp get our poor dog, load up my scooter and get back to town. I know the dog knew something was up, we never leave the camper in the middle of the night.

Anyway, I get to the ER and am met by the surgeon on call. I get more nausea and pain meds. Finally he tells me it could be a couple of things, a bleeding ulcer, the staple sites in side my stomach being irritated from throwing up, or staple coming loose. He wants a cat scan to be sure. So they give me this stuff to drink called contrast. That they need for the CAT scan. Well guess what, it won't stay down. They do the scan anyway and by this time I have had enough morphine that I am in and out of it.

I get admitted to a room and they tell me that my surgeon will be in the next day and I will have surgery. I don't remember a whole lot of Sunday, but Monday morning they told me surgery would be Monday afternoon.

I have the surgey and my dr tells me that he tried to go in lap but had to get his hands in there and openned me up. He had to perform a bowel resection. The way he explained it to me was that from losing as rapidly as I had the fat loss had left air pockets around my bowel. Your bowel is always moving pushing through the waste, and when it hit where the air was there was no pressure and it doubled over on itself. The tissue that had folded over had died and he had to remove it and reattach my bowel.
He said it wasn't a result of anything I did or could have done. And for pre-ops he said it was rare. So don't let this stop you.

(Doc can probably give a better explaination if someone needs it)

So I finally got home after 9 days in the hospital, a catheter, JP tube, and NG tube through the nose and into the stomach. That gave me a sore throat and was a general pain in the butt.

I am back on schedule with my eating, and am finally taking my meds in pill form (yeah!) Now I have 5 more weeks off work to heal from the open surgery. It's slow going and believe me I am not going to rush anything.
(Although my husband is driving me nuts already and I have only been home a day and a half)

[Kenyar]

OMG I am SO SORRY you went thru all of that. I really hope that you are feeling better and will keep you in my thoughts and prayers.

[A new me]

wow. I just keep shaking my head as I was reading your story. Hang in there and take care of your self.

[Kat]

I'm glad your OK now but how scarey for you. How did the overlapped bowel make you throw up blood? Did you ever contact anyone at the 1st hospital to tell them of what happened and how you were treated? Thank God you got somewhere that took care of you. To think you were out in the middle of nowhere....
Please take care and keep us posted.

[DocSanae]

((((((((((HUGS)))))))))
Glad to hear you are doing better.
Now, first off, the EMT at the first hospital, and the rest of the ER staff, all need a good kick and then some in you know where

That was a pretty close episode of bowel obstruction--technically known as ileus. There are a great number of reasons this happens, but probably the most popular is post abdominal op of any kind, whether it be WLS, or cancer or gall bladder or whatever. When the wound inside the tummy heals, it sometimes heals more than it should, and involves the membranes surrounding the organs, so they get stuck together. Along with this, when you lose a lot of the fat that was stuck onto the membranes, you get what your surgeon called "air pockets" that the gut can sort of work itself into, then can't get out, so they get twisted around each other, which cuts off the blood supply to the gut. Since the walls of the gut is thin, it's very easy for the particular section that the blood supply is cut off, to die and rot. If this is discovered early, the surgeon could remedy it by lap, but basically, it safer and faster for both the patient and the surgeon to open up so the surgeon has full view.
Once the repair is done, and all your tubes are out, you're as good as new, and can go on from there.

Now, the reason I say the first ER staff needs a big is, since you told them that you had WLS not so long ago, they should have been aware that when you went in doubled up in what obviously was abdominal pain, one of the first things then needed to confirm is this, because it is life threatening if not treated in time. It isn't that difficult to diagnose, all a dr needs is a plain abdominal X ray, no contrast material, and the distribution of the gas in the gut is enough to point in this direction. Besides, throwing up blood needs to be attended to immediately, regardless of what is causing it. Of course, some added exams will be needed to confirm the diagnosis, but anyhow...

No wonder your huband lost 10 years out of his life, it's a wonder his hair didn't turn white overnight.

(((((((HUGS))))))

[fr1endly2]

hugs.....
sorry you experienced this ordeal
but i keep hearing of this issue
with the pockets and bowl matters.
I am so sorry you went thru this
and i hope things go well now.

KEEP IN TOUCH!

[chrissyb]

((((((Jeanne))))) so sorry this happened to you and that you had a bad experience at the ER. I would definitely file a formal complaint.

Glad to hear that your surgeon was able to fix the problem and that you are now on the road to recovery.

[Spikey1341]

Originally Posted by Kat

I'm glad your OK now but how scarey for you. How did the overlapped bowel make you throw up blood? Did you ever contact anyone at the 1st hospital to tell them of what happened and how you were treated? Thank God you got somewhere that took care of you. To think you were out in the middle of nowhere....
Please take care and keep us posted.

Kat, I never did ask that, I guess because things weren't going down all the way through it must have rotting and finally started coming up? I'll ask that question next week at my follow up.

I do know that it really stunk!

[DocSanae]

Jeanne, you threw blood up because your guts were tangled up and dying from lack of blood flow. As the cells die, they fall off, and the resulting raw surface that is exposed after the inner membrane falls off will bleed into your gut because there's no protective layer. That was what was coming up. That's why I say the ER at the first hosp should have been right on it, and be more attentive. Of course, ulcers bleed, but most of the time, you don't get the kind of pain you actually experienced. That kind of pain can come only from blocked blood flow and whatever organs affected dying off. Think of heart attacks, myocardial infarctions are painful because the heart cells are dying due to the blockage of the arteries feeding the heart cells, and that's what causes the pain.
Oh, and they should have suspected from the smell, too.

[akosak]

So sorry this happed to you! I am glad you are on the mends! Keep up the good healing!