Vomit and Tubes
When we scheduled surgery on September 19th with the gyno-oncologist we were told to expect a 3-4 day stay in the hospital. This turned into a 12 day stay due to constant nausea and vomiting and tubes. Here’s a little more detail about that hospital stay and what we are expecting moving forward.
During a major abdominal surgery like I had, it is not uncommon to develop what’s called a post-op ileus. This is where you stomach and bowels can become temporarily paralyzed from the trauma of the surgery and being moved around (at least that is my non-medical explanation of what happens). Typically, the "resolution" for a post op ileus is to try to walk as much as possible to tell your organs to wake up. I've been told that it can take up to 7 days for an ileus to resolve on its own. If you've ever had surgery before, you may know that walking is not the first thing you want to do. But my sister Julie, my husband Greg, my cousin Sarah, and many friends and family all encouraged and helped me to walk as much as possible. I think I was up walking more than anyone else on my floor. However, even with all my walking I was still unable to hold down any food, water, or even ice chips after 5 days. I was also getting lots of IV fluids and medication with very little of it coming out, and I gained almost 20lbs of fluid!
We (Greg and Julie mostly because I was doped up on pain and nausea meds) convinced my doctor to run a CT scan to see if anything else was going on that could be causing my nausea and vomiting. The scan results showed that I had a large hematoma (about the size of a softball) and there was damage to my right ureter (the tube that connects you kidney to your bladder). The damaged ureter was causing a backup of urine into my kidney which could be making me sick as well as the hematoma being an extra irritant. They scheduled a procedure to place a stint in the ureter to fix the back up. This, along with a second similar procedure, was unsuccessful and they ended up having to put in a nephrostomy tube. This is a tube that goes into my right side, through my ribs, and into my kidney. The neph tube is allowing the urine created in my kidney to mostly drain into a bag before it reaches the ureter.
The placement of the nephrostomy tube was very uncomfortable and caused the whole right side of my upper body to ache. While it did reduce some of my nausea symptoms, I was still vomiting and unable to hold anything down. At this point I had been unable to eat or drink for 9 days. We (Julie and Greg again) called the Brown Cancer Center and requested a consult from a different Gyno-Oncologist who reviewed my case and met with us. She believed that there was still urine leaking into my abdominal cavity and that, combined with the hematoma, was making me sick.
She sent her recommendations over to my doctor and the next day I had another procedure to place another tube to drain everything that didn't belong on my abdomen. In order to get the drain where it needed to be, they had to place the tube directly through the middle of my right butt-cheek, OUCH! I thought the kidney drain hurt, but it was nothing compared the drain that went through my butt cheek. However, almost immediately after the new tube was placed I was relieved of my nausea. I woke up and asked for a chicken kabob from Shiraz. :)
Two days later I was sent home along with my nephrostomy drain and my pelvic drain. I have two tubes coming out the right side of my body and fluid collection bags that are strapped around my legs 24/7. But at least I can eat! We were hoping that the pelvic drain would have gradually tapered off as that hematoma was liquefied and drained, however that has not been the case. We saw our doctors yesterday and were admitted to the hospital again to try to figure out where all of the fluid was coming from.
It is very important that we remedy this ureter issue. I had anticipated a surgery to permanently fix the “plumbing issue” and get rid of my tubes in early November. Once this is fixed and I recover from the next surgery I will be able to start the recommended chemo to fight the ovarian cancer.
Greg posted an update about this hospital stay and what was done. I just wanted to fill in a little back story. He’s probably better with the medical updates than I am because I am usually a little loopy from pain meds. On that note, please disregard any typos, spelling, or grammar errors in this post. I have a legit excuse.
During a major abdominal surgery like I had, it is not uncommon to develop what’s called a post-op ileus. This is where you stomach and bowels can become temporarily paralyzed from the trauma of the surgery and being moved around (at least that is my non-medical explanation of what happens). Typically, the "resolution" for a post op ileus is to try to walk as much as possible to tell your organs to wake up. I've been told that it can take up to 7 days for an ileus to resolve on its own. If you've ever had surgery before, you may know that walking is not the first thing you want to do. But my sister Julie, my husband Greg, my cousin Sarah, and many friends and family all encouraged and helped me to walk as much as possible. I think I was up walking more than anyone else on my floor. However, even with all my walking I was still unable to hold down any food, water, or even ice chips after 5 days. I was also getting lots of IV fluids and medication with very little of it coming out, and I gained almost 20lbs of fluid!
We (Greg and Julie mostly because I was doped up on pain and nausea meds) convinced my doctor to run a CT scan to see if anything else was going on that could be causing my nausea and vomiting. The scan results showed that I had a large hematoma (about the size of a softball) and there was damage to my right ureter (the tube that connects you kidney to your bladder). The damaged ureter was causing a backup of urine into my kidney which could be making me sick as well as the hematoma being an extra irritant. They scheduled a procedure to place a stint in the ureter to fix the back up. This, along with a second similar procedure, was unsuccessful and they ended up having to put in a nephrostomy tube. This is a tube that goes into my right side, through my ribs, and into my kidney. The neph tube is allowing the urine created in my kidney to mostly drain into a bag before it reaches the ureter.
The placement of the nephrostomy tube was very uncomfortable and caused the whole right side of my upper body to ache. While it did reduce some of my nausea symptoms, I was still vomiting and unable to hold anything down. At this point I had been unable to eat or drink for 9 days. We (Julie and Greg again) called the Brown Cancer Center and requested a consult from a different Gyno-Oncologist who reviewed my case and met with us. She believed that there was still urine leaking into my abdominal cavity and that, combined with the hematoma, was making me sick.
She sent her recommendations over to my doctor and the next day I had another procedure to place another tube to drain everything that didn't belong on my abdomen. In order to get the drain where it needed to be, they had to place the tube directly through the middle of my right butt-cheek, OUCH! I thought the kidney drain hurt, but it was nothing compared the drain that went through my butt cheek. However, almost immediately after the new tube was placed I was relieved of my nausea. I woke up and asked for a chicken kabob from Shiraz. :)
Two days later I was sent home along with my nephrostomy drain and my pelvic drain. I have two tubes coming out the right side of my body and fluid collection bags that are strapped around my legs 24/7. But at least I can eat! We were hoping that the pelvic drain would have gradually tapered off as that hematoma was liquefied and drained, however that has not been the case. We saw our doctors yesterday and were admitted to the hospital again to try to figure out where all of the fluid was coming from.
It is very important that we remedy this ureter issue. I had anticipated a surgery to permanently fix the “plumbing issue” and get rid of my tubes in early November. Once this is fixed and I recover from the next surgery I will be able to start the recommended chemo to fight the ovarian cancer.
Greg posted an update about this hospital stay and what was done. I just wanted to fill in a little back story. He’s probably better with the medical updates than I am because I am usually a little loopy from pain meds. On that note, please disregard any typos, spelling, or grammar errors in this post. I have a legit excuse.
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