The evening of Friday 7/18 (the night I got back from the presurgical consultation and getting the midline removed), I developed the full sensation and severe bloating I normally associate with a partial small bowel obstruction. I was uncomfortable enough to take the maximum dose of my pain medication and it still kept me from falling asleep.
Around 2-3 am, I was finally able to climb into bed and fall asleep. I awoke around 5 am "freezing to death" and piled blankets on me. By 6 am, I knew I had a fever and took my temperature. It had gone up to 102.3 or so. Over the next hour my pain continued to increase my pulse & respiration became very rapid and my fever went up to 103.6 F.
I woke my wife up and told her what was happening. She called my doctor's practice and they both agreed I needed to get to the hospital. My wife got me to the hospital by 7:30 am or so and they got my vitals as temperature around 102, heart rate at 145, blood pressure was 100 over 50 or so - and they admitted me almost immediately. My understandings is that an elevated fever, with rapid heart rate & respiration were signs of sepsis.
While at the hospital they tried getting blood and inserting an IV line and blew out my veins multiple times (2 weeks later, I still have bruises up and down my arms from the problems they had). Once they got the IV in they ran saline at 175 ml per hour (almost as fast as they could) and offered me dilaudid (a very powerful opiate), which I accepted. This really helped knock back the pain.
However, my blood pressure continued to fall. It got as low as 73 over 40 at one point and from the looks I was getting, I figured I wasn't far from getting sent to the ICU. They performed another CT scan and found that the abscess had grown 40% from the scan taken just 1 1/2 weeks earlier.
All during this time, I drifted in and out of consciousness and when I had to move around I felt extremely . I figured it was partly due to the low blood pressure, partly due to my lack of sleep, and partly due to opiate pain meds. By 2-3 pm or so, my blood pressure began to slowly return to normal but it didn't get back into the normal range until Sunday morning.
My doctors decided to keep me in the hospital the entire week (I didn't get discharged until 7/25). During my stay, they took another CT scan (to see how the IV antibiotics did) and found that the abscess had grown a bit more, however, the abscess had became more consolidated / organized. Instead of appearing to be multiple small abscess, it looked more like a single large one.
They kept on a fluid diet most of the time (to rest my bowels) and treated me with pain meds, antibiotics, and steroids. The GI doctor and surgeon were undecided about whether to proceed with surgery immediately or to try to wait. Ultimately the surgeon decided to wait for 2 1/2 weeks forcing me to do a rapid taper. He is hoping to avoid performing two surgeries: cutting out the most diseased portions of the intestine and installing an ileostomy bag. This would allow my lower gut to recover from the surgery and disease. It would be followed by a second surgery 4-6 months later to reconnect my ileum to the lower portion of my intestines.
Even though we are performing the rapid taper and attempting to do this in one surgery, there's no guarantee that this is how the surgery will go. The doctor stated that he has no idea what he'll find and what he'll have to do to correct my issues. We're hoping a single surgery will be sufficient. We're hoping that he can do what needs to be done laprascopically.
At this point, I just want to get the surgery done so I can begin healing.
Around 2-3 am, I was finally able to climb into bed and fall asleep. I awoke around 5 am "freezing to death" and piled blankets on me. By 6 am, I knew I had a fever and took my temperature. It had gone up to 102.3 or so. Over the next hour my pain continued to increase my pulse & respiration became very rapid and my fever went up to 103.6 F.
I woke my wife up and told her what was happening. She called my doctor's practice and they both agreed I needed to get to the hospital. My wife got me to the hospital by 7:30 am or so and they got my vitals as temperature around 102, heart rate at 145, blood pressure was 100 over 50 or so - and they admitted me almost immediately. My understandings is that an elevated fever, with rapid heart rate & respiration were signs of sepsis.
While at the hospital they tried getting blood and inserting an IV line and blew out my veins multiple times (2 weeks later, I still have bruises up and down my arms from the problems they had). Once they got the IV in they ran saline at 175 ml per hour (almost as fast as they could) and offered me dilaudid (a very powerful opiate), which I accepted. This really helped knock back the pain.
However, my blood pressure continued to fall. It got as low as 73 over 40 at one point and from the looks I was getting, I figured I wasn't far from getting sent to the ICU. They performed another CT scan and found that the abscess had grown 40% from the scan taken just 1 1/2 weeks earlier.
All during this time, I drifted in and out of consciousness and when I had to move around I felt extremely . I figured it was partly due to the low blood pressure, partly due to my lack of sleep, and partly due to opiate pain meds. By 2-3 pm or so, my blood pressure began to slowly return to normal but it didn't get back into the normal range until Sunday morning.
 |
| Getting IV Tygacil with my rubber chicken - feeling a bit better. |
My doctors decided to keep me in the hospital the entire week (I didn't get discharged until 7/25). During my stay, they took another CT scan (to see how the IV antibiotics did) and found that the abscess had grown a bit more, however, the abscess had became more consolidated / organized. Instead of appearing to be multiple small abscess, it looked more like a single large one.
 |
| My joke to the hospital staff - they hadn't been letting me eat anything so I warned them to keep their hands away from my mouth. One nurse was very worried when she first saw the message. |
They kept on a fluid diet most of the time (to rest my bowels) and treated me with pain meds, antibiotics, and steroids. The GI doctor and surgeon were undecided about whether to proceed with surgery immediately or to try to wait. Ultimately the surgeon decided to wait for 2 1/2 weeks forcing me to do a rapid taper. He is hoping to avoid performing two surgeries: cutting out the most diseased portions of the intestine and installing an ileostomy bag. This would allow my lower gut to recover from the surgery and disease. It would be followed by a second surgery 4-6 months later to reconnect my ileum to the lower portion of my intestines.
Even though we are performing the rapid taper and attempting to do this in one surgery, there's no guarantee that this is how the surgery will go. The doctor stated that he has no idea what he'll find and what he'll have to do to correct my issues. We're hoping a single surgery will be sufficient. We're hoping that he can do what needs to be done laprascopically.
At this point, I just want to get the surgery done so I can begin healing.
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