CONTACT INFO:
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXLRnq6DSjydCHpiTM2ciMg/videos
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/meandmystoma
Email- MeandMyOstomy@yahoo.com
Friday, January 31, 2014
SURGERY (END-LOOP ILEOSTOMY, HERNIA REPAIR, RESECTION RECTOPEXY), JP DRAIN, PICC LINE, TPN...
On October 2nd, I woke up from surgery in the absolute worst pain of my life! I was freezing, shaking uncontrollably, and felt like none of the pain meds were even making a dent in the pain that was taking over me! I woke up with a new stoma, sore bottom, and a Jackson-Pratt (JP) drain to remove the fluid in my abdomen. I was in the hospital for 12 long days, but fortunately I had very supportive family and friends by my side through everything! After not eating for more than a week, the drs had me try to sip at hot tea (to wake up the bowel), but I threw it up every single time. Let me tell you, throwing up after just having major abdominal surgery feels AWFUL!!! Eventually they put in a Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter (PICC line) and started me on total parenteral nutrition (TPN) which basically fed me through the PICC line and gave me all the nutrients I was lacking. With Halloween being one of my favorite times of the year, my family decorated my room and brought me a pumpkin to decorate while I was in the hospital. A few therapy dogs came to visit while I was there, but it was hard to enjoy their company when I was in so much pain. After 10 days of being stuck in my hospital room, my best friend came to visit me from college and took me outside! The fresh air felt amazing and motivated me to get out of there even more! A couple of days later, I discontinued using the pain pump, my JP drain was removed (another very painful process), I began eating a little and went home!!! I kept the PICC line in for the next 5 weeks and due to my extremely high liquid output (1200-1400 cc/day) I ended up putting IV fluid through the PICC line everyday. I actually made 2 review videos on my YouTube channel "Ostomy Product Review: Hollister 2-piece System" & "Ostomy Product Review: Coloplast 2-piece System (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXLRnq6DSjydCHpiTM2ciMg/videos) when I still had the PICC line in! It is extremely important to keep PICC lines clean and dry, since it provides direct access to your heart, but the only inconvenience was showering really. Removing the PICC line was a really weird, but completely painless procedure and only took a few minutes to do. I was recovering from surgery pretty well for a few weeks, until a few more issues were added to my plate! I will explain more in my next post! Feel free to contact me with ANY questions or comments! Thanks :)
CONTACT INFO:
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXLRnq6DSjydCHpiTM2ciMg/videos
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/meandmystoma
Email- MeandMyOstomy@yahoo.com
CONTACT INFO:
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXLRnq6DSjydCHpiTM2ciMg/videos
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/meandmystoma
Email- MeandMyOstomy@yahoo.com
NEW COLORECTAL SURGEON, ER, & EMERGENCY SURGERY!
Still playing catch-up here.....
I met with my new surgeon on September 19th. Going into the appointment, I was pretty nervous and didn't really expect very much to come out of it...but boy, was I wrong! My new surgeon was very confident he could fix all my issues and gave me a few different surgical options! He said he could repair my parastomal hernia (with mesh), form a new end-loop ileostomy (basically a loop ileostomy with a smaller distal loop to avoid prolapse), and remove part of my colon and perform a rectopexy to fix the rectal prolapse that came back! But, before doing any surgery, he wanted to do a colonoscopy and have me do another defecogram. I left that appointment very unsure and hesitant to trust another surgeon that I just met with such a major surgery, but he said to go to his ER if I had another major prolapse in the meantime. The following week I had the colonoscopy and discussed my surgical options with my family. He gave me the option to do the surgery all at once, or in separate parts but my family felt that it would be best to just get everything over with at once.
Well, with my luck, 2 days after my colonoscopy I ended up in the ER with my stoma horribly prolapsed and swollen...AGAIN! I was admitted to the hospital on a Sunday and given dilaudid to ease the pain, but unfortunately my surgeon was not on-call that night and the residents had their own agenda! My mom and I both told them NOT to try pushing my stoma back in (advice from the previous surgeon) becuase it will not work and only cause more pain and agony, but they ignored us completely! After a failed attempt to ease it back in with sugar (Yes, they dumped multiple packs of sugar onto my stoma!), they decided to put another bag on and leave me laying in reverse trendelenburg (laying on back w/ feet higher than head) position til my surgeon can perform the surgery on Wednesday! By this point I was in excruciating pain, my stoma was prolapsed and swollen, I had a urinary catheter,a pain pump and was on strict bed rest! As expected, the measures they took to prevent further prolapse failed miserably! By Tuesday night my stoma swelled so badly that it started to look like it was becoming necrotic. Drs were in every 30 mins throughout that night, and then the following day, I went in for surgery! Since I hadn't officially made my decision on what surgery I wanted before I was admitted and on heavy pain meds, I left the decision up to my mom. The final decision ended up being the full 3-part surgery which included a new stoma, bovine mesh around the stoma, colon & rectal resection, and a rectopexy! In my next post I will explain what happened after surgery!
I met with my new surgeon on September 19th. Going into the appointment, I was pretty nervous and didn't really expect very much to come out of it...but boy, was I wrong! My new surgeon was very confident he could fix all my issues and gave me a few different surgical options! He said he could repair my parastomal hernia (with mesh), form a new end-loop ileostomy (basically a loop ileostomy with a smaller distal loop to avoid prolapse), and remove part of my colon and perform a rectopexy to fix the rectal prolapse that came back! But, before doing any surgery, he wanted to do a colonoscopy and have me do another defecogram. I left that appointment very unsure and hesitant to trust another surgeon that I just met with such a major surgery, but he said to go to his ER if I had another major prolapse in the meantime. The following week I had the colonoscopy and discussed my surgical options with my family. He gave me the option to do the surgery all at once, or in separate parts but my family felt that it would be best to just get everything over with at once.
Well, with my luck, 2 days after my colonoscopy I ended up in the ER with my stoma horribly prolapsed and swollen...AGAIN! I was admitted to the hospital on a Sunday and given dilaudid to ease the pain, but unfortunately my surgeon was not on-call that night and the residents had their own agenda! My mom and I both told them NOT to try pushing my stoma back in (advice from the previous surgeon) becuase it will not work and only cause more pain and agony, but they ignored us completely! After a failed attempt to ease it back in with sugar (Yes, they dumped multiple packs of sugar onto my stoma!), they decided to put another bag on and leave me laying in reverse trendelenburg (laying on back w/ feet higher than head) position til my surgeon can perform the surgery on Wednesday! By this point I was in excruciating pain, my stoma was prolapsed and swollen, I had a urinary catheter,a pain pump and was on strict bed rest! As expected, the measures they took to prevent further prolapse failed miserably! By Tuesday night my stoma swelled so badly that it started to look like it was becoming necrotic. Drs were in every 30 mins throughout that night, and then the following day, I went in for surgery! Since I hadn't officially made my decision on what surgery I wanted before I was admitted and on heavy pain meds, I left the decision up to my mom. The final decision ended up being the full 3-part surgery which included a new stoma, bovine mesh around the stoma, colon & rectal resection, and a rectopexy! In my next post I will explain what happened after surgery!
STOMA PROLAPSE!!!
Hi again! I apologize for the delay in posts! My goal was to keep up with this blog, but I got a little sidetracked. Anyways....there has been A LOT going on in the past few months that I want to share, so I am going to start playing catch-up right now!
On August 8th, 2013 my day started out like any other "normal" day since surgery. I picked up a new hernia belt in the morning, had a smoothie on my way home and by night-time I noticed that my stoma looked like it was sticking out more than usual. Knowing what a prolapse looks like, from experiencing rectal prolapse a few months back, I broke down into tears fearing this was just the beginning of a very long road, yet again! To make matters worse, my 20th birthday was the next day and I was SO excited to start a new chapter of my life as a HEALTHY college student. Unfortunately the prolapse continued to rapidly worsen and I spent the whole night Aug. 8th and the whole day of Aug. 9th (my birthday) on bed rest, in excruciating pain! Any time I even switched positions or stood up to use the bathroom, my stoma would continue to prolapse! I was given Valium as an attempt to ease my stoma back in and calm me down, but unfortunately it didn't do much. The prolapse was getting so bad (8 inches), swollen, and painful that I ended up in the hospital later that night! After 4-5 failed attempts to push my stoma back inside in the ER, I was finally taken to the OR where the surgeon was able to get my stoma back in without causing me pain. I spent the next couple of days in the hospital and then returned home (after visiting with the therapy dog at the hospital- pic below). I was given instructions to follow-up with my colorectal surgeon to discuss further surgical options to fix the prolapse. Although the ER surgeon was able to get it back in, she said there is a very good change it will continue to prolapse. Unfortunatley, the colorectal surgeon who formed my ileostomy (@Mayo) did not know what else to do for me, so she referred me to a local colorectal surgeon. At the time, I was extremely upset and disappointed that she just left me with such an issue and had no solution, but the switch to a new surgeon ended up being a REALLY good decision! I will discuss that experience in my next post...
On August 8th, 2013 my day started out like any other "normal" day since surgery. I picked up a new hernia belt in the morning, had a smoothie on my way home and by night-time I noticed that my stoma looked like it was sticking out more than usual. Knowing what a prolapse looks like, from experiencing rectal prolapse a few months back, I broke down into tears fearing this was just the beginning of a very long road, yet again! To make matters worse, my 20th birthday was the next day and I was SO excited to start a new chapter of my life as a HEALTHY college student. Unfortunately the prolapse continued to rapidly worsen and I spent the whole night Aug. 8th and the whole day of Aug. 9th (my birthday) on bed rest, in excruciating pain! Any time I even switched positions or stood up to use the bathroom, my stoma would continue to prolapse! I was given Valium as an attempt to ease my stoma back in and calm me down, but unfortunately it didn't do much. The prolapse was getting so bad (8 inches), swollen, and painful that I ended up in the hospital later that night! After 4-5 failed attempts to push my stoma back inside in the ER, I was finally taken to the OR where the surgeon was able to get my stoma back in without causing me pain. I spent the next couple of days in the hospital and then returned home (after visiting with the therapy dog at the hospital- pic below). I was given instructions to follow-up with my colorectal surgeon to discuss further surgical options to fix the prolapse. Although the ER surgeon was able to get it back in, she said there is a very good change it will continue to prolapse. Unfortunatley, the colorectal surgeon who formed my ileostomy (@Mayo) did not know what else to do for me, so she referred me to a local colorectal surgeon. At the time, I was extremely upset and disappointed that she just left me with such an issue and had no solution, but the switch to a new surgeon ended up being a REALLY good decision! I will discuss that experience in my next post...
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