My Surgery, Day After

Tags

catheter, dr herschorn, friends, gall bladder, momma bean, recovery, sunnybrook, surgery

This past Tuesday I went in to Sunnybrook for my surgery. To remind my faithful readers there were to be 3 procedures done:

• gall bladder removal (the major component of the surgery)
• perineum repair
• removal of a huge stone in my urinary bladder -every UTI I have the stone sucks up the infections and keeps “transmitting” to the bladder, so I was never infection free while this stone existed

Momma Bean accompanied me to the hospital and we got in early, as I needed to stock up on some extra gauze, paper tape and surgical lubricant — all of which I need every time I catheterise. We went to “Same Day Surgery” and registered. I was taken in, stripped down and put into a hospital gown. 3 different nurses tried to start an IV in me, but sadly my veins were very disobedient. The nurses complained that my skin was quite tough – to which I pointed out that I am dehydrated cos of being NPO since midnight.

Momma Bean was allowed to come in and sit with me while I waited to be wheeled upstairs. I had a little draped corner because I am still on the MRSA-dangerous list. This made it difficult if I needed to poop or leave for other personal reasons.

I was finally wheeled up 90 minutes past the scheduled time. Seems no one told the OR cleaners that the OR had to be scrubbed & prepped for an MRSA patient. I was wheeled in and then the two anaesthetists (Staff Doctor & Resident [trainee doctor]) tried to start an IV in me. After 7 pokes an IV was started. I was promptly put to sleep and woke up several hours later in Post-Op.

I was told in Post-Op that they didn’t take out the gall bladder. I was not happy, to say the least, But I was also so woozy and high, coming off the anaesthetic I barely heard anything. I managed to wake up enough & be cognisant enough to be sent home. Momma Bean took me home and viola! There was my Stephanie waiting for me. Tarotcub let her into my flat. Stephanie spent the night, on my sofa, while I rested in bed. She watched a bit of Netflix and just made sure I didn’t need any emergency help while I was still coming off the anaesthetic.

In the middle of the night I got hungry so I nibbled on a caramel flavoured rice cake. Unfortunately I threw up, remembering then that I am to be on a clear liquid diet until my bowels start working. In the morning I was toddling about and tried to catheterise. Unfortunately a catheter couldn’t get in and I ended up with lots of bloody gauze in the bathroom. Woke Stephanie up and off we went to Sunnybrook. Fortunately Dr Herschorn has his clinic days on Wednesdays. I got in, spoke to Donna (cystoscopy clinic head receptionist) and helen (Dr Herschorn’s secretary) and got in with Dr Herschorn. He tried inserting a catheter but he wasn’t successful either. So I was wheeled into the Cystoscopy procedure room and via the cystascope a foley catheter was inserted into me. I’m attached to a pee bag now.

Afterwards met up with Dr Herschorn and we discussed the surgery and why the gall bladder couldn’t be taken out. When Dr Ross got in with the lapriscope there was so much internal scarring and adhesions that he couldn’t get a clear view of the gall bladder. It would have been too dangerous for him to continue. He didn’t just slice me completely open as it would have taken nearly 10hrs to clear up all the adhesions and then take out the gall bladder. A surgery that big needs to be discussed with me. I understand fully why, my last surgery I was under for 11hrs and I was failing towards the end. I ended up in ICU for about 4-5 days because I wasn’t doing too well recovering from the surgery. I am to see Dr Herschorn next week for an assessment and see what the next steps are.

After leaving the Cysto Clinic Stephanie and I met up with Brian. He’s a lovely friend and hospital chaplain (nowadays called Spiritual Care Provider) at my hospital. We had a little chat in the sunny hospital cafeteria. I had some 7-Up and a cup of jello for lunch, all very filling.

Got home and there was my lovely Jenn. Jenn took care of me yesterday, making sure I didn’t need anything while I was resting. I slept mostly while Jenn played on the computer and checked on me. Momma Bean showed up and regaled Jenn with stories of her childhood in communist Poland.  Jenn left close to midnight when her Fraser picked her up and Momma Bean spent the night. I believe my Momma Bean really likes Jenn as she calls Jenn “that lovely young woman” – I could tell cos my mom was quite the chatterbox with Jenn yesterday. I have never seen her that animated and that chatty with anyone speaking only English. She even shared her spicy saurkraut with Jenn.

I’m doing okay. Just really sleepy, which is good. I haven’t eaten anything as of yet today, except for 2 fruit popsicles which Chris bought a box for me.

I don’t Like Gynecologists

Tags

cystoscopy, dr herschorn, dr patricia lee, gynecology, sunnybrook, urology

Today was my bi-monthly visit with my urologist, Dr Herschorn – for a very comfortable cystoscopy. I had mentioned in December, when I last saw him, that I would like him to perform a “perineal repair”. For those who follow the wacky world of ‘bladder exstrophy’ many of us ladies have problems in adulthood with coitus – in that we can’t have it due to whatever happened in our early childhoods with regards to our first few surgeries.

I have spent that last frickin’ 15 years trying to get a gynecologist to take care of this. I had my stoma “installed” four years ago with Dr Patricia Lee, from Sunnybrook, being part of the surgery – her part being to fix a prolapsing uterus and to fix my vaginal opening. The woman did not fix my vaginal opening, with the comment that I need to see a plastic surgeon. I have contacted 3 plastic surgeons, and not one of them would take me on.

Luckily I was emailing with a lovely lady in California who also has BE, and she told me that her urologist did her perineal repair and her vaginoplasty. Her urologist – not a gynecologist but a urologist. I asked Dr Herschorn in December and today he took a peek. It’s a simple snip but because he’s never done one before he wants to bring Dr Lee on board.

It takes up to a year to see this woman. And for the past 10 years I have been trying to get her to do something. Why can a urologist with a simple 2 minute examination say “oh yes, this needs to be cut” when a gynecologist lectures me on using dilators and using the services of a plastic surgeon. I need this done now! I am done being batted about. Last time was when trying to schedule my last surgery – and with all the back & forth and lack of communication I got fired from a position because my employer was tired of the doctors not getting together and just working out a plan.

I am afraid this will happen again. That woman’s secretary better get back to me by Monday with a date that is in the next month or heads will roll. She’s had a decade to fix me and she’s done f*ck all.

Oh My Stoma, How you Delight Me

Tags

catheter, dr herschorn, foley, health, stoma, sunnybrook

I haven’t blogged in a while, and not because I didn’t have anything to “report” on but mostly due to sheer laziness.

I continue to have problems with my stoma, with my attempts at intermittent catheterisations tending to fail within a day or two of the foley being removed. Back in mid-August Dr Herschorn removed the foley and I was able to go 10 days, cath’ing and then one day I couldn’t. We tried last week and I managed to last 8 hours before dragging myself back up to Sunnybrook.

This time round Dr Herschorn removed it just this past Tuesday and so far I’ve manage to go 48 hours without too much difficulty. I have figured out a way to cath which causes the least amount of discomfort (i.e. no bleeding of “rosebud”) and is sitting on the toilet is a reclining position, lifting up the abdomen to make the stoma opening larger and using gobs & gobs of medical lubricant. So far this has been working but my back hurts because of the funny toilet implements on commericial toilets — not like a flush handle ramming itself into the small of your back to make one feel truly alive.

The last weekend of September Starkman’s Medical Supplies is having an Ostomy Open House where I can get supplies at 10% off and as I have a credit with them of about $35 just imagine how much gauze, lubricant, surgical tape and stoma-care wipes I can get…actually not that much, it’s all fairly pricey. But I’m looking forward to this Open House, mainly so that I can mingle with others of my same “plight”.

On a very happy note that which I call the “Death Diet” is still holding, haven’t gained a pound since coming out of Hospital on August 5th. Still hate pasta, ice cream, pierogies, bread, potatoes, and rice.

Visit to the ER

Tags

bladder infection, bladder stones, cystoscopy, dr herschorn, er, hospital, residents, urology

I was not feeling that great this past Saturday and had some abdominal pain. As my latest stay in the hospital started with abdominal pain I was freaked. I paged Urology and ended up speaking to Dr O’Malley, a first year Resident, who suggested I try some Tylenol. He called 2 hours later to see if it worked and I said no, the pain was still there. It was suggested that I come into ER.

I was also having some problems taking deep breaths. Respirology, Infectious Diseases and Urology all told me when I was being discharged that if there was any slightest change in my condition I was to get myself to ER immediately; and I did so.

It was a 3 hour wait in the waiting room at the ER but eventually I was taken in. While waiting I was taken into an assessment room where 4 vials of blood were taken and an EKG of my heart was done. The heart was fine, my blood pressure was slightly elevated though, pulse was normal for me. When I was taken into a cubicle I was assessed by one of the ER doctors. A urine sample was taken, my bladder was flushed, and a swab of my nose and perineum were taken (cos I had MRSA 1.5yrs ago, and I need to have 3 negative swabs to take me off the MRSA list). It was a case of just waiting to see what the blood work and urinanalysis showed.

The blood work showed that my white blood count is normal, it was 5.3 which is in the lower half of the acceptable range of 4-11; when I was admitted last month my WBC was 15. The urine showed an infection, though for some odd reason the urine coming out of me was clear and pale – so I guess we caught the infection early. An IV was started so that a mega dose of some IV drug could be run into me, and I was given a script for Septra for 14 days.

On Sunday Dr O’Malley rang me from the Urology Ward to check on me, to see if I’m doing okay. I was – the abdominal pain had lessened somewhat.

Today, Monday, I went in for a Cystoscopy and Dr Herschorn found 2 bladder stones. One of the downsides of my surgery a year and a half ago was a greater chance of developing bladder stones – as the mucous (my bladder never grew from my birth, so it was augmented with intestinal material, ergo the mucous which is naturally produced by intestines) if not pee’d or flushed out can accumulate and turn into little stones. I have two, though they are very small. According to Dr Herschorn I would have a local anaesthetic and with the scope they would remove the stones…if it were not possible to remove them a little laser would be used to break them up.

Adventures in Healthcare

Tags

bladder infection, dr herschorn, health, hospital, pneumonia, sunnybrook

Well, I got sick again. Blast this decrepit body!

I went to Emergency on July 17th at 2am with severe abdominal pain. I was in ER for a few hours and was prescribed Macrobid by the ER doctor – a certain Dr J Thurger. I was sent home, hopped up on morphine. A few hours later the pain was worse, I had chills and was shivering so much I could barely stand. I called for an ambulance and got myself back to the ER. My heart rate was 175 bpm and had trouble getting oxygen in, so I was connected to an oxygen tank. Finally got to the ER and a team of nurses were working on me to get an IV started and to take multiple blood draws.

I was put into another room, thankfully I  didn’t have to move, they just moved the stretcher I was on. One of the Residents from Urology came down for a consult and he irrigated my bladder. What came out was huge bloody chunks of mucous and deep red urine. Macrobid is a fairly weak drug, so it would have never been able to kill off what was now a raging Urinary Tract Infection. The Resident manage to irrigate about a litre of sterile saline through me, and the stench was overwhelming.

I got admitted to the ward on July 19th, so yeah I was in ER for nearly 2 days before they could get me a bed. I got onto the ward (Urology Ward, C2 at Sunnybrook Hospital). It seems that superficially I was doing okay, but on July 21st I collapsed vomitting blood and stopped breathing. I was rushed to the Critical Care Unit (ICU) where I was intibated and then placed on a ventilator for nearly 10 days. Seems the UTI spread and I had an infection in the blood, and then it spread further to my lungs. I had pneumonia, and a fairly deadly one as I couldn’t breathe.

Eventually I was moved to D4, which is step-down ICU where it’s 2 patients per nurse while CrCU is one patient to one nurse. I was in D4 for a day and a half, and while there I had a number of tests done. I had a doppler of the legs done, as Respirology was concerned that I might have blood clots that could cause problems for my lungs. The doppler was clear. I had a number of chest x-rays, and was taken down to Angioplasty to get a PIC line inserted – a PIC is a catheter surgically inserted into a vein, for those of us with crap veins which have been tapped out. With the PIC in the central line (IV) in my neck was removed, as was the collapsing IV in my left wrist.

I was deemed fit enough on July 27th to go back to the regular ward. I was placed in isolation, as I was exposed to MRSA 18 months prior. I was on two different  but powerful drugs – Vancomycin and Levequin. I was in isolation because my MRSA is a danger to the elderly and the very young – and the ward was full of older men recovering from prostate surgery. I had a hard time the first few days, with me discovering that morphine now makes me wheeze and makes it difficult for me to get any breath in.. there goes another painkiller I can’t use. I was on puffers for a short while, but even those proved to be detrimental, with them causing me to vomit and cough rather violently.

While in hospital the nurses irrigated my bladder every 3-4 hours, to make sure there were no mucous plugs which could contribute towards another UTI. I was weak as a kitten and could barely stand but I practiced everyday and got stronger.

I was eventually discharged on August 5th and sent home. The first few days I was scared to sleep on my own. The whole experience of not being able to breathe on my own freaked me out, and still does. So for the first few days after my discharge Squirrel, Tarotcub and my mum took turns spending the night at my place, checking on me periodically to make sure I was okay.  I’m feeling better now, but am still freaked and am pleased that I am under orders to flush the bladder every 4 hours, which means I wake up in the middle of the night — my alarm clock is my friend as it beeping at me every 4 hours is very reassuring with regards to my fears of not being able to wake up.

I was scheduled for a cystoscopy for August 12th. I got to the Cysto Clinic and my doctor decided that I was still too weak for the procedure, so I’m to go back this coming Monday. While there I asked my doctor about this latest adventure. I was feeling sick towards the end of my hols in June and paged the Urology Resident on Call on June 27th from the airport (Pearson) as my stoma was infected. My doctor said yes, it probably started back then. He was shocked when I told him that I was at the ER earlier on July 17th and that they discharged me with a script for macrobid.. he looked livid, and he does have a reputation for being super protective of his patients, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he reems them out for nearly killing me.

I am still waiting for a call from Respirology as they need to run tests on me cos of the lung issues.

Currently I am at home, fluttering about my flat in a hospital gown. I’m still rather weak, but I am getting stronger. This latest bout has adjusted my tastebuds somewhat and now I find pasta and pierogies disgusting – like eating very thick wallpaper paste. Ah well.

Foley Catheter is back Again

Tags

dr herschorn, foley, gauze, holidays, leg bag, starkman's, stoma, tape, urology

Just when I thought I’d be foley-free, it’s back again. I had the appointment with Herschorn on Friday and I did manage to successfully insert a catheter on my own into the stoma. So I thought, as did the Urology Fellow that everything would be okay. I was instructed that at the 4-hour mark I was to cath again. Dutifully at 4 hours precisely I tried.

I couldn’t insert a catheter. My bathroom countertop ended up being covered in blood, as did a part of the bathroom floor. Not just a few splatters, but a good drenching. I couldn’t get the catheter in and when I did try it kept folding in on itself – visions of the knot a month ago being stuck in the stoma ran through my head.

I paged the Urology Resident on call at Sunnybrook and I explained the situation. He told me to get to the ER at Sunnybrook, and that he’d be waiting for me. I showed up and the Resident took care of me. He had a hard time inserting a catheter and had to go through several different brands before one could get in…all of this took about 30 minutes, while my BFF Tarotcub waited patiently for me out in the waiting area.

I managed to get a note from him so that I can use it while traveling between different Customs points while on hols in Europe. I also got a “plug”, which he didn’t want to give me, but I held firm. The plug is to be used when it isn’t convenient to use a bag.. like at work. Yesterday I had a lovely jaunt over to Starkman Surgical Supplies Depot, to pick up:

-3 packs of DuSoft 3×3 gauze

-3 rolls of paper tape

-3 leg bags, with tubing so that I can easily fasten the leg bags to my legs without worrying putting any undue stress on the stoma

-stoma deoderant – a 2oz spray bottle

My brother and mother are slightly freaking out. My father doesn’t know, yet, about the latest in my stoma-saga. The maternal unit is going up to the cottage tomorrow, and I’m sure she’ll inform him.

The resident said that Dr Herschorn will prolly want me back in soon so that I can have a minor surgical procedure to clear out the scar-tissue that is causing the obstruction.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

I am now soooo glad that Ruthie will be picking me up at Gatwick, I don’t relish the idea of using BritishRail while going from Gatwick up to Prickwillow.

Hospital Appointment Today

Tags

cervix, dr herschorn, dr lee, hole, stoma, surgery, uterus, wound

Today is the one year anniversary of my surgery – the lovely & brutal one which sent me into ICU for 5 days, completely unconscious.

Anywho, today it was with the Uro-Gynecologist, Dr Lee from Sunnybrook. She and Dr Herschorn worked on a joint surgery for me – performing several procedures all at once. According to Dr Lee when I was sliced open there were tonnes of adhesions, and she spent 1.5 hours trying to clear the adhesions to get to my uterus, so that she could raise it (it had fallen). Dr Herschorn walzed into the OR and sliced the top of my bladder off – effectively making all of Dr Lee’s adhesion-clearing efforts moot.

Dr Lee is pleased that I have managed to lose 35lbs since the surgery, and that my dislike for ice cream and other naughty foods still prevails – I still am no longer enamoured with ketchup, french fries, boiled eggs, muffins, cookies, 2-bite brownies. This surgery has reset my tastebuds, and I like it.

Dr Lee pulled out the speculum to check on my uterus and cervix and she’s quite pleased. Considering I am a  potato (ie. I’m rather plump) there was an excellent chance that it would have fallen within a year of surgery. The cervix and uterus are still staying up where she anchored them. I’m to see her in 6 months to make sure this remains the case.

One worrying note – it took me ages to get the last hole closed, early October actually. Dr Lee checked my lower abdomen out and the hole remains, it’s big enough to handle the head of a q-tip. I am seriously displeased by this. She will be sending a report to Dr Herschorn on this. In the meanwhile I have sent a message to my Home Care Nurse, Kim, who discharged me from CCAC care in early October. I can’t demand care, as that would have to be prescribed by a doctor, but I am hoping she can come over and take a peek.

But I guess this means I will have to start packing myself so that nothing can rub up against the area – I’ll prolly do this until Christmas.

Bugger.