33 replies to this topic

[Canadian Karen]

I thought for sure celiac3270 would have visited here to give us an update. I am kinda worried now.

I am sending more prayers his way that everything is okay.....

Hugs,
Karen

[KaitiUSA]

I think he said wednesday or thursday. I wish I had some kind of update. I hope everything went well. Hopefully he'll be back here soon

[mela14]

I was thinking the same thing too..........hope all went well.

[stef_the_kicking_cuty]

Hey, I was gone for a few days, too. And I was wondering, if he's already back. Hm, it might have taken a little longer than everybody expected. I hope, he's fine.

Stef

[flagbabyds]

he said that he would be in the hospital for like a week so he should be back sometime soon

[celiac3270]

I'm back! I can't give a complete update, but I just wanted to inform you . In the next hour I hope to get back here and I'll give you the full story.

[mela14]

welcome back,
let us know how you are just as soon as you can.
hope you are on the road to wellness now!

[celiac3270]

Monday -- Surgery Day -- The doctor told me I was very lucky to have gone 14 years without a serious problem. Any one of the hundreds of times I've been sick, my intestines could have coiled around a vein cutting off the blood supply and essentially killing an organ. I had to sit around in the waiting room all day until about 4:00 in the afternoon (since they were squeezing me in on an "emergency basis." In the procedure, they made three incisions--one in the bellybutton, one about halfway between my belly button and the left-most part of my abdominal area, one on the right. The incisions were small--maybe three centimeters each. They stretched out my intestines (side to side) as much as possible in the "LADS Procedure". They also took out my appendix since it's in the wrong spot as a result of all this and as a result of this, if I ever got appendicitis they would never find it--too dangerous so they took it out since it doesn't do much for me anyway. When I woke up I had a tube that went from my stomach through my throat and up into my nose and out into a container. They had suction on it so it was removing a greenish liquid from my stomach. The doctors said that since they had to touch the bowels and intestines so much, they sort of froze up. My throat and nostril got really sore from the tube over the next few days. I also had an IV of course, and some oxygen since I wasn't breathing as deeply as they wanted. The oxygen tube was removed a day later. I was in a room with a little child and I couldn't sleep much because to ladies on the other side of the curtain had loud childs music playing all night and were talking in Spanish extraordinarily loud--the way I might yell, or at least raise my voice--plus the child cried a lot. I got moved to a private room the next day by the nurses who felt sorry for me .

Tuesday, Wednesday -- Recovery -- They took the oxygen tube out, but the other tube hurt so much. I still wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything. The cuts weren't as bad as the throat pain...I had morphine to control any pain I had, but I stopped using it when I was told it could slow up bowel progress--I didn't want to sit there for days waiting. They moved the tube about an inch higher since it was a little low in my stomach--really painful. I sat in a chair for a half hour Tuesday, but it made me nauseous and dizzy. Oh, and I started walking Wednesday since that would also help me to recover and get things moving--with a stand of all the drips and pain meds.

Thursday -- I walked a tremendous amount (for post-operation)--49 laps around the floor, which consisted of four long hallways--with my stand of meds again . Still the tubes down my throat, but they were, to my relief, removed late in the day--due mostly to my walking-- and they let me eat a lemon ice (gluten-free) and a little chicken broth--hot water with an unopened package of "Herb Ox" powdery stuff to put in it--also gluten-free, of course.

Friday -- The doctors told me that I could start eating solid foods without any restriction--though I made sure to eat slowly and walk after eating to keep things moving so I wouldn't aggravate anything and need the tube put down again. 1st BM....lol....I'm not sparing any details. I did a lot more sitting in the chair--actually, Thursday I spent most of the day walking, second most in a chair, then the least time in my bed and Friday I was a little tired, but I sat in a chair again for most of the day. They disconnected the drip from the IV in my hand and reconnected it later to give me something else. I was extremely surprised when the doctors came in around 5:30 and said I could go home if I wanted to, since on Wed./Thurs. had been predicting Saturday--maybe late afternoon--and only that soon because I was so diligent about walking and sitting up and trying to recover.

[Carriefaith]

That tube thingy sounds painful
I'm really glad that you are home and doing well though
I wish you a great recovery and hopefully you will be symptom free forever
Best wishes

[angel_jd1]

Welcome back kiddo!! Now get off the computer and GO REST!!!! You just had surgery silly. Take care of yourself.

-Jessica

[stargirl]

Feel better quickly celiac3270!

[mela14]

glad you're back! You will get better and stronger each day. Just give it time and rest a lot. Your body need it. You've been through a lot!
I've had 7 surgeries for abdominal adhesions and it takes evrything out of you but you WILL recover.
Hang in there and keep us posted!

[celiac3270]

Thank you

P.S. What was really cool was that one of the nurses--she added the medications to my drip and stuff on--Wednesday, I think--was celiac herself! Had never heard of celiac.com, checked for celiac sites on the internet, or known that there were gluten-free restaurants in NYC. She asked if I could e-mail later, which I will--and visited the message board while I was in the hospital

[stef_the_kicking_cuty]

Wow, good to see you back and on the way to recovery . Interesting story, that with the tube indeed does sound very painful . That with the nurse, that she had celiac, that's just one proof, that there are more and more patients with celiac out there . I don't wish it to them, but our world gets much better through that though. I'm glad to hear, everything went well at the end. Keep us posted about your recovery .

Hugs, Stef