would love to hear from others who have had doctors that have confidence in in this area or anyone who knows if appetite loss is common. thanks.
At Wed, 27 Jan 2010, Suzanne wrote:
>
>My story actually begins just over two years ago. I had a total
>abdominal hysterectomy in July of 2007 due to a large ovarian cyst that
>was possibly cancerous. Thankfully, it was benign, but the surgeon
>perforated my intestine and didn't realize it at the time. When I
>wasn't recovering normally, was weak, and had pain up my side and around
>my back, the nurses and my family who were with me around the clock
>asked my surgeon to do some tests to determine what was wrong. He
>dismissed their concerns, stating that I was suffering from a "post-op
>ileus". Five days after the hysterectomy, it was obvious to everyone
>that I was in distress and was extremely sick. The surgeon finally did
>a CT scan and found I had a perforation. Emergency exploratory surgery
>followed, resulting in a bowel resection. I had peritonitis and was, in
>the surgeon's words, "gravely ill". I ended up with a fistula so the
>staples were ripped out and a wound vac was applied for a few weeks.
>When the wound vac was removed, the wound was left to heal open (end
>result five months later when it finally healed was an 8 by 3 inch scar
>up my abdomen). Eleven days after the second surgery I was still weak
>and sick, my body was swelling (I am on the thin side so this was quite
>obvious) and on oxygen. My surgeon was talking about discharging me at
>the end of the week and this was Wednesday! At two in the morning during
>that night, while in the care of a very astute nurse whom I credit with
>saving my life, I was rushed to the ICU in respiratory failure. They
>told my husband they didn't know if I had brain damage and they were not
>sure if I'd had a heart attack, but that my lungs had collapsed and they
>had called the Chaplain...and I was on a ventilator. My husband was in
>disbelief, obviously, and my children thought they were going to lose
>their mother. Had this surgeon monitored my albumin levels, he would
>have found them to be so low that my body was not able to process all of
>the fluids I was receiving intraveneously, and this situation could have
>easily been averted. I was in the hospital for three weeks, went home
>for a week, was still short of breath and running fevers, and was
>readmitted only to have a chest tube placed to drain more fluid from
>around my lungs for another week. All in all I've had over twenty three
>CT scans and forty chest x-rays. With each CT scan being about the
>equivalent of five hundred chest x-rays, I live in fear that one of
>these days I could be diagnosed with some form of cancer. It took me a
>full year to recover and gain back the twenty pounds I lost as I was TPN
>(no food by mouth) for five weeks and had a difficult time getting my
>appetite back. Those are just the highlights of my hospitalization;
>there were many other things that went wrong. --
I was glad you took the time to write all of your troubles with adhesions.. it is amazing to me the number of people who have them and the lack of help that is available. Hope you are still recovering well. My mother-in-law is the one with all the problems with adhesions. She has had three surgeries now in the last year...it has taken a toll on her body and her mind as well. She now has no appetite after this last surgery and we are wondering if this is a result of the surgeries or the result of being depressed from never knowing if it is going to happen again and how your life got to this point, or if this is part of the healing process. Not eating is no better than your bowels being
obstructed...so after this last surgery, we are feeling desperate and not sure what to do for her. She lives in Florida too, but closer to Jacksonville. She is not strong enough to go see this Dr. Redan, but I sure wish we could get his
opinion on her case. Or if anyone knows a doctor who specializes in adhesions a little more north of celebration, florida...maybe somehow we could get her there. would love to hear from others who have had doctors that have confidence in in this area or anyone who knows if appetite loss is commen. thanks.