Home and Back again
My husband took me home and I relaxed for the rest of the day. I struggled to move about without the aids in the hospital and on Monday my mum came round to help me whilst my husband was at work. I had become very anxious and felt ill when I was on my own. I put this down to being in the hospital for that amount of time and being surrounded by people all the time. Even whilst I was at home I would look at food and not fancy it. I would force myself to eat after all after 2 weeks of not eating properly my stomach must have shrunk. To take my antibiotics I had to have food which was a good thing because if I did not need to force myself to have something for the antibiotics I would not have eaten anything.
On Tuesday 26th I woke up not hungry at all. I had ½ a biscuit and took my antibiotics. I guessed that it was not enough food for the tablets because I was sick. I wanted a bath that day so when my husband had got home we had dinner and asked him to help me wash my hair and to have an all over body wash as I knew I could not get into the bath or if I did I would not be able to get out. After I had my wash I was in agony. I assumed that I had over done it. I went to bed early but could not get comfortable. At 11.00pm my husband came to bed and asked how I was, I told him it was getting worse. We agreed that if it was still bad in the morning we would see if his sister could drive me to Accident and Emergency. However by 11.30pm I told him I felt terrible and would not be able to cope through the night. So we got out of bed and made that all too familiar journey back to Frimley Park Hospital. I swear that my car could drive that journey on its own. I was in so much pain again I could hardly walk I got to the waiting room where I sat down and my husband took the paperwork that they had given me when I was discharged 2 days previously. I was taken straight into majors.
I was feeling very sickly again. They gave me some a morphine injection but as soon as I had it I was sick again. I was given an anti-sickness and given a top up of morphine (5ml) this knocked me out straight away. I was to have an X-ray and to be taken up to the gynaecology ward again. The X-ray showed multiple dilated loops of bowel with a small amount of air in the rectum. I was admitted at 2.54am on 27th February 2013. I spent the night in C bay. I was in this bay until a bed became free in another bay. C bay is normally used for day surgery it only had 3 beds in it and some of the equipment is also stored there. I remember joking with the nurses saying they were hiding me in the store room now.
My mum spent the day with me. I was given another 3ml of morphine, put on a drip and to be nil by mouth which did not bother me. By now I looked about 7 ½ months pregnant and still I had not had a bowel movement. The last time I had been for a poo was at 10.21am on 22nd February and that was a small amount. They wanted to try and enema. That was very uncomfortable, unfortunately I could only cope with ½ the liquid. After an hour they tried again, after ¼ of the bottle I felt a big urge to go and just made it to the commode. Unfortunately it was not poo that came out but the fluid from the enema.
The doctor then told me they wanted to do a CT scan but wanted me to drink a dye to see if there was a blockage in my bowel. I had to drink a 100ml barium meal (Gastrografin). When the nurse brought the barium meal (2 tubs of 50ml) I asked what it tasted like. She said that she did not know but had seen people’s reactions. She said she would rather see me sip it than gulp it and be sick. It was horrid it was really thick warm, slimy, snotty egg white like. I first joked about it being a shot and I was out down the pub. It did not change the taste of it though.
When I was given the Gastrographin I was also moved into B bay. That's it I had managed to be on all the bays on the ward (A, B, C and Isolation). I managed to drink one tub of the barium meal and forced myself to try the second one. I kept saying that if I could not drink this they would not be able to see what is wrong with me. I managed to drink ½ of the second tub. After 75ml I said to the nurse that I could not drink anymore as I was too bloated. Oh almost forgot that when the nurse was given the Gastrographin she was told that I was not to go for a poo after the Barium Meal her reply to that was that they had given me 2 enema’s there was no way she was going to stop me if needed to go.
The nurse said as I am small it may be enough but she would have to check first as I was originally told that I had to drink 100ml. Thankfully it was enough and I now had to wait 4 hours to let the dye go through my digestive system. During the wait my old neighbour popped in and we had a chat she had had a Barium Meal whilst she had been in. she said she would pop back later see how I was.
Those 4 hours were now the longest 4 hours I had spent. My husband came in after work and by then I was in so much pain. They kept giving me 5ml Morphine injections at one stage they also gave me Pethidine (I tell you what when I have a baby I am taking that stuff its great). The maximum pain relief would last was 15 minutes. As well as the pain relief they gave me plenty of anti-sickness injections. In the end the nurse said that she wanted to give me 10ml Morphine as the amount of top ups I was having would be the equivalent of that anyway. I was fine with that after all surely 10ml would knock me out.
At 8.30pm visiting time was over but my husband and my mum and I think my dad were still with me and I was taken down for my CT scan I was not a happy bunny at all. I was so bloated and sickly. If I was sick I would have to retake the Barium Meal and wait another 4 hours. I was in so much pain I thought I was dying. I was also put on oxygen at this point.
By the time we had got to the CT scan the Morphine had kicked in not as it normally does but completely the opposite. I was high. I think it had this effect because of the Pethidine. I turned round to the care assistant/nurse that had come down with me and said that I could see a frogs face on the ceiling as I lay for the X-ray (before the CT scan). She laughed.
On the way back to the ward I was laughing my head off for no reason that I can see now. You could hear me coming before you could see me. One of the nurses said as we got back to the ward that I looked a lot happier. Yes I was happy I was high but the problem was that the pain was still there and every time I laughed it would hurt, but I could not stop myself from laughing. Apparently I saw eyelashes on the ceiling where my bed was, however I do not remember this. The nurse that came down to the scans with me said that she had to stay away from my bed because I was making her laugh every time and in turn that was making me laugh which was hurting me. She was laughing all the way home that night because off me.
The doctors said that it looked like I had a blockage as the dye had not got through the a part of the bowel. I was to wait till morning to see if the dye had got through if not I will need another operation.
By 11.00pm I was not as high and the drowsiness of the morphine kicked in. I slept badly that night. It was not until 2.30pm on Thursday 28th February when I went back down to have my X-ray and CT scan again. They compared the CT scans from the ones that they took on 20th February. My discharge papers said that there was dilation of the contrast (dye) filled the small bowel throughout the abdomen which measured up to 4.5cm in diameter. There was an abrupt transition to a collapsed terminal ileum (bowel) in the pelvis. Although a small amount of contrast is seen mixed with faeces in the caecum. The remainder of the colon is collapsed throughout its length. There was no evidence of a mesenteric rotation or leak. There was added soft tissue in the adnexal regions and location of the transition point but the exact anatomy and cause of the presumed extrinsic obstruction was not seen on the CT scan. No large peritoneal fluid collection or intra-abdominal free fluid. No pneumoperitoneum.
About 4.00pm the surgeon came and explained that I had a mechanical distal small bowel obstruction, and that I would have to have a laparotomy to remove it. He said that I may need an NG tube to rest my bowel afterward surgery.
I remember getting very panicky about the NG tube everything came flooding back about when I had the last one when I was awake. I told the surgeon about my concerns after a bit of a long chat we agreed and he put on the consent form that if an NG tube could be avoided then it should be. But he did say that I may need one in as treatment but it will not be as bad as the one that they put in when I was awake. I agreed that I would accept that they may need to put one in.
I insisted that I would not go into the operation until I had seen my husband. It was weird I had already had 2 laparoscopies before but it was as though this was my first operation I was scared that I would not wake up. But I guess this was bigger, and a more major operation than before, and I really wanted my husband to be there with me. They said that it would be an hour or so as they had to prepare for it. My husband had finished work and by 5.05pm he was only 5 minuets away from the hospital. The anaesthetist had came to see me and just as he left my husband arrived. I was so glad he made it before I went down to theatre. I remember bursting into tears, not because of the thought of the laparotomy but because of the possibility of having the NG tube again. The operation was to take a couple of hours. I asked my husband to walk down with me as far as he was allowed to go as I was taken to the theatre and to be on the ward when it was finished he said that he would be. I was sick a couple of times again it was about 1litre a time. I also remember my husband helping me get dressed for the operation. I cannot remember when I went down but it was between 6.00pm and 8.00pm I remember it was visiting hours. When the porter came we went down to surgery. My husband was not allowed to go through the doors leading to the theatres so we said good bye. He said that he was going to go home have a bath and something to eat as he had just come straight from work and then he would come back and wait for me. It felt that I was saying good bye to him for the final time which was very silly. Apparently I said to the nurse that had come down with me that I did not want to die and that I was dying. I must have honestly thought that I was not going to come out of this alive. However it is another thing that I do not remember saying. What I do remember was the thought that my husband will be waiting for me when I came round. If that is the last thought you are going to have (which I must have believed it was going to be) then I am happy so say that that is the most comforting feeling ever.
In the room where they anaesthetise you they asked if that was my signature on the consent form, which I said it was. They asked if I understood what was going to happen, which I did. When they asked if I had any worries I said about the NG tube. We then had a chat about general things as I nodded off to sleep.
.
On Tuesday 26th I woke up not hungry at all. I had ½ a biscuit and took my antibiotics. I guessed that it was not enough food for the tablets because I was sick. I wanted a bath that day so when my husband had got home we had dinner and asked him to help me wash my hair and to have an all over body wash as I knew I could not get into the bath or if I did I would not be able to get out. After I had my wash I was in agony. I assumed that I had over done it. I went to bed early but could not get comfortable. At 11.00pm my husband came to bed and asked how I was, I told him it was getting worse. We agreed that if it was still bad in the morning we would see if his sister could drive me to Accident and Emergency. However by 11.30pm I told him I felt terrible and would not be able to cope through the night. So we got out of bed and made that all too familiar journey back to Frimley Park Hospital. I swear that my car could drive that journey on its own. I was in so much pain again I could hardly walk I got to the waiting room where I sat down and my husband took the paperwork that they had given me when I was discharged 2 days previously. I was taken straight into majors.
I was feeling very sickly again. They gave me some a morphine injection but as soon as I had it I was sick again. I was given an anti-sickness and given a top up of morphine (5ml) this knocked me out straight away. I was to have an X-ray and to be taken up to the gynaecology ward again. The X-ray showed multiple dilated loops of bowel with a small amount of air in the rectum. I was admitted at 2.54am on 27th February 2013. I spent the night in C bay. I was in this bay until a bed became free in another bay. C bay is normally used for day surgery it only had 3 beds in it and some of the equipment is also stored there. I remember joking with the nurses saying they were hiding me in the store room now.
My mum spent the day with me. I was given another 3ml of morphine, put on a drip and to be nil by mouth which did not bother me. By now I looked about 7 ½ months pregnant and still I had not had a bowel movement. The last time I had been for a poo was at 10.21am on 22nd February and that was a small amount. They wanted to try and enema. That was very uncomfortable, unfortunately I could only cope with ½ the liquid. After an hour they tried again, after ¼ of the bottle I felt a big urge to go and just made it to the commode. Unfortunately it was not poo that came out but the fluid from the enema.
The doctor then told me they wanted to do a CT scan but wanted me to drink a dye to see if there was a blockage in my bowel. I had to drink a 100ml barium meal (Gastrografin). When the nurse brought the barium meal (2 tubs of 50ml) I asked what it tasted like. She said that she did not know but had seen people’s reactions. She said she would rather see me sip it than gulp it and be sick. It was horrid it was really thick warm, slimy, snotty egg white like. I first joked about it being a shot and I was out down the pub. It did not change the taste of it though.
When I was given the Gastrographin I was also moved into B bay. That's it I had managed to be on all the bays on the ward (A, B, C and Isolation). I managed to drink one tub of the barium meal and forced myself to try the second one. I kept saying that if I could not drink this they would not be able to see what is wrong with me. I managed to drink ½ of the second tub. After 75ml I said to the nurse that I could not drink anymore as I was too bloated. Oh almost forgot that when the nurse was given the Gastrographin she was told that I was not to go for a poo after the Barium Meal her reply to that was that they had given me 2 enema’s there was no way she was going to stop me if needed to go.
The nurse said as I am small it may be enough but she would have to check first as I was originally told that I had to drink 100ml. Thankfully it was enough and I now had to wait 4 hours to let the dye go through my digestive system. During the wait my old neighbour popped in and we had a chat she had had a Barium Meal whilst she had been in. she said she would pop back later see how I was.
Those 4 hours were now the longest 4 hours I had spent. My husband came in after work and by then I was in so much pain. They kept giving me 5ml Morphine injections at one stage they also gave me Pethidine (I tell you what when I have a baby I am taking that stuff its great). The maximum pain relief would last was 15 minutes. As well as the pain relief they gave me plenty of anti-sickness injections. In the end the nurse said that she wanted to give me 10ml Morphine as the amount of top ups I was having would be the equivalent of that anyway. I was fine with that after all surely 10ml would knock me out.
At 8.30pm visiting time was over but my husband and my mum and I think my dad were still with me and I was taken down for my CT scan I was not a happy bunny at all. I was so bloated and sickly. If I was sick I would have to retake the Barium Meal and wait another 4 hours. I was in so much pain I thought I was dying. I was also put on oxygen at this point.
By the time we had got to the CT scan the Morphine had kicked in not as it normally does but completely the opposite. I was high. I think it had this effect because of the Pethidine. I turned round to the care assistant/nurse that had come down with me and said that I could see a frogs face on the ceiling as I lay for the X-ray (before the CT scan). She laughed.
On the way back to the ward I was laughing my head off for no reason that I can see now. You could hear me coming before you could see me. One of the nurses said as we got back to the ward that I looked a lot happier. Yes I was happy I was high but the problem was that the pain was still there and every time I laughed it would hurt, but I could not stop myself from laughing. Apparently I saw eyelashes on the ceiling where my bed was, however I do not remember this. The nurse that came down to the scans with me said that she had to stay away from my bed because I was making her laugh every time and in turn that was making me laugh which was hurting me. She was laughing all the way home that night because off me.
The doctors said that it looked like I had a blockage as the dye had not got through the a part of the bowel. I was to wait till morning to see if the dye had got through if not I will need another operation.
By 11.00pm I was not as high and the drowsiness of the morphine kicked in. I slept badly that night. It was not until 2.30pm on Thursday 28th February when I went back down to have my X-ray and CT scan again. They compared the CT scans from the ones that they took on 20th February. My discharge papers said that there was dilation of the contrast (dye) filled the small bowel throughout the abdomen which measured up to 4.5cm in diameter. There was an abrupt transition to a collapsed terminal ileum (bowel) in the pelvis. Although a small amount of contrast is seen mixed with faeces in the caecum. The remainder of the colon is collapsed throughout its length. There was no evidence of a mesenteric rotation or leak. There was added soft tissue in the adnexal regions and location of the transition point but the exact anatomy and cause of the presumed extrinsic obstruction was not seen on the CT scan. No large peritoneal fluid collection or intra-abdominal free fluid. No pneumoperitoneum.
About 4.00pm the surgeon came and explained that I had a mechanical distal small bowel obstruction, and that I would have to have a laparotomy to remove it. He said that I may need an NG tube to rest my bowel afterward surgery.
I remember getting very panicky about the NG tube everything came flooding back about when I had the last one when I was awake. I told the surgeon about my concerns after a bit of a long chat we agreed and he put on the consent form that if an NG tube could be avoided then it should be. But he did say that I may need one in as treatment but it will not be as bad as the one that they put in when I was awake. I agreed that I would accept that they may need to put one in.
I insisted that I would not go into the operation until I had seen my husband. It was weird I had already had 2 laparoscopies before but it was as though this was my first operation I was scared that I would not wake up. But I guess this was bigger, and a more major operation than before, and I really wanted my husband to be there with me. They said that it would be an hour or so as they had to prepare for it. My husband had finished work and by 5.05pm he was only 5 minuets away from the hospital. The anaesthetist had came to see me and just as he left my husband arrived. I was so glad he made it before I went down to theatre. I remember bursting into tears, not because of the thought of the laparotomy but because of the possibility of having the NG tube again. The operation was to take a couple of hours. I asked my husband to walk down with me as far as he was allowed to go as I was taken to the theatre and to be on the ward when it was finished he said that he would be. I was sick a couple of times again it was about 1litre a time. I also remember my husband helping me get dressed for the operation. I cannot remember when I went down but it was between 6.00pm and 8.00pm I remember it was visiting hours. When the porter came we went down to surgery. My husband was not allowed to go through the doors leading to the theatres so we said good bye. He said that he was going to go home have a bath and something to eat as he had just come straight from work and then he would come back and wait for me. It felt that I was saying good bye to him for the final time which was very silly. Apparently I said to the nurse that had come down with me that I did not want to die and that I was dying. I must have honestly thought that I was not going to come out of this alive. However it is another thing that I do not remember saying. What I do remember was the thought that my husband will be waiting for me when I came round. If that is the last thought you are going to have (which I must have believed it was going to be) then I am happy so say that that is the most comforting feeling ever.
In the room where they anaesthetise you they asked if that was my signature on the consent form, which I said it was. They asked if I understood what was going to happen, which I did. When they asked if I had any worries I said about the NG tube. We then had a chat about general things as I nodded off to sleep.
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