Hi everyone. I am finally well enough to log in and update. It's been a rough week and a half.
The surgery was last Monday 4/7. When I arrived I was determined that they'd be able to find eveything and get me all fixed up and I was right! When they went in to look laproscopically at the bowels they were able to locate an inflammed portion of the bowel and decided to convert to an "open" procedure. Once they got in they found a herniated area with approx 10-12 ft of bowel wrapped around itself, knotted, and in pretty bad shape. The bowel was losing color and some of it was obviously overworked. They pulled all of the bowels out, got them untangled, removed a lot of scar tissue and put everything back in it's place. Immediately they were able to see a positive change in the color of the bowel and considered that part of the surgery a sucess. They proceeded from there with the hysterectomy and were able to remove all of the cancer with that surgery which they also completed as a "open" procedure. All together surgery was 4 hours long. When i woke up I was told the good news. I was intubated with an NG tube going from my nose into the stomach to prevent my stomach or bowels from working too hard during my recovery. I stayed pretty sedated for the first two days but by Tuesday I was able to get up and go for a little walk. That night my surgeon came in and advised that my hemoglobin count was a lil low so they'd be watching me for signs of internal bleeding. Being the eternal optimist, I just knew things would be fine. Wednesday morning at approx 5 am, the nurse came in for my vitals and my blood pressure was 79/46 and my pulse was 128. Within 15 minutes my blood was being taken and within 30 minutes of that my surgeon called and said that I'd be headed to the OR for them to go back in and stop the bleeding. My hemoglobin was 6. So back in I went, and after 2 units of blood and 2 hours of surgery the bleeding was stopped and I was back on the road to recovery. That second surgery made the recovery twice as hard, but with an incision approx 12-13 inches long running the length of my abdomen I couldn't have expected recovey as quick as my previous lap surgeries. So slowly Thursday afternoon they began removing the NG tube, central line (added to give me blood during my second surgery) and getting me weaned off the morphine pump. By Saturday I was eating light amounts of food and Sunday night I was able to be released. Each day gets easier, but it will be a long recovery. I am VERY excited that they were able to fix everything at once and even more grateful at the opportunity to get healthy again. My weight is dangerously low, now at less that 120 lbs on my large 5'5" frame, and I look very sickly and fraile. I know that I am on the road now to a full recovery, but to those of you out there reading this who have "issues" with your bowels or your tummy that you blow off and pretend don't exist just because you prefer being thin over being overweight, please consider your health. I personally allowed my Dr. to blow this bowel issue off for too long, and I thought myself at times that I was just being too whiney, but at the end of the day I knew my body better than anyone else could have and I continued to push the issue until they finally found and resolved my issue. Some may not be so lucky...my bowels were dying off and I'm sure in time could have become a fatal issue.
Thank you to all of you for your messages and emails or concern and love. You guys are wonderful .
Here's to good health and a long and productive life!!!

Lori

1 Response to "Bowel Surgery & Hysterectomy"

• I'm sorry to hear you had to go thru all of this but am very glad to hear things went ok & you're on your way to recovery. Take care of yourself. I'll keep you in my prayers.
  
  ~TC

  TCL commented on 4/17/08 6:13 pm