mbrogier
10-22-2005, 01:26 AM
Rob had his double hernia surgery last Thursday. Because of an emergency case, he didn't go into surgery until 6pm that night. He was in a lot of pain in the recovery room, and the surgeon said it wasn't a problem for him to stay the night for better pain management. Since we live 30 minutes away on a long bumpy road, and Rob has had issues with the foley catheters in the past, I convinced him to stay although he really didn't want to.
I got up early the next morning, stopped at Starbucks and got us both lattes thinking he'd be up and raring to go. I walked into his room and didn't recognize him. His blood pressure had dropped and his abdomen was distended. I immediately forgot all about the Starbucks. Nurses were everywhere, and it wasn't long before Rob was transfered to ICU. A cat scan showed internal bleeding. (I thought that was what it was when I saw him--he looked like he had swallowed a bowling ball) He was given blood tranfusions--a total of 6 units in two days.
He was rushed in for an angiogram, and the doctors were able to stop the bleeding without another surgery. A small artery had been hit with one of the tacks from the mesh from the hernia surgery. It didn't start bleeding until after he was closed up. Actually the pressure of starting the angiogram stopped the bleeding, so they had to play around with the dyes to find the exact spot and fix it. Because I had so many treatments in that department with those doctors and nurses, I was allowed in the room before the procedure and then when they were figuring out how to procede. I saw what artery it was and exactly what had happened. There was no way it was surgeon error. The artery was tiny.
Rob stayed until Friday night. He did really well and is now on iron supplements because his iron is low. The hernia surgery worked, and he is feeling much better from that. The surgeon said that definitely needed to be done. (I felt really guilting about insisting that Rob get them fixed. The surgeon assured me that the surgery was the right call.)
I am so glad that Rob did not go home the night of his surgery. Our city does not have ambulance service to the hospital that we use, and it would have been a nightmare. I know that I would have know that something was definitely wrong when he woke up, but his recovery would have been a lot more severe. It was really scary for the first 24 hours. I am just glad that I listened to that little inner voice.
Rob is looking forward to lots of steaks and spinach. He figures he should get something good out of this. :D
I got up early the next morning, stopped at Starbucks and got us both lattes thinking he'd be up and raring to go. I walked into his room and didn't recognize him. His blood pressure had dropped and his abdomen was distended. I immediately forgot all about the Starbucks. Nurses were everywhere, and it wasn't long before Rob was transfered to ICU. A cat scan showed internal bleeding. (I thought that was what it was when I saw him--he looked like he had swallowed a bowling ball) He was given blood tranfusions--a total of 6 units in two days.
He was rushed in for an angiogram, and the doctors were able to stop the bleeding without another surgery. A small artery had been hit with one of the tacks from the mesh from the hernia surgery. It didn't start bleeding until after he was closed up. Actually the pressure of starting the angiogram stopped the bleeding, so they had to play around with the dyes to find the exact spot and fix it. Because I had so many treatments in that department with those doctors and nurses, I was allowed in the room before the procedure and then when they were figuring out how to procede. I saw what artery it was and exactly what had happened. There was no way it was surgeon error. The artery was tiny.
Rob stayed until Friday night. He did really well and is now on iron supplements because his iron is low. The hernia surgery worked, and he is feeling much better from that. The surgeon said that definitely needed to be done. (I felt really guilting about insisting that Rob get them fixed. The surgeon assured me that the surgery was the right call.)
I am so glad that Rob did not go home the night of his surgery. Our city does not have ambulance service to the hospital that we use, and it would have been a nightmare. I know that I would have know that something was definitely wrong when he woke up, but his recovery would have been a lot more severe. It was really scary for the first 24 hours. I am just glad that I listened to that little inner voice.
Rob is looking forward to lots of steaks and spinach. He figures he should get something good out of this. :D