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I had complications after surgery...HAPPY HAPPY UPDATE #8!!!

848 views 10 replies 8 participants last post by  abclan 
#1 ·
Hi all,
I posted here last week about my fear pre-hysterectomy. I had the surgery as scheduled on Tuesday. All went well, as far as anyone knew immediately post-surgery. It was a vaginal hyst, so no abdominal cutting, which of course makes recovery much easier. After I came out of surgery, I was in massive pain, way more than would be expected, and they couldn't get it under control.
They even gave me ketamine, which I find it hard to believe people actually do for fun, because I found it profoundly unpleasant. But anyway, ultimately they gave me an epidural, which I found funny and ironic since I had all three of my babies w/o any of this, but anyway, that's neither here nor there. The epidural didn't really work; the narcotics ultimately depressed my respiration and my sats dropped into the sixties, etc., etc., etc. The whole, typical not-good post-surgical scenario.

So Wednesday, I wasn't getting better, but worse. Could barely stand, I was so dizzy. My pulse was pounding so loud in my head it made me nauseous. My head hurt so bad, I couldn't open my eyes or turn my head. I've never for one minute in my life felt as bad as I did that day. My blood pressure was way low, heart rate high, sats low. Nothing was right. I couldn't stay awake, but I couldn't really fall asleep, either, if you KWIM. Misery, I tell ya'.

So they had moved me from ICU (where I went after surgery because it was the only place they could monitor an epi) after they took out the epi (because it was never in right and didn't work) to the postpartum floor, because that was the only place they had room for me. I don't have much nice to say about most of the nurses I had while I was there (but I'll save those rants for my blog; I'll leave it at this for now
) but the one I had that day was great. She called the doctor and told him things were just not right with me. Then the fun really started. I suddenly got much sicker, puking everywhere, dizzy even when laying down, couldn't have the lights on. So back to ICU I go, lots of tests. The Foley catheter was returned, oh happy happy joy joy. Gotta love a little catheter action in the wee hours on a Thursday morning. My DH was with me, and we called my mom sometime after midnight to come help make decisions (she's a nurse), and it was good to have them both there to help take care of me.

So here's the thing. When I did my pre-op blood work, my hemoglobin was 14 and my hematocrit was 40. By Wednesday evening, my H & H were 7 and 16. So obviously I was bleeding. They finally found a huge hematoma during a cat scan (FTR, I don't enjoy a cat scan.). So I got four units of blood (funny story: my sister works for united blood services. We talked a few weeks before surgery about banking some of my own blood and some of hers (ours is the same type) before the surgery, but we decided that would be silly because there was no way I'd need it for such a simple surgery.
), which made me feel a little better right away, and my blood levels stayed steady, so they knew that I'd stopped bleeding. Thank goodness, because the procedure they were going to do if the bleeding didn't stop on its own made me
. My surgeon figures that one of his sutures came loose and let all that blood through.
:

What a miserable experience. I came home this morning, Saturday. Now I have a huge job to do to rebuild myself. There's also the task of breaking down and dealing with the blood that's trapped low in my pelvis, as well as repairing my guts after massive doses of IV abx. I need to know what I may be missing in my plan. Links are appreciated.

*To start, the basics: a wide variety of whole, organic foods. Emphasis on leafy greens and quality proteins. I'm not normally a big eater of red meat, but I was thinking it might be good for now to eat a small piece of beef each day. I'll eat something high in vit c with every meal. For now I can barely eat at all, but am trying to eat a little something every couple of hours.

*An iron supplement. What's best? Easiest to absorb? Easiest to tolerate? Least likely to make me horribly constipated? What about spirulina? In addition to? Instead of? Not at all?

*Active culture yogurt, a couple hours before or after any iron foods, once or twice a day, and probiotics capsules. What probiotics would be best? Should I use more than one kind? How many per day?

Is there anything I can do to help my body deal with this blood? Apparently (and surprisingly), blood is an irritant when it gets into the wrong place in the body and is the reason I had such massive pain after surgery. I don't know how long it will take my body to break it all down, but if there's something I can do to speed up the process I'd like to do it. I'm going to take a food-based prenatal vitamin, too, and of course I'll be drinking lots and lots of fluids, resting, and getting up and walking little bits as much as is comfortable.

Anyway, sorry that was so long. I'd appreciate any advice/links that anyone has for me. I may not be able to respond here for awhile; right now my crit is still below 25, so I'm sleeping most of the time. When I get the energy to sit here again, though, I'll use the info that I hope you all will share with me to make a list for my DH or my mom to take to the store and get what I need.

TIA, and thanks to all who posted hugs and well-wishes to the post I made before the surgery.
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#2 ·
Hi Uptownzoo,

First of all, so sorry you went through such terrible pain and complications.

Your recovery plan sounds good. Definitely add some high quality red meat to your diet daily. Lamb or beef would be good. If you can stomach organ meats, chicken or beef liver would also be good.

As for an iron supplement, there is one called Iron Extra by Vitanica that is easily absorbed and doesn't cause constipation. There are also some other good ones out there, some are even in liquid form.

There is also a Chinese herbal formula called Women's Precious or Ba Zhen Tang (not Ba Zheng Tang - this one is for UTIs). It will help build up your blood and your energy level.

Definitely add some ascorbic acid to your daily supplements.

A high quality probiotic is a definite yes after those antibiotics!!!! I like Seroyal's probiotics but there are also many other good ones out there.

To get that blood out of your pelvis, I'd recommend taking some turmeric capsules. Aside from being a great anti-inflammatory, it helps bruises clear up quicker and helps heal from injuries and is used for these types of problems in ayurvedic medicine...so having blood where it doesn't belong is kind of like a bruise and the hematoma was a bruise, so I think the turmeric will definitely help.

Well, good luck and I hope you feel better soon.
 
#3 ·
I am going to suggest mega doses of vitamin C in the form of sodium ascorbate, I would take a gram an hour until bowel tolerance and then cut back slightly to where you aren't having runny poos. I would also take a potent probiotic, and at least 10,000 ius of vitamin A and a good amount of vitamin D, the best way to get this is with high vitamin Cod liver oil (Green Pastures brand is one of the best). For iron, really the best source is liver. I realize this is probably more than you could do, but taking it raw is really the best way, you could put it in some sort of smoothie to hide the taste.

I am so sorry you have had such a hard time and wish you all the best for your healing.
 
#6 ·
Humans don't produce their own ascobic acid in the liver unlke just about every other mammal When the body has been stressed it rapidly uses what AA we have. Animals that produce their own up production greatly. We humans can't do that so need to take in more.

From Robert F Cathcart, MD

http://www.orthomed.com/titrate.htm

Quote:
Swelling and pain from trauma, surgery, and burns are markedly reduced by bowel tolerance doses of ascorbic acid.

Quote:
Anyone who has done animal surgery other than on humans is impressed by the rapid recovery rate. Humans loaded with ascorbate would appear to recover similarly to the animals which make their own ascorbate in response to stress. In the past, vitamin C administered to patients in hospitals post-operatively has been in trivial amounts never exceeding several grams. I predict that reimplantations of major amputations, even transplant surgeries, and especially fine surgeries of the eyes, ears, or fingers will enjoy a phenomenal increase in success rate when ascorbate is utilized in doses of 100 grams or more per 24 hours.

The limited stress-coping mechanisms of humans seems to be the result of rapid ascorbate depletion. With surgery this leads to vascular thrombosis, hemorrhage, infection, edema, drug reactions, shock, adrenal collapse with limited adrenaline and steroid production, etc.
The above article also explains how to dose to bowel tolerance.
 
#7 ·
Sending you hugs and prayers, others have covered the best ways to rebuild your system but it will take time. I suffered an abdominal Hematoma when my son was born(due to a placentala abruption and c-section) and I remember the pain far to clearly, I had never and haven't since experianence pain that bad and I certainly feel for you. Try some sort of natural anti-inflamitory, if that dosn;t work the to be honest a dose of Motrin or Naproxin may help. Inflamation slows healing and if you can keep that to a minamun then your healing will be faster (these are lessons learned after 3c/s)
 
#8 ·
I went back to the dr. yesterday because my pain had increased. Turns out I have an infection starting, which doesn't surprise me in the least. After a major bleed requiring a transfusion, a collapsed lung, acute anemia, and unbearable pain, what else would be the next step?
:

But anyway, my dr. called me today with the results of the labs he did yesterday. Now, my crit one week ago today was 17. When I was discharged from the hospital on Saturday it was 26. Pre-op, it was a very happy 40. I have been very concerned about getting my crit up because, although I'm very motivated, know what to do, and got some great advice here, I'm so sick and nauseous so much of the time that I've barely been eating. All I've been able to tolerate are apple juice and apple sauce, baked potato, tapioca pudding, strawberries, and puffed rice cereal. And bland and simple as all that is, and in spite of the fact that I eat tiny amounts every 1-2 hours, I've even barfed up some of that. So imagine my surprise when my dr. told me today that my crit is 37!!! Holy cow! He (the dr.) laughed a little and said my bone marrow was the most efficient he's ever seen.

I was so ready for a little good news.
 
#11 ·
naking

Uptownzoo - I've been wondering how your surgery went! That's one heck of story. You're body has gone through so much - but glad to hear things are improving.
I am learning a lot over in the Traditional Foods forum - check out there for some ideas on nutritional recovery. it sounds like you have a lot of great family support. Take it easy and let them take care of you!

Keep us posted.

 
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