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.
:
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.
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
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.
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.