Yikes! I hope they’re doing Jim’s surgery laproscopically - that’s supposed to really reduce the surgery time as well as the healing time.
I hear ya about the hospitals - at X-mas my mom and dad spent 16 hours at the Foothills emergency room waiting for results that were supposed to be sent over from the Tom Baker Cancer Centre IMMEDIATLY. I suppose within the context of the history of the world 16 hours is fairly immediate, but it sure doesn’t seem immediate when you’re sitting beside someone with Norwalk virus.
I’ll be thinking of him too. Please let us know the outcome as soon as you can.
I had my gall bladder removed about ten years ago laproscopically and compared to the pain beforehand, the surgery and the recovery time were a piece of cake. I went home the same day as the surgery and was up and around the following day. After the procedure was over, the doc told me I had gangrene in it! He also said that the gall bladder was the ‘stinkiest’ surgery; gangrene adds to it. It got that far advanced because of a misdiagnosis by my doc’s nurse practitioner - she thought it was food poisoning. When I finally crawled back to the doc he knew immediately what it was before even taking the blood test.
Here’s an interesting easy-to-read article about the laproscopic gall bladder procedure.
I had a colonoscopy on Monday, and the anesthesia was a new drug. No nausea, no hangover. I don’t know the name of it, but I certainly hope that this is what he gets.
Not at all She was in the special care nursery for a time, and came home most days absolutely furious that many of the other nurses treated the parents terribly, and made it very clear their presence was unwanted.
Hospitals are one thing I never really thought of with Alberta’s boom - you think about infrastructure in terms of transportation or housing, not health care. Now I’m concerned about where Saskatoon is going to be in a year or two. Service is still great here, my uncle went for a checkup and was in for bypass surgery less than two days later (he had to drive in from PA for the checkup, they told him just to stay in the city instead of going home).
Edit: And how could I forget to wish a speedy recovery for Jim?! Get well soon!
Update: Jim’s out of surgery and feeling groggy. He wasn’t able to have the easy surgery; he had to have the big surgery, so he won’t be out of the hospital tomorrow - more like a week now. Jim is pretty out of it and cranky - no surprise there. I’ll be going back tomorrow morning and see how things are going. He was actually up and walking around before I left - I think that was probably a very good sign.
I’m glad to hear that Jim’s through the surgery and seems to be OK. Give him my best and let him know that I do think he’s allowed to be a little cranky after what he’s been through. And I’ll continue to keep you both in my thoughts.
Here’s a question for you:
The gall bladder is for storing bile, right, that the liver is making at a constant rate. The bile gets released when you eat something to help digest the fats in it.
So here you are, not eating for days, and your gall bladder is slowly filling up with caustic bile.
Wouldn’t it be medically beneficial to eat something and move that bile? I guess if the thing was actually infected, maybe not. And not if you were going into surgery in the next 8 hours because of the anesthetic risk. But 36 hours?
I think the not eating for so long (more like 48 hours by the time all was said and done) was just a function of the surgical team needing him to stay empty for the procedure, and then not being able to get the procedure done in a timely fashion. I have to say, although you won’t die from not eating for four days, the hospital staff all had an extremely cavalier attitude towards Jim’s hunger. How about you guys try not eating for four days, and see how you like it? You won’t die either, but I guarantee you that you won’t enjoy it.
Maybe it should stay here. If Jim is in the hospital for a while, then when he starts eating, it will be hospital food–and from what I understand, hospital food always rates a Pitting.
I’m really glad he’s doing okay. I’m also glad to see that you realize that you were probably reacting to stress and that it wasn’t that bad after all. 36 hours without food is torture?
I’m sure the entire process had you ready to pull your hair out, but 36 hours is only a day and a half. Even (per your update) 48 hours isn’t the end of the world.
Sending good thoughts for extra-fast recovery to Calgary!
It’s god-awfully frustrating to be dependent on hospital staff and then have them beig incompetent/unfriendly. I’m currently in the hospital every two weeks, and I’ve started compiling a list of desk staff errors. On my first check-up, they sent me to another department with a little jar of urine; and in the few seconds I came to the desk with my jar and stood waiting for them to label it, they managed to switch my jar with someone elses.
There are two waiting rooms in the ob/gyn ward. Both first times the desk staff sent me to wait in the wrong one, so I missed the doctors call to come in and had to wait longer. After that, I check, double check and check again in which waiting room I’m supposed to be.
There’s more, but let’s leave it at that. It has made sure anyway that when I’m in that hospital, I’m in an angry, faultfinding, me-in-charge empowered mood. Which I guess is better then a subservient thankyouthankyouOhYouGreatHospital mood.
My best friend’s mom had a long labor with no food/drink. Nothing but ice chips. By the time the birth happened she had reached all senses screaming for food. They rolled her to her room, and an orderly brought her lunch, putting it on the table just out of her reach, because a nurse was behind him with her first glimpse of her new baby.
They brought the baby to her, she glanced down and said, “Yeah, that’s nice, now would you take her back and give me my sandwich?”
(My friend is about to have her first baby, so I’ve heard this story from her mom a lot. She made sure her doctor would allow her to eat/drink during labor)
Hope your husband is on the mend soon! (and not everyone gets really sick from anesthesia. I wake up from it starving, thanks to the fasting. My last outpatient surgery I had Burger King on the way home, maybe 2 hours after surgery)
Glad to hear Jim is doing alright featherlou. Hopefully there’s no noisy construction right outside his room to keep him awake when he’d rather be dozing…
She was in the special care nursery for a time, and came home most days absolutely furious that many of the other nurses treated the parents terribly, and made it very clear their presence was unwanted.