ULCER
sorry for the long post but thought you all would like the info:
Well I need to update and tell you all I just had a really big scare! I just got out of the hospital !
Heres what happened: On wednesday 02-09-2005 I got up about 8am and was feeling really crappy. I had to go to the bathroom so I went and sat down on the stool and proceded to pass about a quart of blood rectally. I then passed out. I woke up and yelled for Carol to call 911. She saw that my eyes were rolled back in my head so she called 911. The firemen arrived in about 5 minutes, put me on oxygen, took my vitals and then the EMT's arrived and hooked me up to all this stuff.
They asked me which hospital I prefered I said "Mercy" and one of the fireman said that would have been his first choice also ? They picked me up and as they were carrying me to the stretcher I said they should be glad it wasnt a year earlier and I weighed 350 instead of the 175 I now weigh. They said it was no problem, they had just picked up a guy that weighed 400.
They got me on the stretcher and into the ambulance and man was it cold in there. They started an IV and off we went to the hospital, got to the hospital where I was seen by a Dr David Smith. He ordered all these tests and called Dr. Thomas.
The tests showed I had indeed lost alot of blood and I need a transfusion. They sent me to ICU.
In ICU I got 2 units of blood, and Dr Thomas came in to see me. He said a Dr Neumann ( a gastrointeroligist ) would see me in a awhile. Dr4. Neumann ran the scope down me and found a small bleeding ulcer at the end of my pouch. He sprayed it and cauterized it and said they needed to observe me for about 72 hours. Dr. Thomas said he thinks the ulcer was caused by the Bextra I was taking for arthritis. I was in ICU and they kept doing blood tests and my hemo count was improving every time.
Thursday they said I could go to a regular room, but there were no rooms available at the time so I was stuck in ICU until friday, when I finally got a regular room. It was nice to be in a regular room, I was finally able to get some sleep, although not much.
Saturday I saw Dr. Neumanns associate and he released me to go home that afternoon. I am now home and feeling pretty good. They gave me a couple of prescriptions, one for Carafate and another for Protonix, both ulcer medications. I havent taken any of my other prescriptions that I normally take so I will wait on them until I see my PSP Dr Parkison.
Thanks to all that called me or Carol while I was in the hospital, your thoughts and prayers were really appreciated.Well all is well for now, I am feeling pretty good.
God, Mark, I had no idea. Thank God you are ok now. Your story is a very stark reminder of how delicate our new "plumbing" systems really are and how vigilent we must be in deciding what to "dump" in these pouches, including food choices as well as medicines. My doctor wanted to put me on Bextra about 8 months ago for severe arthritic pain in my shoulder and hip. Because of all the bad press lately, I refused to take any of those type of medicines. He was not happy with me but let me make the choice - he said the "bad press" was all political and economically driven. I said I didn't want to take that chance. Did start taking tylenol with codeine at night, though, and started having very terrible pains about 15 minutes after I took them, every night -- so I stopped that as well. Now I just live with the pain. I am just so thankful you are ok. Please take good care of yourself. Take care and God bless. Maureen
Hey Mark.... That's one scary story!!
I'm sorry that you had to go through an ordeal like that and I'm so glad to hear that you are OK now. Thanks for sharing your experience with us. Your story just reminds us that we need to be extremely careful about the types of medication we use now. This is an issue that worries me greatly. I'm trying to educate myself about what medication is safe and what isn't. There seems to be a lot of conflicting information out there and sorting it all out is challenging! By the way, I looked at your profile....Man have you done a great job!! Keep up the great work and stay healthy!!
Mike
Mark.
I just wanted you to know how grateful I am they found your ulcer (hiding in the bottom) before it was too late. My life partner of 35 years died last August because they couldn't detect his ulcer. They thought he might be having a pulmonary embulism following gall bladder surgery so they gave him blood thinners preventively. He died in a few short hours, the bleed was profound from the ulcer they couldn't detect (even with a cat scan and other tests). Ulcers in the tied off area of our stomachs can hide. His situation was magnified by pancreatic gall bladder infection ..which is a very infected gall bladder that showed up 11 mos after his bypass surgery (it was fine before surgery so they didn't remove it then). I am not sure how they can detect the ulcers unless we have symptoms like you did, but they can be incredibly life-threatening. Terry
Thanks y'all. I did start taking some stuff called Move Free, it has MSM ,Glucosmine and Chrondroitin. I also started taking SAM e . They stopped all my prescription medications while I was in the hospital. My blood pressure is fine so no more blood pressure medicine. No more Bextra (of course) . No more clarinex(for allergies) and no more allopurinall(for gout) . So far I am doing just fine without them.
Wow.
How scary is that! I feel for you though as I was also diagnosed with an ulcer about 3 months after surgery and just last month finally was able to get off the ulcer meds. My symptoms were not even close drama wise as yours, I got lucky. My friend who had surgery about 4 months after I did also was diagnosed with a bleeding ulcer, she was vomiting blood not pretty. Ulcers are the most common side effect or complication my surgeon said. I have always felt lucky that that is the only complication that I have had, and after your story feel even more lucky that it was caught very early.
Get better,
Leslie P
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