jbird1972
Update to the still Loooong journey
Jan 12, 2009
I just want to start off by saying that a reversal is the LAST thing I wanted, and through all of this it is the only regret that I have, I don't regret doing it to make myself well, I just regret having to do it because then you fall into a place where you sometimes feel like you don't belong to either group...not that we always need to belong, but anyone who has been through this can understand. Since my reversal 11/3/08 at University of Chicago (under the care of a wonderful doctor, Dr. Alverdy...both of my surgeons have been great, really), I was still suffering with these intermittent small bowel obstructions, and I do mean suffering because they were coming out of nowhere, at any time, and I work in the ER and it happened to me at work a few times and it's hard to just say, oh I need to go pace for a while and throw up, but I have the best co-workers around so they made it possible somehow. I struggled to get through the holidays, in the ER over Thanksgiving, made it through the family visits over Christmas, and ended up back in the ER 12/28/08. The elusive small bowel obstruction showed itself on film, which is a feat in itself as anyone with this problem knows they are usually camera shy for us. I didn't have any bowel sounds at all, and that is a bad thing. They helped me out with nausea/pain, and I thought I would be seeing my original surgeon the next morning, but who knew he was on vacation
Once I realized that he would not be able to care for me, I asked my husband to send my surgeon at U of C an email, and I called his office myself from my hospital room. While I was waiting for his call back, I did see the covering surgeon, both of them, and they were convinced that it was just my gallbladder (they had rustled up an old ultrasound that was done in Feb 2008, which did show stones), and that even though I had no bowel sounds, there was nothing wrong with my intestine, and one of them even called me before I was transferred to U of C by ambulance to tell me not to let the other surgeon touch my small intestine. I know I am making this a long story, but if you are going through something medical, you do need to listen to the experts, but you have to listen to your own body, your own intuition to tell you which experts you need to listen to. I think there was someone else on here that said it best, to remember that they say that people "practice" medicine, it is always evolving and no one knows everything all the time. On 01/02/09 I had my gallbladder removed (laparoscopically), and adhesions removed that were interfering with a piece of small bowel. If I had stayed at the other hospital, I would have left with the same problems I started with, and another surgery. I have only been home a few days, and I have the usual post-op pain/nausea, but we are watching the nausea...I think the next game plan, if it continues, involves investigating if I have Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunction, let's hope we can just get past this and be done.
I never took it lightly to have my surgery reversed, quite the opposite. Anytime we have surgery, just the effects of anesthesia wreak havoc on your system, the depression, fatigue, nausea, hair loss, the list goes on. Take care, and I hope all of you that are struggling find a resolution in this new year!
