C
Car_Fan
Guest
Well I’m new here my name is Carl and I’m 21 years of age from the UK and I have a bit of a lengthy essay about this so bear with me! hehe.
I first started suffering from crohnes at the age of 19, however I lived with for 2 years back and forth to the hospital and my GP before I started dramatically losing weight at the latter part of 2007, I went from 10.5 stone before all the problems started to 7 stone and I’m 6ft. I was sent back into the hospital for further tests. A CT Scan, Barium follow through and a white cell scan. They all confirmed the inflammation had caused my lower intestine to fuse to my large intestine, it also confirmed there was a lot of inflammation around the ileum (a common place I was told for crohnes to attack).
Anyway I was admitted to hospital and put on intravenous steroids (hydrocortisone) to be precise and all this time I knew not much would improve without some sort of surgical intervention. After being in hospital for a week I was discharged and I spent the next few weeks in the house trying to recover.
My condition took a turn for the worst, over time the large and small bowel found its way down to the bladder, fused with it and it ruptured it was agony passing water and it wasn’t until I felt air pass out after the water I knew what had happened other wise it would have put it down to a server water infection.
I was scheduled to see my GP and specialist around the time it happened at my local hospital and doctors surgery, I took a bottle of my urine in to show then and they knew thinks were bad with out so much as needing to even test it.
It was Tuesday the 15th of April when I seen the specialist, he immediately said we need to get you in for surgery I had sepsis and I had it for a while the only other alternative would be to avoid surgery and let the sepsis continue causing organ failure but I knew id need surgery and wanted surgery, I knew it would be the only thing to give me a chance of recovery and quality of life because medication wasn’t going to magically un-join my mangled intestines.
I went down to theatre on Thursday the 17th after talking to the surgeon and anaesthetists, they explained exactly what they were going to do but I still felt a bit nervous I can relate to another member(freddo) saying it’s a very lonely journey the ride on the trolley knowing your edging closer to maybe a solution or catastrophe(at least that’s what was going on in my head)
The anaesthetist gave me option of pain relief either an epidural or a machine that feed me morphine at the press of a button, stupidly I choose the epidural. When in the anaesthetics room they prepped me for the small tube in my back and they started easing it in but there were problems…. It caught a nerve and each movement sent electric like shocks all through my body despite the whole area being numbed prior to this It hurt like hell and eventually I said I want the morphine and the anaesthetist agreed, after the tube was removed I was sent under(almost like a feeling of being drunk and euphoria if you can get past the slight stingy sensation as the cold anaesthetic enters into your veins bit it was no biggy at all).
I remember waking up and having to give the nurse a pain scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the worst I was around an 8-9 and pressing the morphine button like it was going out of fashion (even though it only administers 1mg every 5 minutes to avoid you overdosing it made me feel better in the mind and the pain eventually resided. I was taken up to the ward and it was the first time I had a chance to look at what was attached to me. Unfortunately it was a lot worse my insides that what I would have in thought so in order for my large intestine to heal I need a temporary illiostomy stoma bag, they couldn’t simply stitch the holes back up as the surgeon said they were the size of 50 pence pieces (about an inch wide) so they needed a cutting away and resection, I also needed some of the bladder taken away which meant a catheter was placed into the bladder taking the unfortunate route of going up my you know what(id be later told id have this in for no less than 12 days to allow my bladder to heal and it would only be removed if the x-ray gave the all clear). I had a tube up my nose into my stomach draining bile out which was taken out next day as well as your usual drips and oxygen mask….
My days of recovery went fantastically well, the stoma wasn’t and issue and I was healing well. Getting in and out of bed and the physio terrorist dragging me out to walk was agony, sheer agony, I had to contend with drips on me, a catheter hanging off me as well as two blood and bile bags connected to 2 unforgiving plastic tubes that run from one side of my body to the other internally stitched in place where they enter the body at the left side. As the days went on the drips were removed as well as the drain bags and once I got over the fact I no long had the morphine things got easier.
The only problems after this was not related to the surgery as such, I had stool left in me (weather or not they could prep me properly due to the joins and holes in my insides remains a mystery or weather or not it was basically emergency surgery so it was rushed who knows) how ever I was passing what felt like granite during my weekend release at home not to mention the catheter tube giving me a constant sensation of me needing to urinate all the time it drove me mental.
I was back in hospital the Sunday night and at 4am next morning I brought it to the attention my catheter bag wasn’t filling, they changed the bag and tube to see if that made a difference and I went back to sleep. Waking up time my bag was still woefully empty and I felt I needed to go, I sat in my chair and my leg wobbled and it was constantly on my mind I keep asking the nurses when I was going down for my x-ray and this went on for about 4 hours until I was told at noon I may not get the x-ray that day as they ‘don’t do them that particular day, only Fridays’ but I was assured id get it at the latest next day if they couldn’t ‘fit me in’ I was livid and obviously in distress, the pain was creping up.
Normally if the catheter was blocked they would jet the tube with a bit sterile water to unblock it problem solved. However due to my bladder having surgery on it this was impossible they couldn’t and wouldn’t go near any procedure like that until after the x-ray gave the all clear so I was in a no win situation. Sadly it got to the point where I couldn’t take it anymore and while changing to a leg bag catheter in the toilet water started agonisingly bypassing the thin tube as I sat on the toilet trying to control it but it was past the point of no return, I now had to sit 2 hours needing to pass urine until my mother who arrived for visiting pushed for me to go down and get the emergency x-ray they had to fit me into outpatients. On the bed in the x-ray room dye was pushed up into my bladder (filling it more) and I had to move my body on the x-ray table so the Dr could get good pictures all the while needing to pass water. After I had finished the bag was reattached and I couldn’t pass the water and dye out my system the Dr had to use the syringe to pull out the dye and blockage then reattach the catheter tube, I got back on the ward and in my chair and my god sheer relief and total relaxation I passed water freely for the next 3 hours until I was told It was safe to remove the catheter thank the lord. I also had the staples removed and given the all clear I was healing up nicely and I had made a good recovery. I was discharged the next day with all my medications for pain relief and also medication that I’m thinking helps keep this thing at bay.
I’m feeling great and I do think my situation goes a bit beyond your standard resection procedure so I wouldn’t worry about it if you’re going in for surgery any time soon I no longer have the pains I suffered with Crohns, I had some complications with mine due to the bladder being brought into it but the quality of the surgery and the surgery its self never caused me an issue as such its put me on track to have some quality of life back and for that I’m eternally thankful.
Questions are welcome and sorry for it being a bit long, I though if I’m going to make a post about it I may as well try and include every thing I can.
I first started suffering from crohnes at the age of 19, however I lived with for 2 years back and forth to the hospital and my GP before I started dramatically losing weight at the latter part of 2007, I went from 10.5 stone before all the problems started to 7 stone and I’m 6ft. I was sent back into the hospital for further tests. A CT Scan, Barium follow through and a white cell scan. They all confirmed the inflammation had caused my lower intestine to fuse to my large intestine, it also confirmed there was a lot of inflammation around the ileum (a common place I was told for crohnes to attack).
Anyway I was admitted to hospital and put on intravenous steroids (hydrocortisone) to be precise and all this time I knew not much would improve without some sort of surgical intervention. After being in hospital for a week I was discharged and I spent the next few weeks in the house trying to recover.
My condition took a turn for the worst, over time the large and small bowel found its way down to the bladder, fused with it and it ruptured it was agony passing water and it wasn’t until I felt air pass out after the water I knew what had happened other wise it would have put it down to a server water infection.
I was scheduled to see my GP and specialist around the time it happened at my local hospital and doctors surgery, I took a bottle of my urine in to show then and they knew thinks were bad with out so much as needing to even test it.
It was Tuesday the 15th of April when I seen the specialist, he immediately said we need to get you in for surgery I had sepsis and I had it for a while the only other alternative would be to avoid surgery and let the sepsis continue causing organ failure but I knew id need surgery and wanted surgery, I knew it would be the only thing to give me a chance of recovery and quality of life because medication wasn’t going to magically un-join my mangled intestines.
I went down to theatre on Thursday the 17th after talking to the surgeon and anaesthetists, they explained exactly what they were going to do but I still felt a bit nervous I can relate to another member(freddo) saying it’s a very lonely journey the ride on the trolley knowing your edging closer to maybe a solution or catastrophe(at least that’s what was going on in my head)
The anaesthetist gave me option of pain relief either an epidural or a machine that feed me morphine at the press of a button, stupidly I choose the epidural. When in the anaesthetics room they prepped me for the small tube in my back and they started easing it in but there were problems…. It caught a nerve and each movement sent electric like shocks all through my body despite the whole area being numbed prior to this It hurt like hell and eventually I said I want the morphine and the anaesthetist agreed, after the tube was removed I was sent under(almost like a feeling of being drunk and euphoria if you can get past the slight stingy sensation as the cold anaesthetic enters into your veins bit it was no biggy at all).
I remember waking up and having to give the nurse a pain scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the worst I was around an 8-9 and pressing the morphine button like it was going out of fashion (even though it only administers 1mg every 5 minutes to avoid you overdosing it made me feel better in the mind and the pain eventually resided. I was taken up to the ward and it was the first time I had a chance to look at what was attached to me. Unfortunately it was a lot worse my insides that what I would have in thought so in order for my large intestine to heal I need a temporary illiostomy stoma bag, they couldn’t simply stitch the holes back up as the surgeon said they were the size of 50 pence pieces (about an inch wide) so they needed a cutting away and resection, I also needed some of the bladder taken away which meant a catheter was placed into the bladder taking the unfortunate route of going up my you know what(id be later told id have this in for no less than 12 days to allow my bladder to heal and it would only be removed if the x-ray gave the all clear). I had a tube up my nose into my stomach draining bile out which was taken out next day as well as your usual drips and oxygen mask….
My days of recovery went fantastically well, the stoma wasn’t and issue and I was healing well. Getting in and out of bed and the physio terrorist dragging me out to walk was agony, sheer agony, I had to contend with drips on me, a catheter hanging off me as well as two blood and bile bags connected to 2 unforgiving plastic tubes that run from one side of my body to the other internally stitched in place where they enter the body at the left side. As the days went on the drips were removed as well as the drain bags and once I got over the fact I no long had the morphine things got easier.
The only problems after this was not related to the surgery as such, I had stool left in me (weather or not they could prep me properly due to the joins and holes in my insides remains a mystery or weather or not it was basically emergency surgery so it was rushed who knows) how ever I was passing what felt like granite during my weekend release at home not to mention the catheter tube giving me a constant sensation of me needing to urinate all the time it drove me mental.
I was back in hospital the Sunday night and at 4am next morning I brought it to the attention my catheter bag wasn’t filling, they changed the bag and tube to see if that made a difference and I went back to sleep. Waking up time my bag was still woefully empty and I felt I needed to go, I sat in my chair and my leg wobbled and it was constantly on my mind I keep asking the nurses when I was going down for my x-ray and this went on for about 4 hours until I was told at noon I may not get the x-ray that day as they ‘don’t do them that particular day, only Fridays’ but I was assured id get it at the latest next day if they couldn’t ‘fit me in’ I was livid and obviously in distress, the pain was creping up.
Normally if the catheter was blocked they would jet the tube with a bit sterile water to unblock it problem solved. However due to my bladder having surgery on it this was impossible they couldn’t and wouldn’t go near any procedure like that until after the x-ray gave the all clear so I was in a no win situation. Sadly it got to the point where I couldn’t take it anymore and while changing to a leg bag catheter in the toilet water started agonisingly bypassing the thin tube as I sat on the toilet trying to control it but it was past the point of no return, I now had to sit 2 hours needing to pass urine until my mother who arrived for visiting pushed for me to go down and get the emergency x-ray they had to fit me into outpatients. On the bed in the x-ray room dye was pushed up into my bladder (filling it more) and I had to move my body on the x-ray table so the Dr could get good pictures all the while needing to pass water. After I had finished the bag was reattached and I couldn’t pass the water and dye out my system the Dr had to use the syringe to pull out the dye and blockage then reattach the catheter tube, I got back on the ward and in my chair and my god sheer relief and total relaxation I passed water freely for the next 3 hours until I was told It was safe to remove the catheter thank the lord. I also had the staples removed and given the all clear I was healing up nicely and I had made a good recovery. I was discharged the next day with all my medications for pain relief and also medication that I’m thinking helps keep this thing at bay.
I’m feeling great and I do think my situation goes a bit beyond your standard resection procedure so I wouldn’t worry about it if you’re going in for surgery any time soon I no longer have the pains I suffered with Crohns, I had some complications with mine due to the bladder being brought into it but the quality of the surgery and the surgery its self never caused me an issue as such its put me on track to have some quality of life back and for that I’m eternally thankful.
Questions are welcome and sorry for it being a bit long, I though if I’m going to make a post about it I may as well try and include every thing I can.
