September 9th surgery

[Doodles]

Jess--Poor little Sparky! Hope he's doing better soon. I have a 10 pound fur ball too--malteze/shihtzu. Don't know what we'd do without our little Oliver since our 4 girls are now all married! 3 little grandchildren DO help--the latest little girl is a month old today. Janet

[rohrer01]

just spoke to Marc at 2 p.m. CA time...
Melissa is in ICU...all her lines are out...
she should be moved to a regular room soon...
she was not up to talking on phone yet, but i heard her
talking to Marc in the background, while i communicated with him...

i asked when to call back, and she said "tomorrow"
Marc said Melissa is doing OK until the pain meds wear out...
as long as the meds are on schedule, she is doing OK...

i will call them again tomorrow and see how she is doing, and
maybe find out why they operated on her spine instead of her
neck.

jess...and Sparky

Jess, it might sound cruel because Sparky's mouth is sore, but you can just shove the pill to the back of his throat and hold his snout shut then gently rub his throat. It forces them to swallow. You can hide it in a very small piece of cheese and do the same. It might make it go down easier. I think a quarter of a tramadol is too small to use a pill shooter. If the vet okays it, baby aspirin is safe for dogs. I gave my 5# Chihuahua a quarter of a baby aspirin every 4 hours when she got burned. She actually started associating the pill with the relief and would come to me and whine and nudge me if she was in pain. She would eat it right out of my hand once she made the association. Just a thought. Maybe call the vet tomorrow if he's in pain and ask about it. It seems to work better as a pain reliever for dogs than it does for humans. Go figure.

[jrnyc]

well, after a couple of days of life getting in the way...
i can't reach Melissa's husband...
i call and get voice mail...
i called early Friday and late Friday...
so i do not know how Melissa is doing...
i do not know why he is not answering his phone...
so i left my cell phone number on his voice mail...

jess

[JenniferG]

Thanks for trying Jess. I hope Melissa is recovering well and she's on her way back to a better life.

[golfnut]

Jess,
Thanks for the updates. I hope you hear from Mark soon and the news is that Melissa is doing well.

[Susie*Bee]

Thanks for trying so hard, Jess. We are all looking forward to hearing. We appreciate your efforts!

[jrnyc]

spoke to Marc this morning...
he said Melissa is still in hospital, should be going to rehab next week...
of course, nothing will happen on wkend...
he said she is off IV, and has alot of pain in her back.
she said the doctors do think she looks straighter...
when i asked why they cannot control the pain, i heard
Melissa in the background...then Marc said she Melissa has an ileus...
so if they medicate her more...well, you all know what happens
with pain meds...

i will call again tomorrow...
i sent best regards to Melissa from everyone at forum...

jess...and Sparky

[rohrer01]

I was given a strong antibiotic notorious for upsetting the gut when I had my ileus. I wonder if that would be worth mentioning. Mine was bad enough that I spiked a fever. I had it for a few days before I broke down and went to the doctor, where it was confirmed by x-ray. It was VERY hard to swallow anything, since the ileus makes you extremely nauseated. The ER nurse urged me to try one more pill before coming in (it's an hour drive for us and we had a little one to take care of). Within a half hour of taking that last pill, I felt my bowel unkink and my fever went away immediately. I can honestly say that an ileus is one of the most unpleasant side effects of surgery. My sympathies to Melissa. They should still treat her pain somehow, even if they have to sedate her with nonconstipating meds. It's so awful of a predicament to be in. =(

[titaniumed]

They have medications for ileus.....

If she is off the IV, they are of course cutting back some, the weaning process....

The transition to orals is hard, and its painful. Like Melissa has said in the past, the injectable morphine is the ticket. Anything less results in pain. Once you get used to the good stuff, weaning is hard. We don’t know her procedure, but chances are they removed bone which is very painful.

Poor thing....I just cant imagine going through all that she has done.
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Lori posted the other day in the “I’m sorry I had surgery section”. I have been feeling so sad about her situation, and have not sent a PM to her, I don’t know what to say. Sigh. Crushing news like this shuts me down. I needed to say something about her situation.

Ed

[rohrer01]

Yes, unfortunately an ileus is NOT about constipation. It's a twisted ileum (part of the small bowel) and they do have medication for it. Like I said, I was treated with oral meds, but IV meds are the next step. If her ileus doesn't resolve, they may have to reinsert a new IV and treat her that way. Regardless, they should keep her pain in check, especially now. An ileus, in and of itself, is a very painful condition. To have that on top of post surgical pain may be an indication for a one step backward on the weaning process. Of course I'm not there to advocate for her. If it were me, I would insist. There's no reason to allow her to suffer.

[Susie*Bee]

I guess I am being dumb here, but if she has an ileus, then I'm assuming she is off all liquids and foods, so why are they concerned with constipation? I had an ileus for 5 days, Ed had one for what -- 11 days (?) but I don't think it affected any of the pain medicine. At least it didn't with me. Maybe I'm reading the post wrong. Poor Melissa. Murphy's Law strikes again.

[Pooka1]

To my knowledge, ileus is a decreased motility of the gut (lack of peristalsis) so that contents are not advanced. There is no physical obstruction like a twist. Narcotics cause the ileus in fusion patients to my knowledge but there may also be some cause in the actual surgery... I don't know.

Pain associated with ileus is entirely self inflicted per my understanding. If you restrict all food and liquid until motility returns, there is no pain (though there is thirst and possibly hunger). I do not think there is a single case anywhere when the patient had pain but did not eat/drink. It is only among the people who eat/drink before the gut motility returns.

It is a mystery to me why some surgeons are not strict about this given the predictable agony people are in if they eat/drink with an ileus. Our surgeon was very strict and there was never any pain due to the 3-day ileus each of my daughters had. They were thirsty but never hungry during that time.

[Pooka1]

Also, it is my understanding that EVERYONE who gets this or any major surgery and goes on narcotics at a certain level will get an ileus. How long it lasts is controlled by physiological reactions and med usage to my knowledge. Both my daughters had an ileus that lasted three days. They were not allowed anything by mouth until guy sounds returned. No tummy pain whatsoever.

[LindaRacine]

It is a mystery to me why some surgeons are not strict about this given the predictable agony people are in if they eat/drink with an ileus. Our surgeon was very strict and there was never any pain due to the 3-day ileus each of my daughters had. They were thirsty but never hungry during that time.

I think it's because, while an ileus can be incredibly painful, there is very little morbidity involved. There is a lot of morbidity in patients who do not eat or drink ASAP after surgery.

Patients who go into surgery already on narcotics seem to have a much harder time than those who don't, probably because narcotics users are typically chronically constipated.

[Pooka1]

I think it's because, while an ileus can be incredibly painful, there is very little morbidity involved. There is a lot of morbidity in patients who do not eat or drink ASAP after surgery.

Wow. Tough trade off.

What is the morbidity of not eating/drinking (but having an IV) for a few days?