Jasey and me the day before my surgery.
Good day everyone! This post will be a very emotional and eventful one. Having made the decision to go forward with the colostomy surgery, I felt very emotional as the clock was ticking swiftly toward the date; February 21st, 2014. Jasey, my 80 lb dog, had been very comfortable becoming a lap dog also. When I sat down anywhere, she would hop up on my lap as if she were a 5 lb dog. Those days would soon be just a memory..
The whole surgery took 5 hours that day. I had so many tubes hanging from me, I looked and felt like some kind of alien! One of the tubes was a urine catheter. Throughout the surgery, the doctor gave me IV saline, however, there wasn’t any output coming out. The doctors seemed to be worried about this so someone had the bright idea to keep pumping the fluids in me and maybe they could flush me out. This will soon become a huge problem down the road. They kept pumping the fluids in me for 2 days straight and the second night I was there, I woke up in the middle of the night and found it difficult to breath. They had pumped a grand total of 19 bags of IV fluid in me, which in turn gave me pneumonia. I had blown up like the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man!
First thing in the morning, the doctor ordered a butt load of tests to confirm the pneumonia and to check for blood clots. No one could find a vein for another IV that they just removed because I was so swollen. Finally, my surgeon looked at me and told the nurse he thought he could do an EJ on me. Do you know what an EJ is?? EJ stands for External Jugular. I’m gonna say it again, External Jugular. Sorry, couldn’t do it. Let’s just leave it at that less the drama. So, they ended up having to call in a vein specialist to find a vein for the tests they needed.
They decided and I agreed to place a PICC line in my arm for my antibiotics and other meds I needed. PICC stands for Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter. Click here for information on how and when a PICC line should be used. My daughter has a friend who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma when she was 10 years old. What made me agree to the PICC line was me thinking if Katie can be strong and get this, so can I. She was such an inspiration to me at that time and still is.
After my colostomy surgery. Not doing well.
I was placed in ICU for 4 days for my pneumonia. During that time, I had to learn how to change and drain my new colostomy bag. At first I didn’t want anything to do with it. It was as if that wasn’t a part of my body, it was a parasite hanging off me. Later I realized that it wasn’t going anywhere, it was never going to leave my body so I better learn how to take care of this thing. There was this one time I was sitting in a chair changing the bag and I started pooping everywhere! I freaked out as well as my husband. I think I probably broke down in tears after that episode! I also started throwing up after I received my meds because at that time they had me NPO. NPO is latin for nil per os, meaning nothing by mouth. Nothing to eat or nothing to drink. Just IV’s keeping you hydrated. I just needed a little food in my tummy to make it happy!
Looking back now I am happy that I got my colostomy surgery. There is no more sprinting to the bathroom and worrying if I will be able to make or not. I still feel the need to know where the bathrooms are, but it’s not in an emergency situation anymore. I had to learn by trial and error how to properly change my bag and drain it. I’m not going to lie, I was a big ball of mess when I got home and it hit me that I will have to take care of this for the rest of my life. It was scary. My next post will go more in depth about what I went through and how I came out of it a different but better person. Til then, remember to keep smiling and take one day at a time. You have to go through hell sometimes in order to get to the other side! Love you all!
Chow for now!