The extravagant belly pain that brought me to the Mayo’s ER turned out to be a bowel obstruction caused by scar tissue from an old appendectomy. Fortunately, the docs were able to fix it laparoscopically — that was not a given when I was rolled off to the ER.
At any rate, the surgery is done and apparently successful. I’m still stuck here and getting more & more miserable.
Main source of misery is that I can’t get them to remove a nasal-gastric tube that’s no longer needed and is increasingly uncomfortable & painful. They stuck this down my gullet to relieve the excruciating pain from the obstruction by suctioning out all food & such in the stomach & gut. It worked. But now the gut is empty — I haven’t had anything to eat or drink since Thursday morning — but I can’t get them to take it out. I can’t get the floor nurses to get a doctor’s permission to remove it.
So that’s fairly horrible.
Meanwhile, the rest of my life is going to hell on a handcart. The summer session is winding to an end and student p apetrs are coming in. The monsoon dirt storms are also rolling in, meaning catastrophic messes in the pool and no one there to clean it up. My bills are going unpaid. Fortunately most are on autopay, but AMEX isn’t… It’s a fuckin’ nightmare.
The church has a woman who does its healthcare ministry. She used to be a nurse at the Mayo. I’m going to see if she can advocate for me. First I’ve gotta get this tube out of my throat and then I’ve gotta get out of this place.
Having the tube still in IS fairly miserable. You just have to endure til it comes out – and you can throw a bit of a fit while you are enduring. Best of luck!
Strangely enough, a similar thing happened to my brother-in-law about ten years ago: adhesions from a childhood appendectomy. I’m glad to hear you were a candidate for laparoscopic surgery. Now to get that NG tube removed! Best wishes for a speedy recovery.