Brother back in the hospital

Carol Reed

In Memoriam
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Location
Coolidge, AZ
This time he needs gall bladder surgery. You all know what you do best and I thank you. I'll keep you posted. First, I have to get things together here so I can be gone for a while. I can work on the book project during the long waiting times ahead.
 
As Bob noted today it's a much more straightforward, certainly a more reduced invasive procedure compared to when I had mine removed (7" incision) in 1979 (?). Was playing golf in 5 days, although carefully & with only a 5 iron & putter.
Best wishes.
 
Had mine out three years ago. They used the scope. 4 very small incisions, closed with glue (no stitching).

Went into hospital at 5:30 a.m., and was home in time for lunch. They gave me two Vicodan tablets in recovery, an I took one more about six hours later. After that, all I need was Tylenol for a couple days.

I was back to whatever passes as 'normal' for me (see my avatar :rolleyes: ) within three days.
 
I made it to the hospital today. Still no surgery though that needs to happen. Seems the OR team is a bit freaked by his brain tumor surgery two weeks ago. Go figure. :huh: :doh: :rolleyes:

First have get a neurologist, the a cat scan of the head, then an MRI of the gall bladder. Then a consult of all parties, and THEN maybe surgery. He is on the happy drugs to keep pain at bay and tons of antibiotics. But he is not a happy camper. Me either.
 
Carol,
Understand your frustrations... my wife is still in the nursing center from Dec 09, when she came down with a septic blood infection, then developed an ulcer on the side of her foot that had to be drained and treated, after 2 weeks in the hospital, they put in a port in her chest to infuse the antibiotics, then sent her to the nursing center for an 8 week course of antibiotics and rehab.... when the infectious disease doctor released her to the nursing center, he told us that he wanted to see her back in a couple of weeks for another MRI on her back where they think the infection started, but in his orders he only suggested she have the MRI, so the nursing center never scheduled on... the surgeon that lanced her foot and put in the port, ordered her back to his office for an MRI on her foot and to follow up, then decided she needed to see an orthopedic doctor because he saw fluid build up in her foot.... fortunately, the orthopedic was the same doctor that did her hip replacement in 2008... he didn't see anything in her foot.... in our meeting with him, she told him about the pain she was having in her back... no one had addressed the back pain yet... he told us he didn't do backs, but would arrange an MRI on the back and have one of his colleagues take a look.. they did the MRI which showed a narrowing of the spine in the L4-L5 region and released her back to the nursing center.... when the colleague looked at it, he ordered her back to the hospital for immediate surgery and a biopsy of the spine area... they were planning to operate the next day, but we realized that she is on a pretty heavy dose of coumadin - blood thinner - and so the surgery was postponed a week while they took her off that... on arrival at the hospital the orthopedic colleague that does backs, decided that surgery wasn't needed, but he would do the biopsy... which they did and it showed that the infection was still in her system, but when they tried to grow cultures from the biopsy, nothing would grow, so evidently the infection has subsided, but meantime, they found "vegetation" on her mitral valve and the valve was leaking... they sent her to still another hospital in case she needed a valve replacement where she lay for 2 weeks while they watched that... the cardiologist decided that while the valve was leaking, it was possible that it could have been leaking for years and wasn't severe enough to put her through heart surgery, but she still needed another 8 weeks of antibiotics.... so she's back to the nursing center for that.... and so far no one has effectively addressed the back pain..... on March 09, she will have been in the hospital/nursing center 3 months and is still in pain. When she is finally released, we're still going to have to find someone to address the back issue.... from all symptoms and what I can find on the internet (and I know we shouldn't try to diagnose ourselves - but some one has to)... it sounds like a pinched nerve in the same region as the narrowing and where the infection was.... they have her on some heavy drugs for the pain, but she can't and doesn't want to live on drugs.

Sorry for the rant and hijacking your thread.... keeping your brother in my thoughts and prayers...
 
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