final update - ectopic

You can't find lactulose because it's a prescription drug here.

I thought it must be having seen bottles that looked like they had
that in it on the pharmacy shelves. Seems a little wierd, considering
the way most of the things on the shelves are laxatives not just stool
softeners!

You don't wipe from back to front due to the possibility of wiping
bacteria from your gut into your urethra, causing a UTI (one of the
top causers of UTI in women is ecoli). (that said, I've done it, and
I've never had a UTI in my life--knock on wood)

That's why I said "being very careful", if you can't get round the
back to do it, you've got to do it some how or other!

Cheers
Anne

On Jan 13, 12:08*am, Anne Rogers wrote:
Um, yeah. I'm getting nervous. I think I will have some prunes
tonight...as I haven't had a bowel movement since before surgery
Wednesday (tho my system did clean itself out pretty well on Tuesday
night...) Of course I didn't have real food until Friday, but still...
And for TMI - I can't really wipe myself there, as I can't stretch
back without a lot of pain.

not sure why, but codeine is particularly constipating amongst
opiates, as you've had surgery, you should be careful what you use and
probably only try things you've used before. One I personally like is
lactulose solution, but I've not seen it to buy in the US, I had my
MIL bring some over before I had my surgery. Most things that have any
laxative affect send my bowels into overdrive, but senna doesn't and I
decided in advance I was going to take it after number 2 and it worked
great, but it could have been the vast quantities of water I drank
that helped too. I had the same tear reopen and much worse internal
damage to my pelvic floor but that side of things was a non issue
thanks to paying attention to it, when first time I'd had to run a
shallow bath to pee in! Can you get a spray bottle to spritz yourself
down there, or maybe use baby wipes, it's quicker to wipe to less
effort iyswim. You could also do it from the front, being very careful
about it, I can't remember why, but I've definitely resorted to that
option, with no issues.

Well, DH did offer to help should it be necessary, but I wanted to
avoid that...(nice of him to offer though. "For better or worse" and
all that)

I figured out I could take care of it by standing up. Made it easier
to reach. Glad that is resolved!

I had yet another ER trip yesterday though. I had a major dizzy spell,
pain in my right shoulder/neck, shortness of breath. My right arm was
all tingling - not painful but weak. Basically all same symptoms as
Wed when I went into surgery. I knew another ectopic wasn't possible,
but all could be signs of internal bleeding. I hesitated for awhile
but DH insisted I cal my OB's office. The nurse on call said to go to
the ER. This was the same ER where I had the surgery but different
hospital than the prior 2 ER visits. It was no better. Lord I hate
ERs! The doc there must have seen one too many hospital TV shows. He
came in, not even looking at me when he talked and said "You have too
many symptoms. Give me the cliff notes version. What's the worst?" So
I said the dizziness was the main thing. My BP was actually on the
high side for me, which was shocking because Icould barely keep my
head up and kept seeing black spots as I was feeling I was about to
pass out....

Anyway, after doing a very quick exam he walked out of the room. The
LVN comes in to give me an IV and 3 drugs - one for dizziness, one of
nausea, one for pain. Ok, yes I have dizziness but I'd rather find out
what's causing it than have a drug to mask the symptom. Sure I'm in
pain but no more so than usual, that's not why I came in, I don't need
more pain meds. And I'm not even having nausea! The LVN says 'well
the pain meds will cause nausea." WHAT? No, I'm not taking anything. I
want to know *why* he's prescribing them. SO he tell's the doctor. The
RN comes in to discuss it, I tell her why I don't want to take them,
she says ok. The did draw some blood so at least they're acting like
they're looking for something. Eventually they wheel me over to the
bathroom so I can give a urine sample, and across the crowded
admitting area, the doc shouts "Hey CJRA! Why won't you take the meds
I prescribed?!" I was too out of it to respond as I should have
initially, and said "Because I don't know what they're for. I don't
want to just mask symptoms." He yells "I wouldn't have prescribed them
if they weren't necessary!" So I told him to please come and discuss
it with me in the room.

He finally did, was an @$$ about it. He wouldn't let me get a word in.
I finally stopped him and said "Look, I've been to the ER 2x where
they missed the ectopic because they blew off the symptoms. I just
want to make sure the actual problem is being addressed. Do you have
my chart from my surgery 3 days ago?" No, they hadn't gotten the
chart. He says he's not responsible for what his colleagues missed - I
agreed and reiterated that it was only because of that experience I
learned I have to be a lot more conscientious and involved in my
treatment. He made me feel like I was a beligerent patient. He did
explain his reasoning on the drugs - i disagreed with the pain meds
(he said he was justbeing 'nice' by prescribing them), but said ok to
the dizziness and nausea meds (the nausea med's primary function
wasn't nausea) once he had a valid reason for it. That's all I wanted
- an explanation as to *why* my treatment was a certain way. SUrely
that's reasonable?!

In sum, he was a cocky, arrogant jerk. His behaviour was so much like
one of the characters on the many hospital TV shows, it was appalling.
I was just so disgusted. I said "well, if my BP was low you've done a
good job of raising it!"

Anyway, my blood work showed there's no lowering of blood levels so
not likely to be internal bleeding. My sister said it's probably just
after effects of the general anesthesia. I was feeling better by last
night. Still kind of light headed but as long as I go easy, I should
be ok.

How frustrating for you, it's hard to know what normal post op
feelings are, particularly when you can't speak to the doctor or
anyone else involved with the surgery. I had a really rough time the
weekend that was about 10days after I had the hip surgery, I couldn't
figure out whether it was meds, or stopping meds, or whether I had a
mild cold or other infection, my pulse was racing and I was doing the
hot and cold thing as if I had a temp, but my temp wasn't up. We have
a nurse line with our insurance and she determined I didn't need to do
anything and by Monday when I would have been able to speak to someone
from the clinic I was feeling better, though not tip top.

I tend to be like you were with the doctor all the time these days,
most doctors are ok with that, nurses a little less so, if I do have
issues, I will say politely that I've experienced errors in the past
and I'm just being cautious. I always ask what is going in an IV,
which is the thing that seems to frustrate nurses most, they say "a
painkiller and an antinausea drug" when I want to know specifics,
which drug, which dose, if you never know, you can't monitor reactions
and you don't learn for future reference what gives you which side
effects. I have to be doubly cautious now as I'm allergic to a common
anti sickness drug and with trade names and drug names, they don't
always right down both on your notes and a prescriber might write it
down by another name and whoever administers it might not make the
connection - so I know I have to!

Sorry your feeling rough, I hope you feel better soon.

Cheers
Anne

cjra wrote:


In sum, he was a cocky, arrogant jerk. His behaviour was so much like
one of the characters on the many hospital TV shows, it was appalling.
I was just so disgusted. I said "well, if my BP was low you've done a
good job of raising it!"

Anyway, my blood work showed there's no lowering of blood levels so
not likely to be internal bleeding. My sister said it's probably just
after effects of the general anesthesia. I was feeling better by last
night. Still kind of light headed but as long as I go easy, I should
be ok.



Why is it so difficult to find a decent physician these days? Too many
people going into the profession for the wrong reasons? Yes, there are
way too many jerks out there. I had an endocrinologist who visibly
bristled
whenever I asked him a question. I didn't have him for long. I adore my
current GP. He's willing to LISTEN and discuss, not pontificate.

Whatever, I hope this is a quick setback and that your recovery is
quick and final.

gloria p

Why is it so difficult to find a decent physician these days? *

I think a big issue is that a better informed patient does take more
time to deal with and doctors are busy people and scheduling and
staffing simply doesn't allow for that. I feel very lucky to have got
the primary care physician I did, I didn't do any research, just asked
a friend where she went and got an appointment with a doctor in the
group, turned out I got a very popular doctor and was lucky to get in
with her and she really is fantastic, she knows the limits of her
knowledge and when she needs to pass you to a specialist and will
discuss everything with you - this has knock on problems though,
unless there is a cancellation, you need to schedule appointments at
least 3 weeks ahead, the times available are limited, she's part time
and I think must allow more time than usual for appointments, she's
also always running late, so I have to block out 1.5hours roughly her
being 45 mins late, plus a 45 min appointment. I'm sure she must earn
less as most of the time she only bills for one thing, even when I'm
sure she could quite legitimatelly bill for 2 or 3 items. I'm sure a
lot of doctors start out wanting to be like her, but find they can't
and they do just have to process patients, particularly in places like
the ER, but there must be many other doctors who never get that
example set to them, that all they know is how to process patients and
even though the former probably gets better results, those don't
necessarily translate into benefits for them, it probably means they
make less visits and have less other health problems, which benefits
the insurance company, not the doctor!

Cheers
Anne

On Jan 14, 9:06*am, cjra wrote:
On Jan 13, 12:08*am, Anne Rogers wrote:

In sum, he was a cocky, arrogant jerk. His behaviour was so much like
one of the characters on the many hospital TV shows, it was appalling.
I was just so disgusted. I said "well, if my BP was low you've done a
good job of raising it!"

Anyway, my blood work showed there's no lowering of blood levels so
not likely to be internal bleeding. My sister said it's probably just
after effects of the general anesthesia. I was feeling better by last
night. Still kind of light headed but as long as I go easy, I should
be ok.

Jeez, what an A.H. ERs are never pleasant places, but it certainly
doesn't help to have such a bozo involved. Glad it didn't turn out to
be more bleeding -- you've had enough difficulty with this whole
process to have any more complications.

Kate, ignorant foot soldier of the medical cartel
and the Bug, 4 years old
and something brewing, 4/08

*hugs* Oh boy, I hope you're feeling better..

cu
nicole

cjra schrieb:
snip
In sum, he was a cocky, arrogant jerk. His behaviour was so much like
one of the characters on the many hospital TV shows, it was appalling.
I was just so disgusted. I said "well, if my BP was low you've done a
good job of raising it!"

Yeah... I had a gyn like that when I miscarried. Coming in during a
vaginal exam (transvaginal u/s, legs toward the door, I don't even want
to go into all the way this is wrong), without knocking, then looking at
the tiny tiny (this was in 2000 u/s screens were the size of a postcard)
screen and saying "Yeah, that's obvious, we have a surgery slot open
tomorrow at 9." is _not_ the way to act. Especially because my gyn
wasn't even sure about what was going on wrt the pregnancy and we were
still searching for the embryo... (And this all happened around 3 a.m.
in hospital on the regular ob/gyn ward)
Guess which jerk did the surgery? And guess who didn't remove
everything? Yeah. Incompetent idiot. And now doctors wonder why I don't
like them...

Sadly they get away with that kind of behaviour because patients don't
have the time/energy to do something about them :-/

Anne Rogers wrote:
I have to be doubly cautious now as I'm allergic to a common
anti sickness drug and with trade names and drug names, they don't
always right down both on your notes and a prescriber might write it
down by another name and whoever administers it might not make the
connection - so I know I have to!

Well, no you shouldn't have to. If you get into an ambulance and you're
conscious, one of the first questions you should be asked is if you have
any medication allergies. When you go to an ER, either on your own, or
by an ambulance, one of the first questions they should ask again is if
you have any medication allergies. Most hospitals are now on computer
systems, and putting in the trade name of a drug will also give it's
generic name.

And yes, most nurses will tell you "Anti nausea medication, a painkiller
and an steroid" because most people will understand that a lot better
than "Zofran, Dilaudid, and Solu-Medrol"

Michelle
Flutist