Re: Re: Pancreatectomy /cell transfer to Shirley, Gail, Kristi...

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 12/28/01 1:25:27 PM Eastern Standard Time,

maryg7878@... writes:

>

> If I were thinking about the pancreatectomy, I would want to know

> things like how did you feel when you woke up afterwards? Were you

> stuck in the hospital for a week? Did you have diarrhea for a month

> afterwards while your body was readjusting? How soon afterwards could

> you eat food? I read somewhere that a guy had this, and was back to

> work within a month. Is that a normal timeframe? What's going on

> during that month of recovery - was he flat on his back for a couple

> weeks in a lot of pain? Was he eating and drinking normally? Someone

> said it takes about a year for your body to completely readjust - what

> is happening during that year? What kinds of problems are there while

> you are readjusting?

>

>

Dear , it does make sense but it is different with everyone. Just like

any surgery is different for everyone. For me I was in the hospital for one

month. I have chronic hepatitis B and that with all of the other surgeries

that I have had plus I had a complication of bleeding after the surgery. Dr.

Sutherland had to open me up again and stop the bleeding. About six weeks

before I went to MN to have my surgery my port in my chest to feed me my tpn

started giving me problems. My left arm began to swell and become very

painful. The doctor here in Cincinnati put me on coumadin in case I had a

blood clot. I was very concerned about being on Coumadin since I was

scheduled to have my surgery in six weeks. The doctor told me not to worry

that if I stopped the coumadin five days before the surgery I would be fine.

I wasn't satisfied with that answer so I sought out two more opinions from

two more doctors and they all said the same thing. It just didn't feel right

to me to go into a major surgery after being on coumadin for six weeks so I

called MN and talked with the secretary and she said she asked the doctor and

he said it would be ok just stop the coumadin five days before the surgery.

So I had four doctors tell me that all would be fine. I stayed on the

coumadin until five days before the surgery. That is why I had the bleeding.

My husband told me when I was in my room on the fifth floor that Dr.

Sutherland came to the waiting room and told him and our daughter that I did

really well and I would be going to me room in two hours. That was at night

when he told my husband that. My husband and daughter waited two hours and I

still had not gone to my room. My husband really takes good care of me so

after two hours he went to check on me and found that I was not doing very

well. He told the doctor in charge to call Dr. Sutherland back to the

hospital and it was by that time late at night. Dr. Sutherland and the other

surgeon who assisted him came right back to the hospital from their homes and

opened me back up and had to go in and stop the bleeding. The coumadin had

caused me to bleed from every place he had cut me. After Dr. Sutherland

stopped the bleeding I was in recovery for a day and then in ICU for a couple

of days. What happened to me was an odd thing and was due to the coumadin.

When I go to doctors I always have to tell them that medications are very

strong for me and I have to start out with small doses. At the ER here in

Cincinnati I almost died several times due to medication that was given to

me.

Ok, I am trying to think of anything else you would like to know. I was

nauseated for about three weeks and vomited many times due to the connection

where Dr. Sutherland cuts the duodenum away from the stomach and then takes

the intestines and makes a new duodenum. Where they are connected mine would

quiver and not get into rhythm very soon after surgery and so that caused my

nausea and vomiting. As soon as that connection got in rhythm the nausea

stopped and I stopped vomiting.

The pain was not really bad. I didn't take very much medication for pain.

In the beginning I think they gave me morphine but very soon after the

surgery I only asked for Tylenol some of the time. Pain was not the worst

thing. For me the nausea and vomiting was the worst.

I am really trying to reach back in my mind and find any negatives and it is

hard to do since I was so happy, relieved, and could tell right away that the

pancreas pain was gone. I was able to get up and walk after a week or so.

It is really hard for me to remember everything. I do remember my daughter

and I took a tour around the hospital and she even took me to the lobby with

me in a wheel chair laughing my head off while I pulled my iv pole. It was

so funny. We ran into my resident doctor and my daughter said loud enough

for him to hear her say BUSTED!!!!!!!!!

I do know that almost all of the other people I know who have had the surgery

did not experience the same things as I did. They did not experience the

bleeding, some did not experience the nausea or vomiting at all. I was 58

years old and in bad health from chronic hepatitis and had been so sick for

so long. The other people who have had the surgery were younger and not as

sick as I. I wish you could hear Kay's story. She is a superwoman.

Please digest my answers I have written for now and if you think of any more

ask away. Shirley