Guest guest Posted October 27, 2003 Report Share Posted October 27, 2003 Dear Friends, I can't tell you how nice it made me feel to have such good support and encouragement from everyone here while I was in the hospital. Your concern and prayers are so much appreciated. They never did the TPN, WHEW!!! My doctor and the surgeon consulted together, along with the endocrinologist, and the PIC team, and they decided against it. Their major concern was the risk of infection that might occur at the site, and even with keeping me in the hospital for the duration of the time I'd be TPN, they didn't want to risk it. My doctor's really concerned about infection because of the instability of my already angry and inflamed pseudocyst. So they started me on some soft low fat mush and monitored me to see how well I managed it. Fortunately, although it did cause me some additional pain, I tolerated it pretty well and they let me start some " real " food.....if what that hospital gave me would ever qualify as REAL. I have some " real " issues with their dietician and the cook.....the food was absolutely awful!! One low fat meal was a beef stew made out of yesterday's roast beef (I still don't each red meat), and another was a roasted chicken quarter with skin and gravy. I guess they never heard of skinless chicken breasts before. This morning, with my DIABETIC, low-fat breakfast, they sent me three scrambled eggs (real eggs, not egg-beaters), grits with BUTTER, one piece of toast with two packets of regular jelly and coffee, with SIX packets of sugar!!! I blew three veins at three different IV sites, so they finally took me off the PCA pump and IV supplements, and then another vein blew when they did a blood collection this morning at 3:30 a.m. My nurse was wonderful, and she told me it was a good thing that they didn't try to do the PIC line. She said I was " too young " ...hahaha, and needed to be concerned about all these veins that kept blowing and said I needed to save as much of them as I could, since I'd probably be needing them in the future and couldn't afford to lose them all this soon. I got some great advice from our in-house nurse, (THANKS LILY), about how to best prepare my arms for a PIC insertion, but fortunately didn't have to use it. Every single nurse or tech that looked at me kept saying how beautiful my veins were and didn't listen to one word of my complaints of tight, rolling veins....until it was too late, and they'd blow, or not produce any blood at all. The doctor wanted to keep me in another day, but I pleaded and batted my eyelashes and whined and I was finally able to persuade him into letting me out. The surgeon said he felt trying to do a rouix-en-y for drainage would be too dangerous and complex a procedure because of the abnormal positioning of my pancreas, and the pseudocyst, in relation to where my stomach is. My doctor is making arragements for me to go to the pancreatic surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Florida for a review, to see if there is anything they can recommend. I will be seeing my GI and the surgeon on separate appointments next week to see what the arrangements are. Meanwhile, I'm SO GLAD to be home, and am using a duragesic 50 and an upgrade on my Percocet for pain control. I tried to get the doctor to keep me on the dilaudid for breakthrough, but he is quite conservative and said he prefered to keep that as my " hospital " med since it was so effective for me while I was there. He seems to feel that this, (being hospitalized), is something I may see more of in the future. Oh joy, oh joy! I'm supposed to limit all my activities, and of course, have liberal bed rest, no lifting, stooping or bending for at least two weeks. On the pain scale, today is a 4, so I guess that's tolerable. They asked me about a dozen times a day to rate my pain, and one nurse asked if I ever had a " 0 " and I told her, with CP one never has a " 0 " . So here's hoping that your day today, or tomorrow, is a " 0 " day! With hope and prayers, Heidi Heidi H. Griffeth South Carolina SC & SE Regional Rep. PAI, Intl. Note: All comments or advice are personal opinion only, and should not be substituted for professional medical consultation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 27, 2003 Report Share Posted October 27, 2003 Heidi, I am so happy that you are home!!!! There is nothing like recuperating in your own environment, with your own food and bed and no interruptions for blood draws or respiratory therapy or such. Get well soon! Laurie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 28, 2003 Report Share Posted October 28, 2003 Heidi, so good to see you home too. I hope your pain levels start to drop more so you have less pain when you eat and are soon able to eat what we call real food. I've had similar problems with some hospitals on their so called " diet " food. Frequently, I'd get regular jello on the clear liquids tray instead of diet jello. Sigh. They never did get the point. They thought since it had Fructrose instead of sugar, they though it was sugar free, not realizing that Fructrose is a form of sugar. Kimber -- Kimber Vallejo, CA hominid2@... Note: All advice given is personal opinion, not equal to that of a licensed physician or health care professional. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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