SPEEDY ILEOSTOMY_2003
I think there must be a record in my ileostomy; it goes as follows: Around the end of January 2003, I had an operation for an abdominal aorta aneurysm. Everything seemed to improve as each day passed. After a month or so, I could walk over to see an old friend, a WWII vet, and he always looked forward to my visits. Every time I left his house, he always thanked me for the visit, even after 30 years. Anyhow, one Saturday evening I was visiting, and some of his family showed up, and the compliments were flying about how well I was looking, and I admit I was feeling pretty damn good. That night, a Saturday, I went to bed; everything seemed normal until about three in the morning when I started to feel like I had to vomit, but not feeling sick, if that makes any sense. So it started, no amount of brushing my teeth would take away the awful taste in my mouth. Thereafter, every 45 minutes or so, more vomiting occurred; this ungodly green bile was just pouring out of me, so my wife and daughter convinced me to go to the hospital, and while there, I cannot remember anything except being put in an ambulance and a lot of family members seeing me off to Halifax, a 150-mile trip. Here, things really get hazy, probably because of the morphine. Now, I had never had a problem with my bowels in my life, well, maybe an exception; I remember taking Ex-Lax a couple of times. Now, what I have tried to forget was having an MRI, and I just knew these two guys doing it were setting out to kill me.
So after the MRI was finished, they told me not to move as they wanted to do something else, so I jumped off the machine. They said not to move as I had a catheter in me, which I promptly yanked out. I can still see the blood on parts of the machine; meanwhile, they were calling for security to get the hell in there. Then a doctor showed up with a needle while they held me down and finally put me out cold; that's the last thing I remember before waking up 10 days later in ICU. The doctors asked my brothers to try to get me awake and try to be that way so they could remove that damn pipe in my throat. Well, they got me awake and hounded the living shit out of me, but I was awake, and finally, the doctor said the pipe could be removed. I needed water, man oh man, I really needed water, but all I got was a small sponge on a stick to suck on, and when I could, I would take a sip as the ice melted. Finally, as the family started to make their way to get a few hours of sleep, one of them hung back, and that's when I almost lost it when he said, "Ed, we had to let them do a colostomy on you," and what I thought was a scream, answered, "Why the hell did you let them do that?" and he said, "What were we supposed to do, let you die?" Good answer, and he told me they had to open me up twice; the first surgeon could not find anything wrong, but two days later, a new surgeon found my colon was dead from the inside as a result of the earlier aneurysm.
Through all this, I was asked why didn't you sue the ass off the doc who did the original aneurysm, but for about four months after, I was still in a fog most of the time, and I had an idea how long all this shit would take, so I said the hell with it.
Now, what comes crashing down on me was blockages; damn, but they were worse than anything I had already gone through. So the last time I had a real problem, one of the local surgeons said, "Ed, I can fix this for you, but we have to open you up again." I was in no shape to disagree, and thankfully for that, as I have never had a blockage since, and I eat just about everything, so if it was going to happen again, with all that I eat, I was truly grateful to that doctor, who, by the way, was just like me in regards to being a smart-ass; we got along tremendously, and I will never forget what he did for me.
Of course, now the depression cuts in along with some nerve damage to an already preexisting lumbar problem, and an already diagnosed case of fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue syndrome and a few other maladies, which I will not get into. Anyway, today I needed to get this off my chest and try to cope as best I can. Thanks for a chance to vent today, and needless to say, I wish all a better life as each day passes. xxxED
PS: When talking to people, I usually say colostomy instead of ileostomy, as that way, I don't have to give a biology lesson.
