Beside myself - DH in hospital

[ThomasTheTwerkEngine]

Posting here for traffic. I'm a first time poster, but been on MN for years.

My DH have not been feeling well for the last couple of days. Had intense abdominal pain for nearly 30 hours. Yesterday he agree to go to A&E (which is a feat on itself). He got seen and left overnight waiting for a CT scan to rule out either appendix or gallstones.

CT scan this morning and his appendix is inflamed, there's also something "they can see" which might signal a small bowel perforation.

DH went in for surgery at 2.20 this PM. Been ringing his ward since 5 PM to see how he's doing, but apparently he is still in recovery.

My question, I suppose is: does it take that long to be in recovery? Every time I ring his ward no one can tell me anything. I'm making myself sick with worry, I can't eat, I can't move. All I want to know is if he's okay.

I feel very stupid posting this, I really do, but I don't what else to do.

When DH had a hernia repair last year, it was about 6 hours from him going to theatre to me hearing from him. He was really groggy and took a bit longer than usual to come round post anaesthesia. I was worried sick as he's got a heart condition and i thought they'd had complications.

It's very normal - try to relax, you'll hear from him soon.

Oh @ThomasTheTwerkEngine , sending you a handhold.

I know nothing about surgery recovery times, but I hope that you hear soon.

Yes, it can take a long time to be in recovery. I know it's a horribly worrying time and the wait feels like forever, but general anaesthetic takes a long time to wear off. If he's out of surgery and in recovery, then that's good news. Sending lots of love.

I don’t know but when you’re worried normal time seems to stretch. Could be theyre short staffed to move him to a ward so is staying in recovery longer? If there was anything wrong they’d have told you and asked you to go in so a good sign they didn’t.
Hope you hear soon and the surgery was 100% successful..

I know it’s impossible not to panic in this situation, but that sounds like a reasonable length of time. Going down at 2.20 doesn’t mean the surgery started at 2.20. It could easily have been up to an hour later. And an hour or so in recovery sounds normal. He may even be fine to leave recovery and waiting for a porter to come to take him to the ward.

💐

When I had my perforated appendix operated on I went into surgery at 5pm and returned to the ward at midnight. My husband and 2 primary school children were there waiting for me to say goodnight. 😴

It can take a while for people to fully recover from the anaesthesia; they can be groggy and out of it for hours - some need a full night to sleep it off! Try not to worry. From personal experience, if something was wrong they would let you know very quickly. No news is generally good news. 💐

I got stuck in recovery for hours last time as the ward wouldn't confirm they had a bed for me. Even if he's waiting to go back to the same ward he was on before the surgery he night need to move bay to one with a higher staffing level for post op patients, so it might just be an admin delay.

I was in recovery for 5 hours after one operation, poor Dh was going up the wall! They were having a slight issue with my blood pressure and I was struggling to wee. It all came right and later on I was tucking into jacket potato and beans! Try not to panic OP, easier said than done I know!

Hi

i work with children in hospital and quite often take them & bring them back from theatre. Time spent in recovery varies massively and is totally dependent on drugs given, what surgery they’ve had, how they’ve been woken up (how quickly etc) and what they were like before theatre (tired/hungry/not well). We tend to bring children back up to our ward early than adults as they have a guardian there with them so sometimes we have a restless, half asleep child for a couple of hours before they are ready to be awake properly! If they haven’t woken up well and are crying, we advise their guardian to help get back to sleep which usually does the trick. Sometimes they sleep for another couple of hours. He could have done the same, if he wasn’t quite ready to wake up yet or didn’t feel great on coming round. The ward should be able to ring through to recovery to check how he’s doing and let you know. Sending lots of positive thoughts your way

Best wishes OP, hope you hear something soon. Hope his recovery goes well.

Sending a handhold and a hug x

Unfortunately everything PPs have said is correct - I've been where you are and the waiting is hideous x

Do you have anyone with you?

Sending support and the hope that shortly you will be reassured. Try and have a hot drink of your choice and hold on to the thought that no news is good news, and that while lack of communication is maddening, it's because his care is being prioritised x

Honestly sending you so much love xxx

My veins are the very devil to find. I had a hysterectomy in 2018, and it took nearly an hour to find a vein, which eventually was in my ankle. That turned a two hour procedure into 3, for a start. Recovery from the GA to be anywhere close enough to coherent to see my husband was another two, and even then I was nodding off and thought hours had passed when it was only 5 minutes.

My best wishes to your husband, I hope he is doing well after today’s surgery.

Sending a handhold OP. I know what this situation feels like. I found it helped to focus on my breathing. I know it sounds completely trivial and ridiculous, but it really did help me with the anxiety. Wishing you both a speedy recovery.

So sorry you're going through this worry.

Going to theatre at 2.20 pm might mean the surgery didn't even start till gone 3 pm so don't panic.

Recovery can take a couple of hours.

I hope you get good news soon.

Thank you so much everyone. You've no idea how much I appreciate your messages.

I don't have anyone with me at the moment. Just me and the dog. My parents live abroad and DHs parents seem to be very calm about the whole thing, I don't want to pass my anxiety onto them either so I'm quietly imploding. I don't have any close friends to confide to either.

I will follow all of your advice and remain calm. I haven't eaten today so might just do that.

I promise to update as soon as I hear from him.

Much love to you all, and thank you ❤️

When my relative was in with his appendix it was HOURS before we heard anything. The ward kept saying he hadn't arrived yet. Turns out he was down where he was operated on for more hours than expected as it took ages for a bed to become available on the ward.

Waiting for someone to come out of surgery is so draining. My DC had a couple of surgeries as a baby, with one he went down at 2pm and didnt come back until 7pm - I was imagining the worst, but sometimes it just takes as long as it takes.

Hope you hear something asap.

Not meaning to derail OP's thread but I have to ask why you're calling them 'Guardians?' I'd be annoyed if a HCP referred to me as my own child's 'guardian' when I'm very much a mother

I hope you hear soon, how horrible x

Fingers crossed for you OP

My appendix surgery took much longer than planned due to gangerene and the fact it got stuck to the abdomen wall, so they had to abandon keyhole and open me up and slowly tease it away from where it was stuck. Also after a pancreas surgery 5yrs later they promised they’d ring my family straight away as it was a long 6-7hr planned surgery and I went down at 9am. Thankfully I sent the number for surgeons secretary / nurse person as my ex rang her at 5pm as they hadn’t heard and was told I had been in recovery since 2.30pm. Surgeon finally remembered to ring family when he came to my bedside at 8pm. Sure all will be ok, but hope you hear very soon

Hopefully you will hear something soon 💐

My 19yr old ds had surgery to repair a broken hand on boxing day. He went down at 13:30 and I had asked them to ring me when he got back to the ward - they expected surgery to take about 45mins so about 1-1:30 away from the ward. I hadn't heard at 4pm!!!! Was getting concerned but what had happened was they were struggling to eat his pain under control and the anaesthetist was taking charge of it giving him IV morphine and Fentanyl. He eventually came back to the ward at 4:15 and was fine. Definitely don't assume there's something seriously wrong!

Oh God, really? No wonder noone wants to be a HCP.

If you're his mum you'll be called mum. PP was talking generically about a general experience and not everyone has a mum. It's not about you.