Emergency Hartmann’s procedure to remove tumour

[Destinyforthetaking22]

Hi everyone I hope you are all as well as can be and wishing you all strength and peace.

Never been ill before nor ever visited A&E. Late January I suddenly started to get severe abdominal pain and became constipated. Tried to treat at home but nothing worked. Eventually went to A&E when cramps felt like labour contractions & double over in pain. Knew it was not normal. Still thought they would clear the constipation and I would be ok. Nothing serious.

They did abdominal CT and said you are only constipated and prescribed me a suppository and sent me home. Suppository didn’t work. Two days later deteriorated and went back to A&E as now couldn’t walk, nausea and vomiting, stomach looked like I was six months pregnant. First surgeon very dismissive said looked at your scan and you are severely constipated we’ll give you and enema to take home. He wanted me gone. I said do another scan this is not normal. He refused saying I didn’t need one. I said I am
not leaving and will do enema in hospital until this clears.

Gave me two enemas that evening and did not work. Eventually senior surgeon arrived who finally took me seriously. Next morning given third enema and senior surgeon arrived again to check on me. Very puzzled and the only person questioning why normally young healthy woman suddenly so ill and nothing working. Ordered a contrast CT and results two hours later.

He and about 5 other doctors came to see me to tell me I had a large tumour in my colon which had blocked. My surgeon said you are going up to emergency surgery now and within the hour I was in theatre for five hours. Then moved to HDU for a week and then surgical ward for a week.

I am finding it really hard to process what has happened. Life changed overnight. Still in pain. Can’t sleep. Swollen from the surgery but it’s still early days. Waiting for my MDT results. I can’t help but feel I will need more treatment and so scared of how ill I will be and how will I care for my children.Im trying but Finding everything it so hard. I feel so awful and want to cry all the time. I need to be strong but feel so weak and vulnerable. I don’t know what to do.

I have such empathy for you. I had a similarly life-changing moment when I was out of the blue diagnosed with a brain tumour three years ago. I had a five year old and was pregnant with my second at the time and was overwhelmed with terror at what lay ahead of me. I had so many questions and so few answers and just spiralled thinking of all the possibilities and what-ifs.
My best advice - though I truly, truly know how hard this is - is to try and take one day at a time (cliched though it is) and not worry about possibilities which are not yet certainties. I drove myself nearly mad worrying about what might happen and actually none of the stressing actually changed what happened. You can’t see into the future and many many possibilities exist as to how your journey might look, so don’t waste time and energy trying to predict what might happen. Focus on what you can control right now and stay present, with your kids and focus on them.
That said, absolutely cry when you need to: it’s a shit situation that no one would wish themselves in. And forget about being strong - you don’t need to! Lean on everyone around you; they’ll want to help support you.
All the best.

💐

I would be asking why it was only the third scan that showed anything? As presumably the tumour didn't suddenly grow between scans? You need to know in case it's relevant to your medical future-is it how they did the scans, or do you think the doctors were just not interested in checking properly. I'm so sorry for you.

I would be asking why it was only the third scan that showed anything? As presumably the tumour didn't suddenly grow between scans? You need to know in case it's relevant to your medical future-is it how they did the scans, or do you think the doctors were just not interested in checking properly. I'm so sorry for you.

How are you now @teachermummyme ? You said 3 years ago. I hope you are well again. Your children were so young. Mine are young teenagers. They lift me up so much thank god. I feel life has just stopped.

Thank you @Pistachiocake. I only had two scans. The first showed my blocked colon which he showed to me so unsure why first surgeon could not see the tumour. Just said I was constipated which was causing the blockage nothing else. I must ask why he could not spot this. He was completely dismissive. He wanted to send me home with the enema but I refused to leave.

It was my surgeon who ordered the contrast CT which is more detailed and he spotted it immediately. He didn’t really have to investigate very much!

I hope you can take the time you need to heal and recover. One day at a time. Ask for support. Hospital should have some social worker assessment team to advise re child care.

When you can definitely follow that up. It’s scary he didn’t see it but also was dismissive. I hope he finds out what happened in the end and reflects on it

I am really well thank you. The first year was so hard, as I had to have the baby early in order to have surgery to remove the tumour asap. Being away from my newborn was hard, and then I had quite a few after-effects from the surgery that I had to learn to live with. But now, life is great! My health is good and my monitoring scans are positive. My children are 8 and 3 now and I am just so grateful to be here with them.
I totally understand your feelings that life is on hold. It’s just an unbelievable situation to be in - I used to think, I can’t even believe this is my life now and I’m in this situation. It’s hard to accept when every part of you is screaming that you want to go back to your previous life, before any of that happened. I’m glad your teens are helping you. Try to stay present and focus on the here and now, when you can. I found children were good for that, as sometimes you’re so busy parenting you forget what else is going on!

This is such a lovely update @teachermummyme. So glad life is great now and I really hope it stays that way for you and your lovely family.

I pretty home bound as still early days after surgery. I sometimes sit like you said and can’t believe this has happened. In early January I went for a little break abroad with my kids and was completely fine. Lugging heavy suitcases and walking miles and miles. Not ill whatsoever. Cannot believe how it all happened and became so serious so quickly.

Remember being in HDU and unable to even lift my legs and horrible tubes and wires everywhere. Couldn’t even keep water down. And how much better I am now walking and eating and getting kids off to school. Even a few weeks makes such a difference. So it’s all
going in the right direction.

I see my surgeon on Friday for my results. I am dreading it.

I’m glad your recovery is going well. It’s so encouraging when you feel like you’re able to do normal stuff like get the kids ready for school!
Good luck for Friday. Have you got someone who can come to the appointment with you? Don’t be afraid to ask questions - I sometimes take a pen and paper too, and jot stuff down as they’re speaking, as otherwise I sometimes find I get home and can’t remember exactly what they said. Let us know how it goes.