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General health

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Original poster

Nan went in for keyhole surgery, is now on a ventilator in intensive care......

88 replies

zephyrcat · 21/04/2006 11:25

Is there anyone remotely medical or who knows anything like this around??

She went in 2/3 days ago to have her gall bladder removed by keyhole surgery. Everyone else who was in for it went home the same day. The nurses told my Mum she had been feeling very sorry for herself, refusing to co-operate or eat and she was shouting out in pain. They scanned her and discovered she had some internal bleeding so took her back to theatre last night. My Mum has just said she is now in intensive care on a verntilator - they tried to take her off it but she couldn'\t breathe so she's back on it and sedated. :(

I'm just wondering what could have gone that wrong??

OP posts:

Original poster

zephyrcat · 06/05/2006 14:02

So sorry to hear about your GRandpa :( That's partly why I want to keep a 'record' of everything that is happening day by day...my Grandad died in '97 after having a scarily similar thing... he went in for gall bladder/stones I think and the hospital put it off for so long that he ended up with pancreatitis and lots of other complications and ended up being moved to Hammersmith hospital from Reading and finally Chelsea & Westminster where he died when they finally operated.
Ironically my Nan has held it against the hospital from that day to this and even turned her nose up at me having my first baby there....now she's there and it's all too familiar :(

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renaldo · 06/05/2006 14:39

Looking up your nans test results is a sackable offence - tell you rmum to be careful!

zephyrcat · 09/05/2006 11:34

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Original poster

zephyrcat · 11/05/2006 11:03

My Mum finally managed to get a straight diagnosis from a doctor last night! ... Seems that when they did the keyhole surgery to remove her gall bladder, a tear was made in the bile duct so for all this time bile has been leaking - bile is obviously not good as it's acid so it caused septicaemia and heart failure. Her blood pressure is very low so by pumping her full of fluid it brings her blood pressure back up but at the same time puts fluid into her lungs - also not good! He said that they are treading a very fine line between keeping her BP up and trying not to flood her lungs. She has her drip in her jugular(sp) vein with 3 lines - fluid, food and anti-biotics which mum says is a bit scary to see!
So now it's just a case of taking it day to day and just wait and see what happens from here. Can't believe it's taken 3 weeks to find out what's going on - and the doctor wasn't even on her team!!

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chapsmum · 11/05/2006 11:06

hey zepher, glad you got some sence of of somebody.
Sound like your nan has perhaps turned the corner. Hope things get better for her.
The line in the neck can be good cause it means no more blood tests, they can draw blood from it as well as giving stuff through it.

Fingers crossed for you all

Bugsy2 · 11/05/2006 11:20

ZC, glad you finally got an answer from someone. Have they mended the nick in her bile duct?

Original poster

zephyrcat · 11/05/2006 13:11

Hi - as far as i know they haven't mended it, she's still just being drained constantly. We think that they are maybe trying to sabilise her as much as they can before operating again as last time the went in to try and find the leak she went into shock...but that's just a guess. Apparently she said that she feels better now that they don't have to keep taking blood as they get it from her neck like you say. She then said "But they keep giving me injections in my stomach...look!" And lifted her hospital gown right up for all to see!!

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Original poster

zephyrcat · 17/05/2006 09:59

I missed a call from my mum at 7 this morning so I rang her work and theyn told me that she has been called into the hospital with her brother and his wife. :( I don't know what to do with myself. I'm trying to keep it together for dd but not doing very well!!

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cadbury · 17/05/2006 10:02

Oh Zeph. I hope it isn't what you are fearing.

biglips · 17/05/2006 10:03

xxxxxxxxx and big hugs to you {{{{{{{{Hugs}}}}}}}}

Original poster

zephyrcat · 17/05/2006 10:11

Thanks :) This is horrible. I don;/t know what to do. I hate this sitting waiting for the call. I'm too scared to ring the hospital.

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fairyjay · 17/05/2006 10:18

That's horrible for you Zeph.

biglips · 17/05/2006 10:19

youre gonna have to ring the hosp sometime though

Bugsy2 · 17/05/2006 10:19

Oh poor you ZC. I hope its a false alarm. Big hugs.

Original poster

zephyrcat · 17/05/2006 10:38

Apparently she took a turn for the worst during the night and there has now been another internal bleed completely unrelated to anything else that has been going on. My Mum's cousins are getting flights down from Scotland tonight.

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Original poster

zephyrcat · 17/05/2006 10:48

My Mum has just rung to say she has lost an awful lot of blood and is now vomiting blood. They are going to look down her throat this afternoon - but Mum doesn't think she's going to make it much longer, she says she's had enough and ready to give up :(

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hub2dee · 17/05/2006 10:50

Sorry to learn of this decline, Zc.

VeniVidiVickiQV · 17/05/2006 10:53

so sorry this is happening ZC.

xxxxxxx

jampots · 17/05/2006 10:58

zc - my dad went into hospital to have his lung removed, there was a problem in that his bronchus split etc and he had to go back to theatre and ended up in exactly the same place as your nan

I havet read the entire thread but hope she pulls out of it. Think you do need to speak to the medical team though

Original poster

zephyrcat · 17/05/2006 11:06

That's as much as they'll tell us Jampots - which is very frustrating. She's been in there a month now and we only found out what was actually wrong with her about a week ago from a doctor that wasn't even on her team!

The saddest thing is she's been ready to give up for a long time - since my Grandad died in '97 - from exactly the same thing. She won't fight it.

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hub2dee · 18/05/2006 22:31

How are you, zc ?

chapsmum · 18/05/2006 22:37

Zepher, so sorry things are not improveing(((((hug ))))) to you.

Original poster

zephyrcat · 18/05/2006 22:44

Hiya - I'm not too bad, thank you. It's been a very surreal couple of days. Yesterday they decided to stop giving her blood and stop any further treatment as her bloods appeared to show that her bowel had disintegrated and they told my Mum that she had hours to live and wouldn't make it to the end of the day.
Today she is a lot calmer and just sleeping. They've now said that today's bloods show that they were wrong yesterday. However anytime they try to move her her body gets 'aggitated' - her bp drops and things start going wrong again so my Mum has told them they are to leve her now as she can't withstand anymore test/investigations. Her kidneys have stopped working completely and the rest will follow so they've put her on oxynorm which is stronger than morphine and will just keep her in a deep sleep, so it's just a case of waiting :(

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hub2dee · 18/05/2006 22:50

Doesn't sound nice for the family nor your nan. I expect the current drugs though will give her rest, rather than having endless tests.

Original poster

zephyrcat · 18/05/2006 22:54

I hope so - they won't be doing anything else to her now - just what they call 'active management', just keeping her comfortable and pain free.

Never would have imagined all this from a simple keyhole op!

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