I'm Alive - Warning, Long

On 4/2/2011 9:15 PM, CatNipped wrote:
Yep, to the pleasant surprise of some and the disappointment of others, I
*am* still alive. I was only able to log on for 5 minutes in the middle of
all this, so I saw only two posts replying to the post Ben made. Since then
I've been totally incommunicado, physically and mentally, and unaware of
anything outside of my hospital bed. After *forty-four* days in the
hospital, I'm finally home.. which doesn't mean I'm going to be jumping back
into the group totally, because I have so much to do and catch up on and
because of physical and mental disabilities. The main thing I have to do is
getting my fur-babies to forget and forgive my abandoning them. Archer
completely snubbed me on my first "home visit" (they would let me go from
the SNIP unit for a few hours every week for doctors' appointments and/or a
quick trip home), then finally warmed up to me. Sammy is too much of a
pettins' 'ho' to give up being skritched. Ozzy is lukewarm to me, but he
was never a cuddling cat to begin with. Jessie cares only for Ben - always
has, always will. And Demi is as Demi always was, afraid of her own shadow.


Ya'll gotta stop this stuff. Sending purrs and well wishes for you,
Ben, and the owners to get over your trauma and heal fully. BTDT with
the aphasia, short term memory loss, and physical trauma. Both Rob and
I recovered to a great extent and I expect you and Ben to do the same.
We understand about not being able to play catch-up.

A short synopsis of current events here at chez Shirk. Mike and Mandi
Lynn are the proud parents of a baby boy. William Michael was born at
12:14 am on March 5. He was 21 inches long and weighed 8 lb 15 0z
officially. Amanda Kae and James were married on Feb 19th. At her
pre-marital physical, it was discovered that she is pregnant. She is
due to give birth in late September. Mike, Lynn, Will and their two
owners Hermione and Qui Gon Kit have moved back in with me making the
cat count 11 cats and 1 d-thing. Bernard the dwarf hamster succumbed to
the workings of Smokey, Jim's cat. Smokey shattered the hamster home
and we are NOT getting a replacement.

Other than that things are pretty normal around here, as normal as
anything remotely Shirk ever gets.

Take care of yourself and please don't feel as though you have to answer
any of our messages.

Pam S.

Glad you are with us and on the mend Lori!

Wow! What an ordeal - for you, for Ben and for the cats! I'm glad things
are a lot better than they were. Purrs for them to keep getting better.

--

Joy

Basically everything is subject to change without notice

"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
Yep, to the pleasant surprise of some and the disappointment of others, I
*am* still alive. I was only able to log on for 5 minutes in the middle
of all this, so I saw only two posts replying to the post Ben made. Since
then I've been totally incommunicado, physically and mentally, and unaware
of anything outside of my hospital bed. After *forty-four* days in the
hospital, I'm finally home.. which doesn't mean I'm going to be jumping
back into the group totally, because I have so much to do and catch up on
and because of physical and mental disabilities. The main thing I have to
do is getting my fur-babies to forget and forgive my abandoning them.
Archer completely snubbed me on my first "home visit" (they would let me
go from the SNIP unit for a few hours every week for doctors' appointments
and/or a quick trip home), then finally warmed up to me. Sammy is too
much of a pettins' 'ho' to give up being skritched. Ozzy is lukewarm to
me, but he was never a cuddling cat to begin with. Jessie cares only for
Ben - always has, always will. And Demi is as Demi always was, afraid of
her own shadow.



[Sidebar: the reason the cats were *SO* traumatized is that, two weeks
into my hospital stay, Ben had a heart attack (and was subsequently
diagnosed with diabetes), called 911, and was hospitalized for 5 days (he
is "OK" now but his heart still isn't beating correctly and in a couple of
weeks he'll have to go back into the hospital for them to "shock" his
heart back into the correct rhythm, and he has to take medications for
that and the diabetes). It took 2 whole days to arrange for his mother to
be driven by his sister from Arkansas to feed, water and scoop for the
cats. They went for 2 days without any food at all (from now on there
will be a plan in place to handle a double emergency like this - too late
to "fix" the feeling of abandonment my fur-babies had to have felt).
Fortunately, they were *SO* well fed before that that it didn't cause any
drastic weight loss or health issue.]



Anyway, for those of you interested, here is the complete, *TRUE* story of
what I've been through.



First, this had *NOTHING* to do with gastric bypass surgery. If you
remember, about 6(?) months ago I was diagnosed with Congestive Heart
Failure with Left Ventricular Thrombus (a blood clot inside of the
ventricle chamber of my heart). After being on blood thinners for a
couple of months, my cardiologist said that the blood clot was gone and he
discontinued the use of blood thinners (baaaaaaad idea). The blood clot
didn't go away, it broke up and moved to various parts of my body. At
least two lodged into the blood vessels providing oxygen to my intestinal
tract. The first few feet (upper small intestines) and the last few feet
(colon) became necrotic (died).



For the longest time doctors (*several* specialists, x-rays, MRIs, CAT
scans, etc.) told me I just had constipation and sent me home with
laxatives. On Thursday, February 17, Ben came downstairs to find me
unconscious on the floor. He rushed me to the ER and they did a number of
tests and *STILL* didn't come up with an accurate diagnosis. Finally, a
GP from my PCP's office came in to look at me prior to sending me home
with laxatives, because I still wouldn't regain consciousness (I guess
they thought I was faking being in a coma???!!). She did a physical
examination and when she pressed on the bottom right of my stomach I cried
out even though I was still unconscious. She thought "appendicitis". But
when she pressed on the upper left of my stomach I arched myself almost of
the examining table and screamed like a banshee, again, even though I was
still unconscious.



Warning, this may get just a little anatomically gross for those who are
sensitive to that - I'll try to make it as clinical as possible.



After that she order a special MRI with special intravenous dye that
showed the blood vessels supplying the intestinal tract. It showed not
only the blocked blood vessels, but also showed that my entire intestinal
tract was blocked with fecal matter without an inch even halfway empty.
In fact, the necrotic parts were filled to *TEN TIMES* their normal
diameter. In one of those spots the intestines had broken open, dumping
contaminated matter into the abdominal cavity (peritonitis). That was the
cause of the "coma" - they called it "septic shock".



They called an abdominal surgical specialist out of his bed in the middle
of the night (and might I say I owe my life to this Indian gentleman - he
*has* to be one of the best surgeons alive to have pulled me away from
death like he did). He looked at all the test results (quickly) and came
to talk to Ben to tell him I needed surgery. Ben said 'OK, when do you
want to set it up?'. The doctor said 'you don't understand, when I'm
finished talking to you, or in a few moments, I'm going directly to the
surgical suite and scrubbing in for immediate, emergency surgery'. He
then told Ben that he shouldn't get his hopes up because of the surgery,
that there was only a very, *VERY* slim chance that I would live through
it (most people die almost immediately from peritonitis). He told Ben to
start contacting my loved ones and to prepare them and himself for the
announcement of my death. [He also had to do a second surgery on the
following Tuesday, after some of the swelling and inflammation had gone
down, to "clean up" anything he missed and to temporarily reroute my colon
until it healed enough to reverse.]



I don't know if it's because I've been through so many medical issues in
my life so my body is used to recovering from very traumatic shocks, or if
I'm just blessed with a genetically strong constitution, but somehow I did
survive the surgery. Even so, the doctors told Ben that it was very,
*VERY* iffy that I would survive, much less recover from the surgery. I
was still in "septic shock", the reason for my "coma. I was in ICU,
unconscious, for two weeks, then in a "step-down unit" for two weeks after
I (sort of) regained consciousness, then in a SNiF (skilled nursing
facility) until last night.



When I 'woke up' after two weeks, I found that I had huge chunks of memory
that had just disappeared (things like my *CATS' NAMES*, even - and the
latest I could remember was the fall of 2010 and I was fuzzy even about
that (I still can't remember how to use our cable remote)). Thankfully,
quite a bit of that has come back, but I'm still missing a *LOT* of memory
and still have problems committing anything to memory - my short-term
memory has been compromised. I still have problems with my speech and
pretty bad aphasia (sometimes I'll not only forget the word I was trying
to say, but will replace that word with a completely inappropriate word).



I was also paralyzed on my right side - I had to have two nurses come and
move me or turn me on my side to relieve the bed sores I'd developed (I
still have one, the deepest, on my heel that is necrotic, but we're
keeping it covered with sealant in hope that it will heal from the inside
out - if it opens I'll have to have more surgery(s) to clean it out, and
bed sores tend to get septic/toxic very, very quickly). The cause of the
paralysis and memory loss is that I lost a lot of oxygen to my brain at
some point in the septic shock coma - more on this in a little bit. It's
about the same consequences as when someone has a stroke.



I also found: my hands were "restrained" because I was intubated and
unable to breathe on my own (it was two weeks before they removed the
breathing tube and put me on plain oxygen); an "ileostomy" bag attached to
my side because my colon had been (hopefully) temporarily rerouted until
(three months from the initial surgery) it can be reversed; an open
abdominal wound 10 inches long x 3 inches wide open x 1 inch deep (you can
actually see the layers of skin and fat and body tissue inside of it); 2
"J Tubes" to drain the wound; a "PEG tube" (a feeding tube going directly
into my stomach from my side into which they poured liquid nourishment); a
"PIC Line" (a "permanent" intravenous tube on the underside of my left arm
that had three "feeds" going to various places, one being the vena cava);
and a Foley catheter. The "J Tubes" came out after 2.5 weeks, the "PEG
Line" came out after 3.5 weeks, the Foley catheter came out 5 days ago,
and the "PIC Line" came out yesterday. That still leaves me with the open
wound and the ileostomy bag. I'll have to have home nursing come out
every day to clean and re-dress the wound and take care of the bed sore on
my heel, another nurse to help me care for the ileostomy bag and
appliances, a physical therapist for over-all strength and movement, and
an occupational therapist for fine motor movement control.



Now, the paralysis... I've gotten a great deal of movement back (I can
now sit up, rise from a sitting position if my seat is high enough, and
walk a limited distance using a walker). But, I still can't raise my
right arm even an inch from the table when I have it laying out in front
of me... my right shoulder wants to "hitch up" in a shrug even when I'm
resting, but especially when I try to move my arm (it's a bad habit to use
my body to move my arm and my PT fusses constantly at me because of that).
However, I can still move my right hand - I just have to adjust the height
of whatever I'm working on with my right hand.



I'm hopeful that the areas of my brain that were damaged because of oxygen
deprivation can be "re-routed" to compensate and that I'll get closer and
closer to "normal" the longer I do OT/PT and mental exercises.



Well, it's taken me over two hours to compose this post because of all of
the above, so you can understand if, as I said, I don't just jump back
into the group as much as I used to. I just thank all that's holy that I
have recovered as much as I have.



So that's it, that's the whole *TRUE* story of what I've gone through, so
I hope I can bypass another "gastric bypass is good/bad" debate. But just
FTR, I would advise anyone to forgo gastric bypass unless their health is
in danger and unable to respond to any other weight-loss methods (and,
yes, there are some people for whom gastric bypass is used to save their
lives - the abdominal surgery has caused me to look up everything I can
find about abdominal surgery and GB is a large part of that data
now-a-days).



Thank you for sticking around to read to the bottom of this post, it's
extremely boring to listen to someone else's medical problems. I just
wanted to set the record straight and tell the story to anyone who might
be, for various reasons, interested in my tale.


--
Hugs,



CatNipped
See all our masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped



See the RPCA FAQ site, by Mark Edwards, at:
http://www.professional-geek.com/rpcablog/



Email: L(dot)T(dot)Crews(at)comcast(dot)net

"CatNipped" wrote in message
...

...I've regained a good bit of what I lost, and I'm hoping that
I'll be able to reroute the pathways in my brain that were
"shorted out" by the septic shock "coma" (I don't know what
else to call it ...)...

http://www.answers.com/topic/coma, in the entry from "The Oxford
Companion To The Body", seems to suggest that coma is the
correct word to describe your episode. I'm just glad that you're
here to call it anything at all!

--
MatSav

Lori, I am so damned happy to read you!! I got the message from you in my
inbox this morning. It was the first thing I saw!! I can't tell you how
happy I was to see you in there!! You've come a loooong way, with a
looooong way to go, but you're a fighter, and I have faith that you'll
continue to mend. I'm also glad to read that you're over 100 pounds!!

Welcome home, my friend... welcome home!!




·.·´¨ ¨)) -:¦:-
¸.·´ .·´¨¨))
Laurie
((¸¸.·´ ..·´
-:¦:- ((¸¸ ·.·

*~*LiveLoveLaugh*~*

All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.
~Abraham Lincoln

"CatNipped" wrote in message ...

Yep, to the pleasant surprise of some and the disappointment of others, I
*am* still alive. I was only able to log on for 5 minutes in the middle of
all this, so I saw only two posts replying to the post Ben made. Since then
I've been totally incommunicado, physically and mentally, and unaware of
anything outside of my hospital bed. After *forty-four* days in the
hospital, I'm finally home.. which doesn't mean I'm going to be jumping back
into the group totally, because I have so much to do and catch up on and
because of physical and mental disabilities. The main thing I have to do is
getting my fur-babies to forget and forgive my abandoning them. Archer
completely snubbed me on my first "home visit" (they would let me go from
the SNIP unit for a few hours every week for doctors' appointments and/or a
quick trip home), then finally warmed up to me. Sammy is too much of a
pettins' 'ho' to give up being skritched. Ozzy is lukewarm to me, but he
was never a cuddling cat to begin with. Jessie cares only for Ben - always
has, always will. And Demi is as Demi always was, afraid of her own shadow.



[Sidebar: the reason the cats were *SO* traumatized is that, two weeks into
my hospital stay, Ben had a heart attack (and was subsequently diagnosed
with diabetes), called 911, and was hospitalized for 5 days (he is "OK" now
but his heart still isn't beating correctly and in a couple of weeks he'll
have to go back into the hospital for them to "shock" his heart back into
the correct rhythm, and he has to take medications for that and the
diabetes). It took 2 whole days to arrange for his mother to be driven by
his sister from Arkansas to feed, water and scoop for the cats. They went
for 2 days without any food at all (from now on there will be a plan in
place to handle a double emergency like this - too late to "fix" the feeling
of abandonment my fur-babies had to have felt). Fortunately, they were *SO*
well fed before that that it didn't cause any drastic weight loss or health
issue.]



Anyway, for those of you interested, here is the complete, *TRUE* story of
what I've been through.



First, this had *NOTHING* to do with gastric bypass surgery. If you
remember, about 6(?) months ago I was diagnosed with Congestive Heart
Failure with Left Ventricular Thrombus (a blood clot inside of the ventricle
chamber of my heart). After being on blood thinners for a couple of months,
my cardiologist said that the blood clot was gone and he discontinued the
use of blood thinners (baaaaaaad idea). The blood clot didn't go away, it
broke up and moved to various parts of my body. At least two lodged into
the blood vessels providing oxygen to my intestinal tract. The first few
feet (upper small intestines) and the last few feet (colon) became necrotic
(died).



For the longest time doctors (*several* specialists, x-rays, MRIs, CAT
scans, etc.) told me I just had constipation and sent me home with
laxatives. On Thursday, February 17, Ben came downstairs to find me
unconscious on the floor. He rushed me to the ER and they did a number of
tests and *STILL* didn't come up with an accurate diagnosis. Finally, a GP
from my PCP's office came in to look at me prior to sending me home with
laxatives, because I still wouldn't regain consciousness (I guess they
thought I was faking being in a coma???!!). She did a physical examination
and when she pressed on the bottom right of my stomach I cried out even
though I was still unconscious. She thought "appendicitis". But when she
pressed on the upper left of my stomach I arched myself almost of the
examining table and screamed like a banshee, again, even though I was still
unconscious.



Warning, this may get just a little anatomically gross for those who are
sensitive to that - I'll try to make it as clinical as possible.



After that she order a special MRI with special intravenous dye that showed
the blood vessels supplying the intestinal tract. It showed not only the
blocked blood vessels, but also showed that my entire intestinal tract was
blocked with fecal matter without an inch even halfway empty. In fact, the
necrotic parts were filled to *TEN TIMES* their normal diameter. In one of
those spots the intestines had broken open, dumping contaminated matter into
the abdominal cavity (peritonitis). That was the cause of the "coma" - they
called it "septic shock".



They called an abdominal surgical specialist out of his bed in the middle of
the night (and might I say I owe my life to this Indian gentleman - he *has*
to be one of the best surgeons alive to have pulled me away from death like
he did). He looked at all the test results (quickly) and came to talk to
Ben to tell him I needed surgery. Ben said 'OK, when do you want to set it
up?'. The doctor said 'you don't understand, when I'm finished talking to
you, or in a few moments, I'm going directly to the surgical suite and
scrubbing in for immediate, emergency surgery'. He then told Ben that he
shouldn't get his hopes up because of the surgery, that there was only a
very, *VERY* slim chance that I would live through it (most people die
almost immediately from peritonitis). He told Ben to start contacting my
loved ones and to prepare them and himself for the announcement of my death.
[He also had to do a second surgery on the following Tuesday, after some of
the swelling and inflammation had gone down, to "clean up" anything he
missed and to temporarily reroute my colon until it healed enough to
reverse.]



I don't know if it's because I've been through so many medical issues in my
life so my body is used to recovering from very traumatic shocks, or if I'm
just blessed with a genetically strong constitution, but somehow I did
survive the surgery. Even so, the doctors told Ben that it was very, *VERY*
iffy that I would survive, much less recover from the surgery. I was still
in "septic shock", the reason for my "coma. I was in ICU, unconscious, for
two weeks, then in a "step-down unit" for two weeks after I (sort of)
regained consciousness, then in a SNiF (skilled nursing facility) until last
night.



When I 'woke up' after two weeks, I found that I had huge chunks of memory
that had just disappeared (things like my *CATS' NAMES*, even - and the
latest I could remember was the fall of 2010 and I was fuzzy even about that
(I still can't remember how to use our cable remote)). Thankfully, quite a
bit of that has come back, but I'm still missing a *LOT* of memory and still
have problems committing anything to memory - my short-term memory has been
compromised. I still have problems with my speech and pretty bad aphasia
(sometimes I'll not only forget the word I was trying to say, but will
replace that word with a completely inappropriate word).



I was also paralyzed on my right side - I had to have two nurses come and
move me or turn me on my side to relieve the bed sores I'd developed (I
still have one, the deepest, on my heel that is necrotic, but we're keeping
it covered with sealant in hope that it will heal from the inside out - if
it opens I'll have to have more surgery(s) to clean it out, and bed sores
tend to get septic/toxic very, very quickly). The cause of the paralysis
and memory loss is that I lost a lot of oxygen to my brain at some point in
the septic shock coma - more on this in a little bit. It's about the same
consequences as when someone has a stroke.



I also found: my hands were "restrained" because I was intubated and unable
to breathe on my own (it was two weeks before they removed the breathing
tube and put me on plain oxygen); an "ileostomy" bag attached to my side
because my colon had been (hopefully) temporarily rerouted until (three
months from the initial surgery) it can be reversed; an open abdominal wound
10 inches long x 3 inches wide open x 1 inch deep (you can actually see the
layers of skin and fat and body tissue inside of it); 2 "J Tubes" to drain
the wound; a "PEG tube" (a feeding tube going directly into my stomach from
my side into which they poured liquid nourishment); a "PIC Line" (a
"permanent" intravenous tube on the underside of my left arm that had three
"feeds" going to various places, one being the vena cava); and a Foley
catheter. The "J Tubes" came out after 2.5 weeks, the "PEG Line" came out
after 3.5 weeks, the Foley catheter came out 5 days ago, and the "PIC Line"
came out yesterday. That still leaves me with the open wound and the
ileostomy bag. I'll have to have home nursing come out every day to clean
and re-dress the wound and take care of the bed sore on my heel, another
nurse to help me care for the ileostomy bag and appliances, a physical
therapist for over-all strength and movement, and an occupational therapist
for fine motor movement control.



Now, the paralysis... I've gotten a great deal of movement back (I can now
sit up, rise from a sitting position if my seat is high enough, and walk a
limited distance using a walker). But, I still can't raise my right arm
even an inch from the table when I have it laying out in front of me... my
right shoulder wants to "hitch up" in a shrug even when I'm resting, but
especially when I try to move my arm (it's a bad habit to use my body to
move my arm and my PT fusses constantly at me because of that). However, I
can still move my right hand - I just have to adjust the height of whatever
I'm working on with my right hand.



I'm hopeful that the areas of my brain that were damaged because of oxygen
deprivation can be "re-routed" to compensate and that I'll get closer and
closer to "normal" the longer I do OT/PT and mental exercises.



Well, it's taken me over two hours to compose this post because of all of
the above, so you can understand if, as I said, I don't just jump back into
the group as much as I used to. I just thank all that's holy that I have
recovered as much as I have.



So that's it, that's the whole *TRUE* story of what I've gone through, so I
hope I can bypass another "gastric bypass is good/bad" debate. But just
FTR, I would advise anyone to forgo gastric bypass unless their health is in
danger and unable to respond to any other weight-loss methods (and, yes,
there are some people for whom gastric bypass is used to save their lives -
the abdominal surgery has caused me to look up everything I can find about
abdominal surgery and GB is a large part of that data now-a-days).



Thank you for sticking around to read to the bottom of this post, it's
extremely boring to listen to someone else's medical problems. I just
wanted to set the record straight and tell the story to anyone who might be,
for various reasons, interested in my tale.


--
Hugs,



CatNipped
See all our masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped



See the RPCA FAQ site, by Mark Edwards, at:
http://www.professional-geek.com/rpcablog/



Email: L(dot)T(dot)Crews(at)comcast(dot)net

Lori- just wanted to say how happy I am to hear from you

Purrs for you and for Ben

Take care of yourself and I hope things improve for you- the purrs are
being kept up this end!

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

"MatSav" wrote in message
...
"CatNipped" wrote in message
...

...I've regained a good bit of what I lost, and I'm hoping that I'll be
able to reroute the pathways in my brain that were "shorted out" by the
septic shock "coma" (I don't know what else to call it ...)...

http://www.answers.com/topic/coma, in the entry from "The Oxford Companion
To The Body", seems to suggest that coma is the correct word to describe
your episode. I'm just glad that you're here to call it anything at all!

--
MatSav

{{{{{Mat}}}}} You're just so sweet. I am *SO* glad to be back. I still
have a long, long road to recovery. Just last night/this morning.......

Gross warning spacer.
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/

Sometime during the night my ileostomy bag broke open. Since I take a
sleeping pill, I sleep very soundly so I didn't feel it and wake up. This
morning, I found that the contents of the (full) ileostomy bag had soaked
me, my clothes, my bedding and most disastrous, soaked and got inside the
bandage covering my open belly wound. The only thing I could think to do
was strip everything off and get into a shower (Ben bought me a shower
chair, bless his heart). So with warm water I rinsed off, being careful not
to let too much water into the wound (but enough to get all fecal matter out
of it, I hope).

Then Ben again showed me his dedication by making me lay down and attaching
a new bag, seal and all. Then he cleaned and dressed the wound almost like
a professional. Home nursing will be out again today and I'll as them to
redo it to make sure we got all the contaminated material out of the wound.
I also want them to give me a *lot* of rubber glove in size "XLarge" and a
*lot" in size "Medium. Also, I'm now out of "SurePrep" - it forms a barrier
over the skin so that delicate skin like mine won't get a bleeding rash.
It's also what I use for the bed sore on my heel.

Anyway, sorry for grossing out/boring everyone with my medical ales of woe!
;


--
Hugs,

CatNipped
See all our masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped

See the RPCA FAQ site, by Mark Edwards, at:
http://www.professional-geek.com/rpcablog/

Email: L(dot)T(dot)Crews(at)comcast(dot)net

Just wanted to say it was nice to see your post... Sorry for all you
have been through and am happy you are doing so well... Please keep us
posted on how things are going with you and Ben and the cats.....

Top posting....

Bring on the gross medical woes. I'm just glad you're here to tell us about
them!!


·.·´¨ ¨)) -:¦:-
¸.·´ .·´¨¨))
Laurie
((¸¸.·´ ..·´
-:¦:- ((¸¸ ·.·

*~*LiveLoveLaugh*~*

All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.
~Abraham Lincoln

"CatNipped" wrote in message ...

"MatSav" wrote in message
...
"CatNipped" wrote in message
...

...I've regained a good bit of what I lost, and I'm hoping that I'll be
able to reroute the pathways in my brain that were "shorted out" by the
septic shock "coma" (I don't know what else to call it ...)...

http://www.answers.com/topic/coma, in the entry from "The Oxford Companion
To The Body", seems to suggest that coma is the correct word to describe
your episode. I'm just glad that you're here to call it anything at all!

--
MatSav

{{{{{Mat}}}}} You're just so sweet. I am *SO* glad to be back. I still
have a long, long road to recovery. Just last night/this morning.......

Gross warning spacer.
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/
|
\/

Sometime during the night my ileostomy bag broke open. Since I take a
sleeping pill, I sleep very soundly so I didn't feel it and wake up. This
morning, I found that the contents of the (full) ileostomy bag had soaked
me, my clothes, my bedding and most disastrous, soaked and got inside the
bandage covering my open belly wound. The only thing I could think to do
was strip everything off and get into a shower (Ben bought me a shower
chair, bless his heart). So with warm water I rinsed off, being careful not
to let too much water into the wound (but enough to get all fecal matter out
of it, I hope).

Then Ben again showed me his dedication by making me lay down and attaching
a new bag, seal and all. Then he cleaned and dressed the wound almost like
a professional. Home nursing will be out again today and I'll as them to
redo it to make sure we got all the contaminated material out of the wound.
I also want them to give me a *lot* of rubber glove in size "XLarge" and a
*lot" in size "Medium. Also, I'm now out of "SurePrep" - it forms a barrier
over the skin so that delicate skin like mine won't get a bleeding rash.
It's also what I use for the bed sore on my heel.

Anyway, sorry for grossing out/boring everyone with my medical ales of woe!
;


--
Hugs,

CatNipped
See all our masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped

See the RPCA FAQ site, by Mark Edwards, at:
http://www.professional-geek.com/rpcablog/

Email: L(dot)T(dot)Crews(at)comcast(dot)net

On Apr 3, 9:44*am, "CatNipped" wrote:

I also want them to give me a *lot* of rubber glove in size "XLarge" and a
*lot" in size "Medium. *Also, I'm now out of "SurePrep" - it forms a barrier
over the skin so that delicate skin like mine won't get a bleeding rash.
It's also what I use for the bed sore on my heel.

Anyway, sorry for grossing out/boring everyone with my medical ales of woe!

Don't gross me out- just worried about wound contamination- make sure
the nurse gets it clean!

Ben sounds like he's a keeper as I once said to Dave (and dear God I
hope he never reads this!) "I've wiped your ass for you do you think
I'm gonna walk out after doing that?!"

You will soon learn the one thing you, the nurses and Ben are going to
use a lot is rubber gloves- we had them by the ton- try to get the
latex free ones- first of all even if someone isn't allergic to latex
with a lot of use they can get sensitised to it and latex reactions
can be very nasty/fatal.

Never heard of "SurePrep" but after the last few years I am well
qualified to talk about several emollients/barrier creams etc

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs