WWTBAM Bored

If anyone who gives them is left on this board, my brother could use some. A nurse just called us to find out if my sister, who my brother listed as next-of-kin, has power of attorney. They removed a portion of his intestines, which portion was dead, & are waiting to close him up until they can tell if another, inflamed portion needs to be removed; they've got him completely sedated, & won't wake him up to get his consent, they say.

We are hoping this is "just" the result of adhesions, which can happen after abdominal surgery; he had his gall bladder (full of big stones) removed a couple years ago. They don't have the biopsy back from the section they removed yet.

Yikes! Vibes on the way. --Bob

On their way.

{{{{{{{{{{{{VIBES}}}}}}}}}}}}

best thoughts for him.

Good vibes coming your way.
My mom had similar surgery after an abscess and is doing well.

Coming from someone who had also had his gall bladder removed under not so good circumstances, good vibes to your brother and prayers for the skill and wisdom of the doctors, and for a full recovery.

Prayers and vibes from here.

You got them.

I hope you've already heard better news. In any event, look up. You may see a glow from the White Hot Glare, which is hovering (and vibrating) over the Northeastern US.

Thanks to all the good-vibes people. Please keep them coming; he's going to need them. The doctor finally called, & said they can't determine *what* is killing off my brother's intestine; it doesn't appear to be cancer, though the biopsies are not back yet, & it's not adhesions from the gall bladder surgery 2 years ago. They theorize either a blood clot or low blood pressure. My brother had a blood pressure drop last night, but as they were monitoring him in the hospital they gave him drugs to bring the pressure back up.

They did surgery, as scheduled, again today. We were hoping they would be able to close him back up (he's been kept w/ open incisions on a wound vac) but instead they had to cut out another foot of intestine & put him back on the vac. He will stay sedated & on a ventilator until after they close him back up, which will be after another surgery tomorrow. At that time they will either reattach the intestine to itself or attach "a couple bags". Either way, they still plan to close up the wound in his abdomen tomorrow. If the bags are necessary his intestines could eventually still be reattached "several months down the road".

I hope for his sake its not the bags; he would find that harder to live with than the already-difficult situation he's going to have.

Please excuse typos & unfinished phrase I can't edit out on this tablet.


I hope

Some local good vibes on the way.

Good vibes for your brother, Ghost.

Add me to the group of good vibes people, Ghost.

Good vibes to your brother.

They were able to we-hope-permanently reattach my brother's intestines today; no ileostomy bag or bags (the surgeon had initially said there might have to be bags, plural intended; diff sections of his small intestine had died, apparently). We are told to be *very cautiously* optimistic right now. He is still heavily sedated & still on a ventillator for now. They are keeping him in the ICU for several days to monitor what we hope is his recovery.

I have been reading up on this "reassessment/reoperation" technique for intestine surgery, & its not clear to me, but it seems they have the ends of intestine conected by tubes until they determine its OK to sew them back together? In which case the wound vac is just for abdominal fluids, not intestine contents, while they hold the incision into the abdomen open.

We have very little access to the surgeon, because mainly the hospital has been calling us for permission to operate. My brother gave his initial permission, but after it got past the initial operation it was considered no longer emergency surgery but my brother was too sedated to give consent again, so they needed next-of-kin to do so. I was visiting my sister in NYC, & its impossible to get replacement caretakers to fill in at a moment's notice for the cousin she takes care of, especially on the Thankgiving Holiday weekend. I could have gone but would have had to go back to Boston & board my cat somewhere 1st; I had not left food, water & litter to hold him for an indefinite period of time. But I did not want to be on a flight to Ohio, where my brother is, & out of communication range while he was being operated on.

A friend we got to go see my brother yesterday says my brother, even though on the ventillator & highly sedated (so he won't move around, upset the surgical results or the wound-vac; we know from experience w/ my mom's skin ulcers those vacs come detached very easily, but in my mom's case the vac & maintaining sterility wasn't immediate life-or-death, as her wounds didn't go into body cavities) can give signs that he understands things by nods & eye movements. Which contradicts what the nurses have been telling us. But the hospital doesn't consider his consent to be unsedated enough to be informed.

Even though he said to notify no-one when he went in, he gave next-of-kin info, which is why my sister was called for consent, & in my opinion even heavily sedated people are helped by having their hands held, even though we're not surgeons. But I'm not there, at least not yet.

I imagine if we'd been there we'd have had a course of treatment outlined by the surgeon. Maybe that's just on TV. I never had a detailed surgery outlined for *me* when I went in for *scheduled* surgery.

Continued good vibes from here.

Best wishes to your brother and I hope he makes a full and speedy recovery.

They've removed the ventilator & he spoke a few words. He's still very sedated & we haven't been able to speak to him yet.

I think I owe you Good-Vibers an update:

We thought it would be all smooth sailing after they got the ventilator out, but let's just say, because I don't think my brother would want it on the internet, though the info should definitely be more widely known & maybe I'll cover it in a post not directly linked to him, that he had a very bad reaction to the drugs they'd been keeping him sedated with, & possibly the general anaesthesia is involved in this too. Today is the 1st day I can say he appears to be coming out of the woods on this one. Fortunately, the surgery to reattach his intestines to themselves *does* appear to be holding up, & they're working like, well, intestines on the very little non-water that's been put into them (& the water too!).

Its going to be an even longer haul than we thought after the surgery was a success, but onward-&-outa-there-ward.

ghostjmf wrote:I think I owe you Good-Vibers an update:

We thought it would be all smooth sailing after they got the ventilator out, but let's just say, because I don't think my brother would want it on the internet, though the info should definitely be more widely known & maybe I'll cover it in a post not directly linked to him, that he had a very bad reaction to the drugs they'd been keeping him sedated with, & possibly the general anaesthesia is involved in this too. Today is the 1st day I can say he appears to be coming out of the woods on this one. Fortunately, the surgery to reattach his intestines to themselves *does* appear to be holding up, & they're working like, well, intestines on the very little non-water that's been put into them (& the water too!).

Its going to be an even longer haul thsn we thought after the surgery was a success, but onward-&-outa-there-ward.

Qualified good news is still good news.

Continued good vibes from here.

Good Luck to your brother. Thoughts and prayers to him.