Preparing for BB Surgery and Hospital Stay Tips

Thank you, Annie.

I just don't want others to go through the same experience I had if I can help it at all. 😊

I was flown by helicopter to a trauma hospital, where they turn them and burn them, dealing with volume. Not to a good hospital that focuses on patient experience.

I suspect this is what happens when one just falls out unexpectedly; they get shipped to the warehouse facility instead of picking and choosing based on reputation.

I doubt your experience will be anything like mine was. You are likely going to the same hospital you are already happy with.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the stupid rubbery socks they had. My hospital would only allow me to walk with either those dumb socks or rubber-soled shoes/slippers. The socks would have been fine if they'd actually fit and been much thicker, but the ultra-thin generic ones they had were horrible.

You must have been either really sick or had horrible care. There's no need for exercising your arms/legs; you should be getting up and moving as much as possible. I got to my room about 7 PM and was walking the halls about 10 PM.

Same here... walking almost immediately after surgery... once the dope wore off... (or the dope awakened)😆

Shamrock did have poor care and was very ill and clueless where he was going via helicopter.

When the hammer fell on him...

He put his trust into the system which burned him.

I can sympathize. It happened once to me. Broke femur and the hospital, a local well-known hospital, kept me doped for 2 days. Was transferred to a trauma center nearby.

They reset the bone. Boom, done.

A simple broken leg! A local hospital. 👎

He has a story. Not a very good one... just remember to include:

"For me, this was..."

"For me, that was..."

Because it's just you, your experience which to some degree needs to be mentioned, but not set in stone.

One thing learned... you become your own advocate.

He may have been really sick. After my surgery, they placed me in the ICU, and I was unable to get out of bed for days. Even one day of inactivity causes muscle loss, and I needed rehab to get back to my former level of mobility. So, exercises are a great idea if you are not well enough to move.

To the OP, get up and move as much as you can. You don't mention being overly sick, so there's every reason to expect you will be able to move soon after surgery. In my case, I was quite ill at the time of surgery, which contributed to how sick I got after surgery. I don't think my experience was typical.

Editing to add: Surgery quite literally saved my life, and I have never regretted it. Good luck!

Staying Hydrated with an Ostomy with LeeAnne Hayden | Hollister

"Your blocked" is grammatically incorrect.  It should be "you're blocked."  

Haha, there's a grammar Nazi comedian in every forum. 😆

Don't quit your day job. 😁

Look at it this way, your reading comprehension and eye test passed. 😆

Yea, I was in ICU for three weeks.

They would play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," and I told them every time I heard that, I thought someone had died. 😆

They looked at me like I was crazy.

It was for newborns, obviously, but I thought maternity was in a different ward than ICU, where many people were dying, howling in pain, and jumping out of bed, burning things, desperate for a smoke, with fire alarms going off all the time. Why mix the two environments?

After I said that, they changed the song to "Hush Little Baby" to avoid any further confusion. 😆

Then I was in recovery for another two weeks.

Then I caught this orderly in ICU taking 5-6 vials of blood out of me instead of the three he was supposed to do, cheating the system to avoid work, I suppose.

Well, they laid a trap for him and caught him at the elevator. Fired him on the spot. The hospital came and thanked me.

So yea, welcome to South Florida health care, like something out of a third-world country, and most of the staff don't speak English. They do work hard though, cleaned me and the bed four times once because of poor bag application and too much IV kept popping it off. Likely because they can't go many other places. 🙄

So yea, five weeks of hell. Now you know why I said what I said and feel how I do.

I have a DNR now because they say I have cancer and require 3 surgeries, chemo, and radiation over 4 years just to buy me 5 more years, or perhaps one more year of life which, of course, will be spent in recovery. 🙄

According to the doctor, I should have been dead several months back, given less than a year to live over a year ago now, but I'm still going except for this poor stoma they put in, thinking it was temporary as they couldn't do cancer evaluation. Wasn't a cancer hospital. So I switched to a better one, but heck no on the surgery and chemo. I haven't had a blood test in a year now... don't want to know.

So I've been waiting to die for the last year and nothing's happening. No aches or pains. Just ostomy burns and a granuloma. Spending a fortune on supplies, living out of hotels.

If I fall out again, I've made sure they can't (or are not supposed to) bring me back this time.

You've had a rough time of it. I can better understand the tone of your posts now. I had excellent medical care and still spent 5 weeks in the hospital only to return for another week shortly after discharge. Shit happens. 

I laughed at the story about Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Were they playing it each time a baby was born? My hospital played Lullaby like that. Drove me crazy for the longest time. 

You've made your choice re: the cancer and you seem to be content with your decision so I won't comment on it. I hope you can find some peace and something to bring you a little happiness. 

Yes, it was for new babies born, but all I saw around me was death, screaming, and chaos. 😢

I thought it was to cheer the dying up a little before they go, like focusing on heaven above or something.

And for a week I couldn't talk, and since most of the staff didn't speak English, it wasn't very fun, believe me.

Oh, and they kept me doped up on the worst psych drugs, Xanax and something else, which was giving me the most horrific nightmares.

I think Google was experimenting with "Hey Google, call 911" because the nurses kept phones in their pockets, and me saying that caused the police to show up a few times. 😆

Then I was visited by angels who prayed over my stoma, and the head nurse was going around acting all upset. So I don't know if I was dreaming that or not.

I asked the psych doc to keep me off that junk, but he refused. However, I learned a clever trick: you can refuse individual treatment.

So they had a mainline where they would come with a fat syringe full of food, medicine, etc., all in one big shot. So I started refusing that and had them switch to pills. Then I asked what each pill was for and refused the stuff that was knocking me out or giving me nightmares.

Of course, the mainline dried up from not being used, and I was a tough stick, so they had to put in another one with ultrasound, which they put in my forearm, and of course, it came out, so they blamed me for that.

Also, they blamed me for tearing off the bag after it leaked, but I kept calling for the nurse, but none wanted to handle the mess. So I tore it off and wiped up the mess off my skin with my water and towels, etc. Then I'd say screw it because the bed was soiled, so I just crawled out and sat on the couch naked with poo running down my chest.

I really tried to be nice, calling for a bag dump, dumping it myself, and laying perfectly still on my back as not to disturb the seal. But after three days, I just had to move, and the physical therapy doc said I needed to move despite the bag popping off.

They tried all kinds of alarms, etc., to try to keep me in the bed, but I had to get out of it; it was killing me, my back was all sore, and I would go unwashed for days. No toothpaste or anything. They wouldn't cut my toenails. 😢

Then they wouldn't take the thing out of my throat that was sucking juices out of my lungs. I took it off and started breathing on my own, and they said as long as the monitor said 100, I was fine. So I started running while on my back, the nurses came and tried to hold me down to put the thing back into my throat, and I would fight them off. They threatened to call the police, and I said go ahead, do it! Jail is better than this torture.

They decided to take me out of ICU and into recovery when I lied and said I've been eating ice cubes for the last week. 😆

So yeah, it was no walk in the park surgery for me. It was like they didn't want to let me go. They finally stationed a nurse outside my door 24/7 because I would get up at night and crawl down the hall trying to escape.

They kept me hooked up to a heart rate monitor, and I said, what about a portable unit? After that, things went better; I would crawl into a rolling chair and push myself around, use the sink, and try to be active. They said if I rolled myself out of my room without permission, they would take the chair away, so I complied, but I would go to the door and look down the halls anyway just to see something.

So yeah, speaking of horrible hospital experiences, I had one, right here in the good old USA. 🙄

Shamrock,

Last line very touching and hitting home, although I am a different kind of bag lady (gallows humor).

Hope all goes well, Ann Shirley.

Just wow! There's a lot I could say about the right to refuse treatment and even to leave the hospital against medical advice, but you probably know all that by now.

Your story sounds like a third-world experience.

I'm sorry that happened to you. Sending you a virtual hug.

May I ask what a bb surgery is? Tried Googling it but yielded no results. 

Thank you 

Thanks everyone. 😊 

I went into the hospital with only blunt force trauma to the abdomen as their information, possibly from a car accident. So I guess they opened up my whole chest to take a closer look at everything.

I suspect this was far more than just a targeted surgery and the whole "wimp" thing where many report just a quicker procedure that isn't something to be afraid of.

Although I kind of unintentionally hijacked the thread, sorry Annie, it was good to hear others feedback to see my case wasn't typical.

We all learned something here today. 😊 

I think it means Barbie Butt surgery "bum sewn shut so smooth like barbie's butt"! 🤔😅

🔒 Login to see image

That's funny. 🤣 

G-Day Clara, it's when you have your butthole stitched up closed. It's only when you have a permanent ostomy. That way, you have no problems with mucus and no chance of rectal cancer. Regards, IGGIE

Oh Anne...

You need to keep water (nothing else) around quite a bit to drink because without a colon reclaiming water, your ileostomy just flushes it out quite a bit.

You need to ensure you're not dehydrated; urine should be often and light yellow, not orange or nothing.

If you like coffee, my suggestion is to switch to tea. Coffee is extremely acidic and could make your output burn much worse than normal.

Good luck 🍀

Water will keep you peeing, and enough of it will result in clear urine; however, for me and some others, it does nothing to keep you hydrated. You need fluids, yes, electrolytes, vitamin water maybe? I was using water at one time and still ended up in the hospital for dehydration.

So my thought is water to pee, flush you out, but get some kind of healthy drink in you, and I recall someone—maybe our member atraveler—listed a whole bunch of healthy drinks.

Perhaps he reads this and adds that list, because it's good stuff.

Agree... Doc said drink more water! So I drank lots! Blood test revealed I had flushed sodium out... doc called STOP DRINKING SO MUCH WATER! Was drinking 3 or 4 (16.9 oz each) purified drinking water bottles a day. Found my best hydrators to be watermelon, cucumbers, and my favorite, whole milk - the best hydrator! jb

Righto... the flushing flushed important nutrients out. Not good.

Thanks for the backup there.

Milk? Ugh. Dairy has been an issue, so I don't touch it anymore. Gas... and not petrol, but... gassy...

I loved milk. Just eliminated it for now.

Water for a quickie, but do take the better drinks. Just watch out for sodium and sugar content in these "hydration" drinks. For me:

High content of these changed taste. Foods were way too salty or just not right. Blaaaaah.

If you are still having skin issues and position issues causing wafer failure, I would think you're way overdue for some follow-up with an ostomy care nurse. Having the right products and combinations is key to getting your "normal" life back, being confident in getting out and about, and maintaining healthy, intact skin. 

You likely washed the electrolytes out of your system.

That can happen with drinking too much plain water. Once in a while, or as needed, one needs to drink water with electrolytes.

Thanks, but I have a near flush stoma and a belly fold with a granuloma, a difficult situation with few easy solutions currently, even for an ostomy nurse who has about zero personal experience and is just book-trained.

There is a lot one can learn from books, but when it comes to using actual products in the field, it's another ball game.

We, out of necessity, have to become our very own best educators.

It appears that those third-world experiences are not as uncommon as one might think. Also, from what I hear, be sure to have family and/or friends come to visit. Otherwise, you may neither get fed nor washed.

That is very helpful, Shamrock.

I am hoping for a better outcome for you, too. 

You advised Anne "drink water, nothing else" about 5 threads above.

We all know what happens with too much water intake. Advising "only water" was the operative statement.

Respectfully, incorrectly stated. Are you backpedaling now?

Well, this is why after retirement, I stay in California, next to the amazing Hoag Hospital. My "home away from home" for over 30 years. I've had a dozen surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and my colostomy. The facilities and staff are wonderful. In my darkest moments, nurses took time to speak with me, reminding me that better days were coming.

I have opined a few times already that we are all different and in different places in our lives with good and bad experiences, ergo the different ways in which we are able to process what has happened to us.

But, Shamrock......................................do not go gentle into that good night.