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So, now for the complications….
So, once again, I need to pick your collective brains. In the last episode, my father was just a few days past his cystectomy and neobladder, and last Friday he was apparently well enough to go home.
So, Friday afternoon, I was on my way out of town to speak at a veterinary conference and I stopped in to see Dad. He looked very wiped, but I figured that was because it was his first few hours home and he had probably overdone it. Then I helped him get off the couch, and pulled him up by his hand. His hand felt very warm. My dad’s hands NEVER feel warm, he has Reynauds Syndrome, a problem with circulation in his hands and feet. I felt his forehead, also warm. I stuck a thermometer in his mouth, and voila, 10 days post-op and he had a fever of 102.5.
I was so mad!!! He had been discharged only three hours before, apparently “well enough to go home”. When my Mom picked him up, he was huddled under three blankets, shivering, and the nurses pulled him up and started dressing him. She didn’t like the way he looked, and they just kept saying Dr. … said he’s ready to go!
So, Mom phoned the hospital, and talked to the “nurses” on the 5th floor, where he had just been discharged. They probably hadn’t even changed his bed yet. They told her she would have to take him to Emergency to be reassessed.
Well, let me tell you that was a nightmare. They made my dad sit in a wheelchair after “triage” for THREE HOURS!!! Then, they took him in, he apparently looked like crap and they did bloodwork and a CT Scan, and said, you’ve got a “big” infection. Of course, being the weekend, the surgeon that did his surgery, or the urologist that is his primary care, wasn’t available, and they had to call the urologist on call. He said to put him on this cocktail of antibiotics (4, from what I heard), that surprised even the ER doctor, and readmit him.
So, dad spent the weekend on IV fluids and antibiotics and yesterday,started passing gas through his urinary catheter!! What’s up with that! Nothing good that I can envision, as all I am thinking is gas forming bacteria in the urinary tract, which is never a good thing.
I called him this morning, and he said the gas has stopped (as far as he knows), but now his testicles are hurting, so much that he is back on morphine. Apparently his whole scrotum has been super swollen since the surgery, but now suddenly the testicles “hurt” with a constant pain. Again, this doesn’t seem like a normal thing considering his surgery is 2 weeks old.
Anyway, my mom just phoned the doctors office to see when my dad may be graced with a visit…sometime around lunch is the word. Then, if the urologist thinks they need to, they will call in the surgeon to look him over. I think they need to be doing quite a few tests today, I am getting very worried that I am going to lose my father!
Anyway, if anyone has any ideas of the complications that could be going on here, I’d appreciate hearing them! I’m hoping that they are not as serious as what I am envisioning, but you know, a little knowledge is a very bad thing when it comes to this!
andrea
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8 Replies
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Andrea, Feed him lots of chocolate milk shakes, my husband has gained 6 pounds this week, he was 185 in the beginning of this thing, went down to 152, and is now 158. Lots of milk shakes!!!!!!
Ginger Beane -
More update, my dad was released again yesterday, finishing a course of oral antibiotics. He looked pretty good last night, just somewhat uncomfortable, and napping alot, but I suppose that is a good thing as it will give him time to heal. He’s lost a lot of weight, which he can’t afford to lose, but he’s starting to get a bit of an appetite so we can hopefully get him gaining fairly soon, or at least stop losing.
I am getting my parents onto this forum, I think reading some of the posts will help them to understand the recovery is a process and has to be approached day by day or by baby steps. So many of you are in a similar stage of recovery as my dad, or about to go through surgery, I think they will really benefit keeping in touch.
Thanks again for all of your help! andrea
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Andrea, I am so sorry to hear that your father is so unwell after his surgery, I will be thinking of you guys & hoping the antibotics kick in & that he is feeling alot better very soon.
And yes I would be asking to see his records to check if there was any sign of temp before he was discharged,all the best.
Cathy. -
How the hell could these nurses be touching your Dad and getting him dressed and not know that he felt warm and also when you are running a fever you don’t look the best either. No hospital needs a bed this bad to let a man leave the hospital with a fever TOTALLY UNCALLED FOR. Joe
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My father, too, had a major complicaton just one day after being released from the hospital. He had a leak where the ureter joined the conduit which filled his abdomen with bacteria and caused a MAJOR infection. He had to go the to ER and was readmitted to the hospital for an 18-day stay. I also wondered why they let him out of the hospital without doing some tests that could have caught this problem before it got as bad as it did. This complication was much harder to recover from than the cystectomy and he’s still taking one day at a time in his recovery process. He also had a hugely swollen scrotum as a result of the cystectomy and this is still somewhat of a problem almost 6 months after surgery. His problem also happened on a weekend (Sunday), but luckily I was able to get in touch with his urologist who was also his surgeon who met us at the ER and brought a general surgeon with him in case there was a bowel blockage involved.
Did they check for leaks? They had to put a pelvic drain in Dad’s abdomen and run it out his right butt cheek to drain off the fluids that had collected in his abdomen. They also put him on massive antibiotics, protonix, lasik, TPN and no telling what else through a pic line.
It was a horrible thing to happen but that is one of the known complications that can occur with a cystectomy. The doctor later apologized to my Dad and told him that Dad was the bravest man he knows.
I know what you are going through. Hopefully they will find out what is happening with your Dad and get it corrected.
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Andrea,
Once again, how a slip up from the staff can make your life miserable, and his for God’s sakes. Frankly, this is “bull shit”, GET ON THE PHONE UNTIL YOU GET THINGS RIGHT, STAND IN THE DOCTORS FACE AND LET HIM KNOW HOW YOU FEEL. And most of all don’t let dad come home until he is clear. If you haven’t checked on him what would have happened. This infuriates me, this shouldn’t happen. All the time and prep to do this surgery and he is overlooked by a temperature. NOT ACCEPTABLE. I can’t talk about infection, or help your cause on procedure, but for sure this is INCOPETENT CARE.. KEEP US INFORMED….. Ginger Beane -
Thank you Wendy, sometimes one needs to be brought back to earth. Where I work, I see the worst of the worst, and I also know what many of these conditions can lead to, and therefore imagine the worst happening. I hope it is something as simple as epidytimitis, and I will hold out hope for that. The passing gas thru the urinary catheter, could indicate an emphysematous pyelonephritis, and they have told dad he has a “kidney infection”. I worry about that, because it has a very high mortality rate and often requires a nephrectomy. It is a very severe, rare condition which almost exclusively affects diabetics.
Anyway, as I said a little knowledge can be a very bad thing when you are dealing with these types of things.
I’m concerned that they sent him home when he obviously was not well enough to go, the only blessing seems to be that the nurses are much friendlier in the medicine ward, where he was sent. Thanks! andrea
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Andrea my dear, I am so sorry your father and family are dealing with a complication post-op, but as complications go, this one may well be a benign condition treatable with antibiotics. A possible reason could be ‘epiditimytis’ or maybe even ‘epididymo-orchitis’ which an infection that may be caused by surgical instruments among other things like sexually transmitted diseases (but given the circumstance I bet it’s the first).
Here’s the Mayo’s info on this condition:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/epididymitis/DS00603/DSECTION=1Please keep us posted on how things go with your father. It stinks that none of his ‘real’ doctors were around, but maybe this young guy in the E.R. knows what he is doing.
Wendy
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