Been married 33 years. My wife has had stomach issues for the last 12 years, constant bouts with throwing up and IBS . Last Monday and Tuesday a week ago her stomach pain got really severe.
Wednesday morning took her to a doctor to get checked out. White blood cell count was 22k where it should be 10k or less. They sent her straight to the emergency room for more testing and Cat scan.
Turns out she had a strangulated hernia which caused a blocked colon.
So emergency surgery commenced within about 3 hours last Wednesday the 16th. Surgery went better than expected, perfect in fact. After surgery she felt better than shes felt in 12 years. no more cigs ,she said she's done smoking (45) years and to throw her stash out.
Monday the 21st she was to be discharged around 9:30 am and I'm there waithing for the paperwork and we're in her room visiting with a friend that stopped in.
All of the sudden she stopped talking and her jaw was just quivering and she had this blank stare. I got the nurse in to look at her and everything seemed fine except she couldn't speak. After about 8 minutes she was able to speak again and everything seemed normal. This event happened 9 more times from then until 2:00 that afternoon as they kept her at the hospit for observation.
I had stayed with her all the time as I was worried, at 2:38 she started having another spell and then it turned into a full blown seizure. Now if you've never witnessed one, i'll tell you now ,you really dont want to.
her arm came out and made a tight fist and she just locked up and quit breathing .I was telling the nurse to get somebody now, right now. My wife, you could see every vein in her face and arms and she turned the darkest shade of purple you could imagine. Then she went limp . I yelled to the nurse, you need to call a code RIGHT NOW! She fell back ,as she had raised up during the seizure and was laying there blue. Like a corpse. Not breathing. I've got tears now as I type this.
About ten people rushed in at once. That damn code thingy gets you help fast. They told me to leave and I refused. They all did what they were trained to do and got her breathing again. probably within about 3 minutes.
another doctor came in and asked me to leave and I willingly did so as I was spent. I knelt in the hallway outside the room and cried. I had just witnessed my wife die.
but she wasn't dead.
They got her stabilized over the next couple hours ,awake and alert and ambulanced her to amarillo to a major trauma center.
So she's been there since Monday evening and has these episodes where she can't speak and lose function of her hands ,arms for 5-20 minutes out of every hour , sometimes three events per hour.
They don't have a diagnosis that they've shared with me. you can't get a straight answer from anybody ther, nurse can't tell you which doctor is due to come in or what time. the hospital is like the twilight zone and a bad nightmare combined.
Our only daughter is going through high school graduation ths week and it's been the big event on my wifes calendar for the last 6 months. She won't get to see it.
I have no idea if the doctors can fix this or if i'm bringing home a vegetable.
About 10 years ago my wife had viral pneumonia and had to be put into a medically induced coma for almost a week. That was by far the longest week of my life. I felt so helpless. I wanted to help her but there was nothing I could do but sit and watch. Talked to her, held her hand, all that. But it still scares me all these years later (she fully recovered and all is well thankfully).
My wish for you is some peace and maybe a way to not worry so much. It is hard (maybe even impossible) but you have to let the professionals do what they are trained to do. Just keep in mind that even when this is over your wife will still need a lot of support so you have to keep yourself in good shape (eating and sleeping regularly!) to be able to provide that support. It is hard to remember but your health right now is almost as important as hers. [Reply]
Man, sorry to hear that. Sometimes simple things take swift turns. My sister went in for a gallbladder removal and vomited when they removed the tube after surgery and aspirated into her lungs. She was touch and go and docs said prepare for the worst. Lucky for us she recovered. Modern medicine is amazing, but there is still a lot we don't know and take for granted. [Reply]
Hog farmer, I am not a physician, but I am the son of one and have hung around medicine all my life.
The whole thing that one doctor can read the EEG sounds strange to me. It's also strange that the guy can't come in until 1 am. What doctor typically works at 1 am? I suspect the EEG is weird and his current doctors can't interpret it, so they're calling in a neurologist who is particularly good at diagnosing seizures.
The doctors likely suspect SOMETHING, but don't want to speculate because they think it will freak you out. Probably that expert will look at the EEGs right before the seizure episodes and try to divine what's causing the seizures.
Go ahead and ask the doctors what they suspect is going on. Ask them who is this doctor they are calling in and what is he particularly good at? Why are they bringing him into the case?
Many years ago, my father went through a medical crisis that came within an eyelash of killing him. Because the doctors treating him were all his friends and colleagues, they included him in their diagnosis pow wows (he was trying to help diagnose himself).
Since the doctors knew my family was medical, and most of them knew us socially, they'd have these brainstorm sessions in front of us in my Dad's hospital room. My sister and I both have graduate training in biology, so we could follow what they were saying better than most non physicians could.
One issue was that my Dad's perceptions were off. He'd tell his doctors how much he was eating, when he was eating practically nothing because trying to get food down was such an ordeal for him. The problem was that my Dad sounded credible because he spoke fluent "doctor", despite being severely ill. My sister and I started to emphatically shake our heads when he was giving inaccurate information.
The bottom line is DO have you or a another family member with your wife at all times. Observe her and report any symptoms you notice to her doctors. You will spend more time with your wife than any of the medical professionals and might observe something that will help make what is obviously a tough diagnosis.
At one point, my father was discharged and came home. He was still having issues and one of his doctors made a house call. This physician was a high school classmate of mine and saw my father as his mentor in medical practice. My father insisted he didn't want to go back to the hospital, and he wanted to "die at home" if he was going to die.
About an hour later he went incoherent. My Mom and I insisted that the doctor go against my Dad's request and readmit him, because looking at him his face had that sunken look that starving people have.
At one point I told this former high school classmate of mine that "we're all used to listening to him. He sounds like he's making sense, but he's sick and he's not thinking straight." The doctor readmitted him and listened to our observation. He finds that my Dad's colon had shut down due to an infection and wasn't absorbing food. That problem became critical very quickly because my father is a small Asian man (5'1" 110 lbs). He didn't have much body mass to break down before he was starving.
They put him on total patient nutrition and then an infectious disease specialist performed a juggling act treating two concurrent infections where treating one infection tended to promote the other.
The bottom line of this story is getting involved with your wife's treatment and observing what is going on can make a big difference. This crisis happened 18 years ago. Today, my Dad is 94. [Reply]
Prayers, Hog, to you and your family. Hope your daughter's graduation goes well, that your wife recovers quickly and fully, and that you all can put this behind you. [Reply]