Last month I spent 8 days in the hospital. I had to call 911 because of stomach pain. I was diagnosed with a bowel obstruction. It was horribly painful. This is how it happened.
I knew I had a hernia in my abdominal wall, but it wasn't hurting and I hate having surgery. I let the hernia go for over a year. The hernia grew larger, but I was unaware of that. I could tell my tummy looked larger on one side but attributed the enlargement to gaining some weight.
My husband and I were watching tv on a quiet March evening. I had a small coughing fit and felt something "pop" in my tummy. I immediately started having pain. I thought if I lay down it will go away. I rolled around on my bed moaning in pain, before I gave in and said I need to go to the ER.
The pain increased as I rode in the ambulance. I am glad I called 911, because I was able to get my IV started and the hospital was ready for me when I got there.
I was told about the way my intestines had pinched off or folded to block the bowel after they had taken a ct scan of my stomach. There is a procedure they can do where a nose tube is put into the stomach to make the bowel un-pinch or unfold. I had to have this done 4 times. I was awake each time. It's horrible. They shove a plastic tube into your nostril and shove it down your throat into your stomach. :::shudders:::
After a few days of this the doctors decided I needed emergency surgery to repair a hernia that was the size of a basket ball. My intestines are literally on the outside of my stomach wall. I was taken to surgery and put into the waiting area. This made me very nervous. When they finally came to take me to surgery I refused to go. I was just a wreck. I was taken back to my room. The nose tube was back in place and then I had to wait. I think the doctors thought I was going to die. But after 6 days I started to produce some gas. The procedure did work. My bowels were working again. After another couple of days they released me. I am doing okay now. They would like me to have the hernia repaired but I'm not so sure I will be able to survive the recovery.
This has been a long story and I could explain why I don't want surgery, but for now I'm going to stop.....
Talk to you soon.
Nina
