Wellness

[hckynut]

@Lipstickdiva 

Since my favorite drink for decades has been good tasting water, no such thing as dehydration. Even the "no fluids after" such and such time, my body is still well hydrated. The IV's? During my several 3-4-5 week hospital stays in 2008 to 2012, I always had an IV in my arm.

Back then they had to change them every 72 hours. Seemed like every time I turned around it was time to change it. Had 1 nurse on the Heart Floor that was the best, but they worked 3 days 12 hours, so she wasn't there all the time.

Fasting is also something I have done for decades, many times 3 days at a time. In my 4+ week stay in 2008, all I could have was Apple Juice and Jello(not red), and that was for 17 days. Was having 2-3 Colonoscopies almost every week.

Nice of you to mention the hydration to those scheduled for a Colonoscopy. Makes a difference for many at IV time.

Be well now,

hckynut

[Lipstickdiva]

---

@hckynut wrote:

@Lipstickdiva 

Since my favorite drink for decades has been good tasting water, no such thing as dehydration. Even the "no fluids after" such and such time, my body is still well hydrated. The IV's? During my several 3-4-5 week hospital stays in 2008 to 2012, I always had an IV in my arm.

Back then they had to change them every 72 hours. Seemed like every time I turned around it was time to change it. Had 1 nurse on the Heart Floor that was the best, but they worked 3 days 12 hours, so she wasn't there all the time.

Fasting is also something I have done for decades, many times 3 days at a time. In my 4+ week stay in 2008, all I could have was Apple Juice and Jello(not red), and that was for 17 days. Was having 2-3 Colonoscopies almost every week.

Nice of you to mention the hydration to those scheduled for a Colonoscopy. Makes a difference for many at IV time.

Be well now,

hckynut

---

@hckynutI typically drink 100oz of water of day so I didn't think me not drinking much that day would be that big of a deal, especially since I was drinking 64oz of gatorade.  But I didn't think about the fact that most of it would be leaving.  LOL  I also didn't know that dehydration could mean a problem with an IV.

I generally get an IV in my left arm and that is where they always draw blood because I have really good veins in that arm.  Because I was going to be on my left side, she told me they had to use my right arm, which is already a problem.  The nurse claimed she normally gets in IV started after 1 stick but I can tell you this, I don't know if she hit something trying to get the IV in or what happened but my entire arm hurt for a week.  I could barely stand to touch or rub any of the areas where the IV was attempted nor could I sleep on my right side.  My arm just ached and it hurt to lift it above my head.  It was the crazies thing ever. 

[hckynut]

@Lipstickdiva 

She definitely hit something, maybe a nerve. I have had many that weren't the best, but none bothered my lifting my arm, just bruised areas where the IV was stuck. I know from bring a Quality Control Technician(inspector) that all needles/ syringes, everything made, are not equal.

Might have a great nurse  but with a "borderline quality product". Ouch!!

hckynut

[Helen Bach]

Hckynut, I don't know your story about needing  to do this 3x a week, but I just got my first one "done".  Because I need to go back.   There is a twist in my hose TMI and they are going to try water instead of air to pump things up.  Who know?  They did complete 2/3 of it and the IV, and anestesia wasn't a problem.   But boy that Suprep was harsh.  I haven't pulled an all nighter like that in decades!

[AussieLuvr]

I am on the opposite side of the fence, here. In 2008 at the age of 52 I went for my first colonoscopy. No symptoms, no family history. It was just time.

I had this done at the Mayo Clinic.

About five minutes into the procedure they tore my bowel open. They stopped, woke me up and wheeled me back to the outpatient surgery cubicle and were telling me what they were going to have to do about it. While the doctor was talking, peritonitis (which came on FAST) hit me like a ton of bricks and I went from talking to screaming in less than five seconds. They couldn't find a vein and had to get someone from the flight crew to get the IV in to give me morphine so that I would stop screaming and writhing from the unbelievable pain. My husband, who was sitting there, said the entire medical team looked like they were in shock. The surgeon who saved my life later told me that the peritonitis I experienced was what it feels like to get stabbed or shot in the stomach. Nice club to belong to, right?

I had an emergency bowel resection done which required 175 staples to close me up. I now have a twelve and a half inch scar from the surgery. They opened me up, took all of my bowels (and a few organs) out to inspect for other holes and then put it all back in. I was in the hospital for ten days, five of which I was allowed nothing but a small ice chip per day while the resection knitted itself back together. The recovery at home was horrendous for another four weeks or so.

Three months later I developed incisional hernias. Back for more surgery. Hernia repairs are normally easy and outpatient, but the doctor told me afterward that I was like Swiss Cheese from all of the hernias along the incision line. He told me that I now have the equivalent of a screen door inside me, with a giant piece of mesh that's about 10" square. It was done laparoscopically, though he told me if he had known how bad it was going to be he would have opened me back up again. This surgery resulted in a stomach with so many laparoscopy scars that I now look like I have a tic tac toe board on my stomach with a hellacious looking looooong scar from the first surgery. I was in the hospital for five days after the hernia surgery. Recovery was incredibly painful because of all of the tacks needed to fasten the mesh to my muscles. 

I wouldn't go back for another one if wild horses dragged me. Needless to say, I never paid a DIME. Mayo picked up the entire tab - because it was their own doctor's fault. I DID see the invoices, however, as they would come to my house in the mail and I then scanned and emailed them to the head honcho Medical Director at Mayo. I had the personal email address and cell phone number of Mayo's head guy - just goes to show you that they knew it was all on them. Believe me, they handled me with kid gloves afterward. The total - at least what I saw - came to about $925,000.00. 

I won't even go into some of the incredibly inept staff that I encountered and some of the insane things that happened to me during both hospital stays. Things like having the IV ripped out of the top of my hand sideways because a nurse was flirting with a Blood tech and wasn't watching what she was doing. Etc. Etc. I could go on and on.

I SHOULD have been in the hospital longer for the hernia repair but they told me I had to leave because we were approaching a holiday weekend and they didn't have staff for people who didn't need to be there. Like I CHOSE TO be there!

I contacted four lawyers after it was over. None of them would touch it. They said that because I signed the release that they give everyone (when nobody thinks anything will actually happen to them), and because it would require an affidavit from another attending doctor stating malpractice was involved that I had zero chances of a lawsuit. The idea of getting one Mayo doctor to sign an affidavit against another Mayo doctor was ludicrous, or so I was told by all four lawyers.

I recently took my husband for his first colonoscopy, ever. When they gave him the form to sign, I became hysterical. I am NOT a particularly reactive person and I am very pragmatic. It came out of nowhere and I didn't feel it coming. 

I had a long chat with the Gastro doc who did my husband's uneventful colonoscopy. I can't disclose everything he told me, but he said that a virtual colonoscopy was a good option for me. If they see anything, obviously they will have to go in and snip things. But if they don't, nobody ever lays a finger on me.

This wasn't the first time Mayo screwed up royally. I had a botched laminectomy for a ruptured disk in my neck that resulted in chronic pain which I've had in my neck for 15 years now. I will likely be on painkillers, though not too strong or the evil opioids, for the rest of my life.

Moral of my story is that colonoscopies are normally performed without event. But there are statistics, and I ended up being one. I am otherwise healthy and take good care of myself and never, ever imagined in a million years when I walked through the door that day that it would impact me for the rest of my life.

I am not sharing this to scare people, but naturally, it is offputting. I just want people to know that stuff happens.

[Helen Bach]

Wow, how horrible!  Sorry you went through that!

[AuntMame]

---

@AussieLuvr wrote:

I am on the opposite side of the fence, here. In 2008 at the age of 52 I went for my first colonoscopy. No symptoms, no family history. It was just time.

I had this done at the Mayo Clinic.

About five minutes into the procedure they tore my bowel open. They stopped, woke me up and wheeled me back to the outpatient surgery cubicle and were telling me what they were going to have to do about it. While the doctor was talking, peritonitis (which came on FAST) hit me like a ton of bricks and I went from talking to screaming in less than five seconds. They couldn't find a vein and had to get someone from the flight crew to get the IV in to give me morphine so that I would stop screaming and writhing from the unbelievable pain. My husband, who was sitting there, said the entire medical team looked like they were in shock. The surgeon who saved my life later told me that the peritonitis I experienced was what it feels like to get stabbed or shot in the stomach. Nice club to belong to, right?

I had an emergency bowel resection done which required 175 staples to close me up. I now have a twelve and a half inch scar from the surgery. They opened me up, took all of my bowels (and a few organs) out to inspect for other holes and then put it all back in. I was in the hospital for ten days, five of which I was allowed nothing but a small ice chip per day while the resection knitted itself back together. The recovery at home was horrendous for another four weeks or so.

Three months later I developed incisional hernias. Back for more surgery. Hernia repairs are normally easy and outpatient, but the doctor told me afterward that I was like Swiss Cheese from all of the hernias along the incision line. He told me that I now have the equivalent of a screen door inside me, with a giant piece of mesh that's about 10" square. It was done laparoscopically, though he told me if he had known how bad it was going to be he would have opened me back up again. This surgery resulted in a stomach with so many laparoscopy scars that I now look like I have a tic tac toe board on my stomach with a hellacious looking looooong scar from the first surgery. I was in the hospital for five days after the hernia surgery. Recovery was incredibly painful because of all of the tacks needed to fasten the mesh to my muscles. 

I wouldn't go back for another one if wild horses dragged me. Needless to say, I never paid a DIME. Mayo picked up the entire tab - because it was their own doctor's fault. I DID see the invoices, however, as they would come to my house in the mail and I then scanned and emailed them to the head honcho Medical Director at Mayo. I had the personal email address and cell phone number of Mayo's head guy - just goes to show you that they knew it was all on them. Believe me, they handled me with kid gloves afterward. The total - at least what I saw - came to about $925,000.00. 

I won't even go into some of the incredibly inept staff that I encountered and some of the insane things that happened to me during both hospital stays. Things like having the IV ripped out of the top of my hand sideways because a nurse was flirting with a Blood tech and wasn't watching what she was doing. Etc. Etc. I could go on and on.

I SHOULD have been in the hospital longer for the hernia repair but they told me I had to leave because we were approaching a holiday weekend and they didn't have staff for people who didn't need to be there. Like I CHOSE TO be there!

I contacted four lawyers after it was over. None of them would touch it. They said that because I signed the release that they give everyone (when nobody thinks anything will actually happen to them), and because it would require an affidavit from another attending doctor stating malpractice was involved that I had zero chances of a lawsuit. The idea of getting one Mayo doctor to sign an affidavit against another Mayo doctor was ludicrous, or so I was told by all four lawyers.

I recently took my husband for his first colonoscopy, ever. When they gave him the form to sign, I became hysterical. I am NOT a particularly reactive person and I am very pragmatic. It came out of nowhere and I didn't feel it coming. 

I had a long chat with the Gastro doc who did my husband's uneventful colonoscopy. I can't disclose everything he told me, but he said that a virtual colonoscopy was a good option for me. If they see anything, obviously they will have to go in and snip things. But if they don't, nobody ever lays a finger on me.

This wasn't the first time Mayo screwed up royally. I had a botched laminectomy for a ruptured disk in my neck that resulted in chronic pain which I've had in my neck for 15 years now. I will likely be on painkillers, though not too strong or the evil opioids, for the rest of my life.

Moral of my story is that colonoscopies are normally performed without event. But there are statistics, and I ended up being one. I am otherwise healthy and take good care of myself and never, ever imagined in a million years when I walked through the door that day that it would impact me for the rest of my life.

I am not sharing this to scare people, but naturally, it is offputting. I just want people to know that stuff happens.

---

Oh man! What a nightmare! Thank you for posting your story. It reminds us that no medical procedure is completely safe. Not even at the Mayo Clinic. Holy cow you really went through it all. I'm so glad you're still with us. Hugs and prayers for better health in the years ahead!  

And hey, Aussie shepherds rule! <fist in the air> 

[hckynut]

@AussieLuvr 

I am sorry for all you went through and I hope you are doing well 10+ years later. 2008 was not my best year either as I was in the hospital for  multiple long stays all having to do with my colon.

I won't  go into my long stories here as most have already read them over the years. To this date I have had 15 Colonoscopies and 5 Double  Balloon Enteroscopies, none resulting in any procedural issues.

Any invasive procedure is a risk and every patient is told that, and if not, are with the wrong Medical Staff. Everyone has to weigh the benefits versus possible costs(not $$$). I have had so many invasive procedures I can only guess at the number, including several for my heart. Had a life/death issue with only 1.

For those thinking over having their 1st Colonoscopy, quit thinking and JUST DO IT!

hckynut

[AussieLuvr]

@AuntMame  

Thanks, I'm kinda glad I'm still here, too.

BTW, when this happened we had two Aussies and I was "their person". When we got home from the hospital, my husband went into the house and put them in the bedroom and grabbed every bed pillow he could. He got me into the house and settled, and covered me from the chest down with double pillows. Then he let the dogs out of the bedroom. They were well behaved, obedience trained dogs but their exuberance could be overwhelming. The only good thing about the entire experience was the greeting I got at home both times.

The screwups and horrible things that staff said to me was enough to make me want to write a book. I happen to have an ultrarare form of muscular dystrophy (acronym is OPMD) and it is hard for me to get up out of chairs or off low beds, etc. Add to that the almost 13" incision and getting out of bed was challenging, to say the least. I had nurses TSK at me and roll their eyes when I asked for help standing up and one said, "You know, our job is a lot easier when a patient tries to help themself once in a while". 

The mega meds they had me on were making me sick to my stomach. When the surgeon came into my room after the first night of being sick, he told me that nobody gets sick from the meds I was on. He said, as he waved me off (literally waved his hand at me in disgust), "These meds don't make anybody sick. You're just anxiety ridden from this ... this OH PEE thing you keep blabbing about."

They decided to put in a Nasal Gastric tube to keep my stomach empty so I wouldn't aspirate in my sleep. They gave me a huge glass of water, tried to shove the tube up my nose and said, SWALLOW!!! SWALLOW HARD!". Well, one of the symptoms of my muscular dystrophy is dysphagia, which is difficulty swallowing and I'd already told them this. They either didn't pay attention or didn't care because the nurse was literally screaming at me to swallow hard. I told her I couldn't and she just shoved the tube harder. Next thing I knew there was blood gushing out of my nose and all over the bed. I ripped the tube out of her hand and yelled in her face "DON'T TOUCH ME. I'LL JUST PUKE. STAY AWAY FROM ME." I was then labelled a "difficult patient". 

On the second day after my surgery I developed an infection (expected) and high fever; I think it was 103.5. Without telling me why, one of the nurses came into the room and put an ice pack under one of my armpits. Another nurse came in and said to her, "There are supposed to be two; one on each side. Where is the other one?" and the first nurse shrugged her shoulders and said, "I have no idea. I couldn't find it. Go find it yourself if you think its that important".

It wasn't just the surgery and recovery that was horrible. The treatment I got was just disgusting. And I wasn't a particularly demanding or difficult patient at all. I needed help getting up out of the bed and off the commode, but that's pretty much all I ever rang my bell about.

These are just a few of the things that occurred. There are a lot more crazy things that were just unbelievable. We moved, and I go to Wake Forest Baptist Health in NC now. Thank God. I wouldn't go back to Mayo for anything. I'm sure there are other people who have had wonderful experiences whose lives they have changed but my experiences were almost all negative.

And Aussies do rule!

[Annabellethecat66]

Glad to hear your good news.  I'd never had one and about 2 years ago I had to be taken away in an ambulance in terrible pain.

I have a very high tolerance to pain because I deal with it every day in my back.  Two days went by before I called my friend and asked him to come over.

When he saw me and found out I couldn't sit up he called an ambulance.

Long story ..... short....my colon had cracked open.  Bacteria had spilled out in my stomach.  But the good news (if there was any) was I met a surgeon who wasn't cut happy and said it 'appeared' that (because I'd waited) it had healed on it's own.  He said, "Let's give it a day or two".  Thank goodness!

So they pumped me with antibiotics and because of my blood problems they wouldn't even let anyone into the room unless they had on some kind of 'suit'.  

After a few days I started getting better.  I was in the hospital for 6 days.

About 3 months (can't remember exactly) I went in for a colonoscopy and everything was good.

I'm 72 years old now.  So I have a few years before I need another one.  Dr said to come back in 4 years.

I didn't think there was much to it because I have stomach "issues" anyway.

Aren't we lucky we live in a time when we can get this done to know we are OK?

My best friend's mother died from colon cancer.  They get tested every 5 years.

On this subject.  My friend told me the commercial where you can send off and take something and don't have to go to the hospital and have a colonoscopy now says they store your DNA.  She said it's a new commercial for it.

The Dr who delivered all three of my girls and was my GYN for years had his screening by that way.

I, personally, would rather know for sure there aren't any problems.  I stick to having the Dr do it.

In my family we call it Roto-rooter.