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It Was Supposed To Be A Simple Procedure

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Mark 01 Apr 22, 18:08Post
As some of you know, a formerly homeless Afghan War Army veteran lives in Eileen and my home. For the past couple of months, he's been having random episodes of right upper quadrant abdominal pain and vomiting during waking hours. Then it started occurring at night. He dicked around with various doctors for a while until I finally told him to shit or get off the pot. His gall bladder had to come out. There was no other choice.

Yesterday was the day. He got a ride to the hospital at 9:15 AM. The surgical team said he should be home by suppertime. Well, that didn't happen.

He's a smoker. The post-anesthesia folks were having trouble waking him up after the routine laproscopic procedure. His oxygen saturation levels wouldn't come up. Long story short... Last evening, about the time he should have been coming home, he got deep vein thromboses in his legs and pulmonary embolii in his lungs and was transferred to a bigger hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota. He's receiving blood thinners and insulin and glucose IV.

He's in rough shape. After crunching all of his info in my nurse brain, at this time, I've determined that there's a fair chance that he might not come home. Please give me some good news, docs.

Can I please have a redo for the past seven days?
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miamiair (netAirspace FAA) 01 Apr 22, 19:30Post
Hopefully fortune will smile upon him and be granted more time on this rock.
And let's get one thing straight. There's a big difference between a pilot and an aviator. One is a technician; the other is an artist in love with flight. — E. B. Jeppesen
Mark 03 Apr 22, 14:13Post
Well... On Friday evening, our formerly homeless veteran was extubated and is breathing on his own. Saturday noon, he ate for the first time since his surgery... not much... just a scrambled egg, Jello, and a glass of Gatorade.

He still has peripheral IV lines running into both arms, in which he receives pain meds, heparin, and saline. Surprising, they never inserted a central line on him. He's no longer receiving insulin and dextrose IV drips for acute post-op hyperkalemia (high hpotassium). He's breathing better and is on oxygen via nasal cannula. While sleeping, if he starts breathing shallowly, his oxygen saturation drops as low as 82%. It should be 94% or higher.

The plan for today was to move him from ICU to a step-down unit if last night was unremarkable. One little glitch... there are no available beds in the step-down unit. However, there are several vacant ICU beds, so if worse comes to worse, he'll just stay in ICU at the step-down bed rate.

One little tidbit to mention. While in the hospital, they discovered he was positive for Helicobacter pylori (h. pylori). It's a bacterial infection of the stomach that is the primary cause of stomach ulcers. Treatment is easy and permanent... I was treated for it around 1990. The patient takes a ten day regimen of an antibiotic, an acid reducer, and Pepto Bismol. That's it.

Sounds like the soonest he could come home would be on Wednesday and that's if everything goes swimmingly.
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JLAmber (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 03 Apr 22, 20:32Post
Gotta watch those PEs like a hawk, they'll literally get you in a heartbeat. Hope your house guest is good at taking his meds regularly and on time, he's going to be getting used to an anticoagulant regimen.
A million great ideas...
Mark 03 Apr 22, 21:31Post
JLAmber wrote:he's going to be getting used to an anticoagulant regimen.


I'm sure I'll be giving him Enoxaparin injections every day for the next month or so.
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JLAmber (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 04 Apr 22, 20:38Post
Mark wrote:
JLAmber wrote:he's going to be getting used to an anticoagulant regimen.


I'm sure I'll be giving him Enoxaparin injections every day for the next month or so.


Ouch! Had to do for that for my father, never again!
A million great ideas...
Mark 28 Apr 22, 16:09Post
Our live-in formerly homeless Afghan War veteran had his gall bladder surgery a few weeks ago. Well, his recovery has been horseshit.

He's gone to ER three times since he got home and was transferred by ambulance to the specialty center in the Twin Cities each time. I don't know what his problem is, but he's not eating and has lost so much weight that none of his belts will keep his jeans up.

He's regressed to the point where I'm worried about him dying.
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