Never ending problems - 07-25-2005 08:01 AM
Hi: I havent been in touch for quite a while, but problems have just kept popping up. Husband had throat cancer of epiglottis on 6-15-04. Went through radiation. Has a peg tube. Can't eat anything by mouth. But my real problem is these doctors that don't listen to their patients. Joe's Dr. did a surgery on him on June 28th. He said this will help him swallow. What he did was to cut his sphinter muscle in his throat. So,ok, He was given false hope there. Cant eat yet. But, it gets better. Joe has been losing weight since the first surgery in '04 but you would expect some weight loss. He's been having problems with the peg tube such as food not going through properly. Backing up. Indigestion. So, now he's at 147 lbs. from 228 lbs before surgery. He's been very weak also and slept alot. Two weeks ago he called me at work. Told me to come home. He was in excruciating pain in his stomach. Went home . When I saw him I knew he had to go to the hospital. Had help getting him in the car and off we went. At the hospital, he was seen almost immediately because the triage nurse couldn't get a blood pressure on him. They did xrays and put him on iv's because he was severely dehydrated. They couldnt get his pressure to come up. The Dr's said he probably had a little kink in his intestine. They put him in ICU because of his pressure. The next morning a surgeon came in to see him and said that they would have to do surgery. His organs were failing and his pressure was very low. She prepared us for the worst and said that he could possible die on the table. When the surgery was over and the surgeon came out to talk with us she said that he had an adhesion from a previous surgery which had strangled Joes intestine. She had to take out 4 feet of his intestine that had died and the poison was going through his system. Now, the surgeon said that this did not come over night. Had to take some time for it to get that bad. He is home now and his peg is finally working the way it should .. Hopefully he will gain some weight now and recover the way he should. I'm soooo disgusted with these Drs. that don't take people seriously and just blow them off. I really hate them all. This could have been avoided but instead Joe went through hell and back. Thanks for listening. I'm just trying to blow off some built up anger. Roseanne