Whew. I've been through the wringer these past few days guys.
lemme tell ya.
so i had this ampulectomy done monday. was an outpatient procedure, where they were going to do an endoscopy, and remove a precancerous polyp from my "ampulla of vater" (the opening from your duodenum to the pancreas).
It's all through a scope, but there's added risks of complications after of pancreatitis if the opening gets inflammed and swells shut, or perforation, etc.
but i woke up from it, and doc said things all went well. and i got discharged to go home.
i felt alright that night, if not just tired as all hell. I went home and literally just crashed for the rest of the evening (haven't eaten for well over 24 hrs at this point, no urge to intubate at all.)
woke up the next day (tuesday), and felt alright. scratchy throat, but no biggie.
I tried to intubate, but nothing but a little air came out
(keeping in mind i hadn't eaten since sunday night)
but again, i felt alright, so i went over to my new apartment to start painting before i move stuff in. me, my roommate, and my mom were over
there taping off walls, and whatnot. i went to home depot to get some paint, still feeling okay. i even got a follow up call from the hospital asking if i'm okay, and i say "yep. feel fine"

when i got back from home depot i got a real deep pain in my side, and i think, well, maybe that's my signal to intubate. i go in the bathroom, get the cath in, and nothing but jet black stuff comes out. inky black. so of course, i freak out. i think "isn't black stool bloody stool?" BUUUTT I also know that they injected dye in my GI tract so they could see the area better, so i think it could also just be the dye getting out of my system.
i call my mom in there, and her, being the nurse that she is, takes a sample of whats coming out, and says she'll test it at work after we're done.
again, i feel okay, so after flushing, (even though it freaked me out)
i go back and paint my ceiling. I stop to eat some soup, and as soonas i see the soup i start getting nauseas. can't even fathom eating
any. i turn pale, hit the bathroom and immediately throw up the same black stuff. now i'm sufficiently freaked out. i go lay down
while my roommate paints the living room. bout 10pm i get up to drive back to my place. and on the way back home i have to pull over on the
road to throw up more black **** (i haven't eaten anything, so i don't even know where all this is coming from)
my mom calls right then and says "well, i tested it, and yea, it's all blood."
kay, commence serious freak out. i get my doc paged, and he calls right back and i tell him whats going on, and he says it seems since
it's black it's old blood, so maybe there's a slow leak or something at the ampulectomy site, but he doesn't think i need to go to the ER
right then. he says monitor it, and if it changes and starts getting brighter red, then go.
so i pretty much pass out after that and slept the rest of the night.
(again, after throwing up, i felt fine)
Wednesday morning, i wake up, and go to intubate again, and it's nothing but deep black-red liquid. i mean, almost purpleish red. and alot of it. maybe 9 oz or so. i call my mom, i call
the nurse practitioner tellin em i'm freaked out.
nurse has me go down to the lab and get a CBC. When the results get to my doc, my hemoglobin's at like 8. (it was at 10 the other day)
so they have me go back in to the GI center for him to scope me again and check on the ampulectomy site.
i get to the GI center (45 min. from my house), get checked in, and i tell em i probably
should empty my pouch before this procedure. so i do it right there in the
hospital room. into a kidney dish, and again, it's nothing but blood.
damn near filled up the dish.
so i think i sufficiently freaked out the nurses. and they pretty quickly knock me out and bring me in for the endoscopy.
when i wake up, they say, well, the leak sealed itself up. they injected some epinephrin (sp?) but that i'll probably see some more blood, maybe for the next couple days, but i'll be fine.

phew! good grief what a week so far. AAANNNDDD yesterday was my exact one year anniversary of my surgery.
(happy birthday Stella)
so yea. i was a bit stressed with this all.

hopefully all will go a bit more smoothly from here on out.

Just felt I should share with you all my ordeal.

Yikes! I don't even know what to say. Black blood from both orifaces? I would have been way more than just freaked. They would have heard me screaming in the next county! I'm almost a bit pukey-in-the-mouth just reading about this ordeal. I'm glad all is okay now. [going to get a big dose of anti-nausea medicine now]

kathy

heh. there was alot of self-control going on on my part.
but i guess the fact that my doc and nurses (and even my mom the nurse) weren't freaking out, helped in me not freaking out completely.

Sounds pretty harrowing. Glad things worked out OK. I think I would have been pretty nervous when the color changed to reddish black...

Jan

Wow, that was a scary thing to have happen! I'm glad that the procedure is over with and you've healed up. Even happier that you're at a year with your K-pouch. Congrats!

Rick

OMG! Becca, you are amazing. I so would have been on my way to an ER with Chris or me if that happened no matter what the doc said.
Can you teach us how to be calm?
Glad you're ok. And of course happy first year and many more!

Wow! Becca! I'm with the rest, I would have been on my way to A&E by now if that had been me! I'm so glad that things are ok and hope that you are now feeling more than tickety boo. You don't do things by half do you?

Take care and enjoy your new appartment.

Shell

i gotta say, the color...and the stink! oh my god that stuff smelled AWFUL. that got to me. but i know that my mom has my best interest at heart even more so than I do sometimes. and she'll occassionally freak out. and if she freaks out. than i know i better boogie my butt to an ER quick.
So i guage my reactions based on hers.
But my oh my the smell of that stuff. (my doc said it was "melana? melona? sp?) and i swear it like, seeped into me somehow i smelled it EVERYwhere long after it was flushed away.

i feel MOUNDS better today though. energy, appetite (just finished my asiago bagel with cream cheese...YUM) no nausea, nothing.

whew!

OMG!!! I would have freaked too, you are so lucky your mom is a nurse. I hope this episode is over and you will continue to feel better."Hugs"

I can't even begin to imagine! Puking and pooping black blood?!? I would've been in the ER for sure believing I was at death's door! Thank God your mom is a nurse and can be calm I'm really glad its all ok now.