another close encounter

… but not quite done yet…

While still very much feeling the effects from the last time out, I had another emergency trip to the hospital on October 4th this year.

This time I was in desperate need of repair, as my intestines had become pinched off and blocked – known as “strangulated” – by an abdominal hernia. Most defi­ni­tely not a good situa­tion to be in.

An unfortunate delay in getting to my GP for initial diagnosis, meant I was in constant pain, throwing up, and feeling really awful at home for three-four days, before being properly diagnosed and sent to the hospital for surgery.

fixing my abdominal hernia

According to the surgeon in charge, the repair included closing up, or covering up, three very large openings or weak­nes­ses – one of which had my intestines in a pinch – pluss “half-a-dozen” smaller weak­nesses. All resulting from surgeries at that very same hospital a decade earlier – i.e. “incisional hernias”.

Intestines got thoroughly checked they told me, but other­wise nothing was done to them. Although my intes­tines were damaged, they were deemed to have survived in acceptable condi­tion, and I probably would not have survived the surgery needed to do a complete repair of them at this time, they said.
A hernia­mesh was inserted to cover all those holes and weak­nesses that have or may develop into some­thing worse. May also need a tailored hernia belt to reduce the risk for rupture to the mesh.

They even gave me botox injec­tions in the abdominal region, to make the right muscle groups relax after surgery. Not an expected part of the treat­ment, but it should reduce pain and help on healing, they said.

Took quite a few days before I could take in some­thing that resembles “solid food”. The perma­nent damage to my intes­tines, means I will have to observe some “dietary res­tric­tions” from now on, as not all types of food will pass through with­out causing me con­sti­pa­tion and/​or consider­able pain.
The surgeon gave me a short-list of food-items to avoid, and what signs (of pain or other­wise) I should be aware of while testing out what I can and can­not eat. What my intes­tines can handle may improve some­what over time, I was told.

back to normalcy‥?

A sign of how serious this condi­tion had been in my case, is that my body suddenly went into a kind of “shut-down mode” several days after the surgery, while still at the hospital.
That is: I was completely over­come by a physical and mental exhaus­tion that I could not shake off no matter what. I have never in my 70 years long life felt so totally empty and depressed as I all of a sudden felt then and still am now.

The surgeon later explained to me during a check-up, that this sensa­tion was a pretty normal reaction to the trauma I had been through. My body had been that close to shutting down for good, and was liter­ally “preparing itself (with the rest of me) for death”. This “near death” sensa­tion would go over after a couple of months according to him, but it feels just as exhausting now more than two months later, as I write this. Am waiting for “the fog”, and general weak­ness, to be behind me.

not much to write about

I do not feel much for writing any­thing about any­thing at the moment, but have scribbled down my experi­ence anyway just to have it done while most details are fresh in memory.
May add some more at a later date, when I feel a little more up to it, but for now this short posting will have to do.

sincerely 

Hageland 20.dec.2023
last rev: 22.dec.2023