Complications

Hi all, my surgery is in less than 3 weeks and I'm having those spooky anxiety feelings which I know are normal. I was talking to my mom the other day and she asked me about some things that I hadn't thought of, so I wanted to check in with you all to see if anyone has some knowledge to share:

First, about 10 days after my surgery my parents have a trip planned for the weekend to go visit my brother. Normally in a situation like this my grandparents would come stay with me, but they are going on the trip as well. So we have planned for my other grandparents to come stay with me, but my mom is uneasy about this because my other grandparents are a little older and don't live in the area. She is worried if something happened they wouldn't know what to do, etc. So I think the plan is that we will take it day by day and if 10 days after surgery I'm not well enough, my mom just won't go on the trip. If I'm doing ok my grandparents will come. It's only for the weekend.

---Do you think 10 days after surgery I am out of the "complications" zone, or could something still happen?


Second - I have read quite a bit about adhesions, and adhesion barriers. Some of the things I've read about them are bad, and some things are good...it's all very confusing. Did anyone here have any kind of adhesion barrier used in their surgery? Do surgeons still use them?

remind me what you're having done? is it laparascopic?

dont' know much about adhesions though.. sorry can't help you there.
Sarah

as it's laparascopic, I should imagine you'll be ok.. I was home caring for my kids 10 days after surgery and hubby went back to work. I don't think the level of care (from me!) was up to much... but they got fed something vaguely edible and we all just lay on the sofa watching cartoons! I didn't have the same surgery though and everyone is different. You wont' be feeling fantastic and won't be able to do much.. but you can probably get by ok if you have some company (good idea for grandparents to come!) and it's only for a weekend.. so I'm sure you'll be ok.

complications at that stage are more likely to be minor such as infection in the wound etc (easily treated with antibiotics etc) rather than anything major..

that all said.. I refused to let my hubby go on a work trip to Hong Kong 2 weeks after my surgery! wasn't ready to be left alone. I felt quite vunerable and very tired.. so needed lots of comfort and support.

Sounds like your plan is a good one - see how you feel and you mom could stay behind if you're really not up to it. Make the decision at 8 days post op perhaps??

This is the worst bit now - hang in there and ask all the questions you want! stay strong. You're doing the right thing and will be soon on the road to a much better quality of life S x

I agree with Blueglass. Take it one day at a time. Do you have a friend or family friend that you could call on locally should anything untoward happen that would put your parents' mind at rest, then there would be someone who knows area and could help if necessary.

There is no way to predict what might happen. We thought we would be home within 5 days, but my daughter's hospital stay ended up being 12 days. She had lots of complications...nothing major but things like her epidural didn't work, her veins kept blowing....but we tend to be "those people" where is something can go wrong, it will :) Hopefully you will be doing great at 10 days out!

I agree that it is impossible to predict. At day 10, I was doing great but then had complications on day 12 when my incision opened up unexpectedly. Had another complication at one month and another at two months. Not trying to scare you... most of these were related to that same incision problem and weren't super serious but still required trips back to the hospital, surgery to fix issues and multiple night stays. A plan B sounds good... or at least someone around who you could call and take you to the doctor or hospital if needed. I wasn't allowed to lift over 5 pounds in that time period either, so it was good to have people around the house help me.

I did not have laparoscopic surgery... I had the regular midline incision. My surgeon did use Seprafilm to prevent adhesions. I don't know much about it, as I didn't ask him a lot of questions regarding it. I never had the Seprafilm cause any issues and have not had any adhesion problems.

Thanks everyone SO much. My grandparents should be fine - they are younger and can drive etc...I think my mom would be worried no matter who was staying with me. We also have great neighbors and my aunt and uncle live in town as well. My mom worries that they will be far away and it would take them some time and a plane ride to get back here if there was any emergency. But it sounds like if I'm already out of the hospital by then, the "emergency" complications would be unlikely (not impossible, but unlikely). But I am aware that I could very well still be in the hospital 10 days later, you never know. So we will take it day by day and see what the situation is when that day comes.

Thanks again, the information I get on this forum is stuff I could never get anywhere else, and there is no one else for me to talk to about this stuff except for everyone here!