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He is screaming in pain, and they are doing nothing? Do I have that correct?

If that is the case you march your ass right up to the nurses station and you ask to speak to his nurse.... If she hasn't called his Dr yet, ask her to do so immediately. If she has and the Dr hasn't returned the call then you wait 10 minutes, and then you ask for the Dr's number and you call from the room, with him screaming in the background and you ask that he call you immediately.

Then you march your ass back up to the nurses station and you ask to speak to the charge nurse. You ask her to go to the room w/ you, to see what is going on, then you ask her to help you. If there are any PRN meds they can give, they need to give it if it is a pain med or an anti-anxiety med.

Let them know that this is unacceptable. NOW know that they cannot give narcotics without an order, big no no anymore.... BUT just like I say about what brings us here.

YOU cannot make someone do something, but you can be damn sure that you are going to make their lack of doing something uncomfortable for them.... Open the door too. Hospitals don't care for screaming patients.

PS ask for warm blankets for his belly if it is cramping.

Also ask for any other ideas that may help him until meds are ordered and given.

I have no medical experience, as a practitioner or even as a patient so I have no advice to give. But sending you tons of mojo and hoping this gets resolved soon. You are a strong lady but this sounds so so challenging. (((WR)))

At this point, he may need a Xanax.

When my pain would get bad enough that I was crying & screaming, I was well past the point of no return and ended up needing an ativan so I could calm down.

I learned that from my PCP. He was medical director for a few LTC homes so he was good with stuff like that.

And as always, TushNurse has the best advice. Ever watch Terms of Endearment? Channel Shirley McClain's character when her daughter was in pain!

On a serious note, he should not be left in that much pain for that long. My last surgery was really bad and I cried all night from how bad thr pain was. That was back in March & I genuinely have PTSD from it.

((((WR)))) I know nothing about any of this. I hope your H has had some relief by now.

Any answers yet?

Oh NO! I was so hoping you'd have better news for us today. And of course we are all concerned about YOU too.

Same ER doc came by.

Said there was an order in place in the files that H was to get NO opioids. Lie. I told them about the opioid taper and ask them to keep that in mind. My PCP had told me once we drop down a step...not to go back up. I just didn’t want them to overdo - whatever that would be.

I explained that he had morphine in HER ER the previous day. She said that morphine will make him more constipated, so I should decide. WTF??? (Excuse me)

I explained that my MS in Health, PE & Recreation did not exactly qualify me to make that decision.

So NO NARCOTICS. How about a couple of Tylenol?

So she prescribed Tramadol. I look it up...you guessed it... NARCOTIC!

He finally settled down about 2 hours later.

Although I didn’t rise to the ever awesome level of Shirley McClain, I let them know they sent him home too soon last week and I expected him to be completely roto rootered before we leave.

The news about the endoscopy...took a polyp biopsy to check for celiac disease. Small hiatal hernia. Also, the tapered end of the stomach and first section of the small intestines are “markedly dialated”. Can’t be good. Also sent fluids for bacteria cultures.

They keep making sideways references to sepsis & c-diff. But none yet.

Clear fluid diet and upcoming enema. (My H would so KILL me if he knew I was telling this.)

We are not leaving today...OR until he is unblocked.

Then home to learn about gluten-free diet.

Then home to learn about gluten-free diet.

Check my thread from earlier this month about how my 30+ year old daughter has recently gotten a diagnosis of possible celiac. In her case, the upper endoscopy showed she had it, but two blood tests have shown she hasn't. Regardless, her GI doc told her to try a GF diet - she did, and her diarrhea went away after having it for years and her thinking she had IBS.

So regardless of what his test results show, it could definitely be worth it to eliminate gluten and see what happens.

I suggest you go back and reread some of these posts about what you can do to make sure he isn't discharged too soon. Hospitals are given bad grades if they have too many discharges and readmissions for the same issue; you've already got one. I don't think they want another statistic.

1. He doesn't have Celiac disease. I promise. They biopsy for it, to rule it out, as that is the gold standard for diagnosis and it takes 2 seconds to do the biopsy when they do the scope.

2. Small bowel dialation - Probably secondary to the downstream blockage. This is a normal gut response as things don't move through and waste makes gas (methane) and it can't go south due to blockage it makes it way upstream.

3. That Dr is pissing me the hell off. She should know better.... but Tramadol is NOT a narcotic. It works similarly, and is treated as a controlled subtstance, but has been used as a Non-Narcotic option for many years. Of course with our typical societal overreaction it of course got dumped into the same category as Opioids during the crisis early days. If he is finding relief from it awesome. It won't make him high, it may make him itchy, it may make him have difficulty sleeping, these are common side effects of the med.

But it is NOT a true narcotic. You are good. I have taken this med for over a decade for my RA pain. I don't take it daily but on a days I am hurting at a 5 it works well, and doesn't make me need a nap.

Now take a few deep breaths, and don't worry about a gluten free diet just yet.

But what about the METAL inside him? Any news on that?

Tush...as usual...Thanks for all the amazing information. Truly, changing diets would be WELCOMED if his belly pain stopped or even lessened to a tolerable level.

Jeaniegirl...They are sort of acting like it’s not a big deal. Evidently, FINALLY, they are planning to start big time enemas. They simply say they hope it will pass.

They are certain it is not something left in from a surgery because there have been none. I’ve seen it and it looks like a small plain 2mm wedding ring.

If I had to guess, it will still be in there when we leave.

[This message edited by WhatsRight at 7:33 PM, October 15th (Thursday)]

Tush...I wanted to ask...Are you saying that they list tramadol online as a narcotic as a response to include as many drugs as possible in the opioid umbrella because of abuse?

Also, tush, is it possible that this whole abdomen pain that we have dealt with for YEARS could be due to bowel issues rather than peripheral neuropathy, as some have supposed?

And, if that’s the case, is it a mistake to get a nerve block - which could impair bowel function?

(I’m sure you can tell by the question that I am totally uneducated in this area, and I am grasping at straws.)

[This message edited by WhatsRight at 7:35 PM, October 15th (Thursday)]

Just occurred to me I haven’t taken my meds for over a week.

Oops!

Weird armed robbery at the small, family owned pharmacy about 2 miles from me. Guy with g aun came in and demanded ALL the Tramadol they had. Didn't demand anything else. The Pharmacist seemed to think he wanted it to mix with something else, possibly to make meth or something similar.

Is this a joke??? Weird!!!

Actually, you’re on to me. We were wanting to get Tramadol so we could make meth!!!

Sorry...the actual robbery is not funny. I’m just tired and goofy.

BTW...that was awful close to your home...you be careful!!!

WR, tramadol hits the same receptor sites as opiates but it is not a true opiate.

It's complicated. But TushNurse does a good job explaining.

And because I worked in nursing homes and have PTSD from tramadol & state surveys, be careful if your husband is taking antidepressants from the SSRI class, in particular.

Serotonin syndrome is rare but tramadol seems to contribute to the risk. Normally, I'd not make a fuss but your husband is already so medically fragile that I would worry he's at greater risk for adverse effects.

They will watch him if it's a concern, but I have to know that *I* have said something because then I know something was said.

I have control issues.

Sending you love

Tush...I wanted to ask...Are you saying that they list tramadol online as a narcotic as a response to include as many drugs as possible in the opioid umbrella because of abuse?

Basically yes. You can walk into a pharmacy in Mexico and buy it without a prescription and get as much of it as you want.

is it possible that this whole abdomen pain that we have dealt with for YEARS could be due to bowel issues rather than peripheral neuropathy, as some have supposed?

I suspect it's a hybrid of both. It is not uncommon at all for Quads to have gut issues, as their neuro system doesn't work like everyone else. Remember earlier this year after he had the prior episode when he went home he had zero pain for a bit? I suspect that was due to breaking some adhesions, or scarring in bowel somewhere (I could be totally wrong). Then is slowly started to return.

I am interested to see what the Dr says when they scope him.

Make sure that issues are resolved before you leave that place though. That means you may need to raise a stink. That's ok. They are used to it.

Adlham...

He takes Seroquel. Here’s what google says re Seroquel.

“It's a combination of the SSRI antidepressant fluoxetine (Prozac) and another drug approved for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia called olanzapine (Zyprexa). Aripiprazole (Abilify), quetiapine (Seroquel), and brexpiprazole (Rexulti) have been FDA approved as add-on therapy to antidepressants for depression.”

So I should bring that to their attention?

[This message edited by WhatsRight at 12:44 PM, October 16th (Friday)]

WR - I'm not a doctor (or at least not a physician!! ) but I would make sure that they knew about ALL of his meds, including the seroquel.

I hope they figure him out, and you just keep on pushing for answers and for his care. Every time you post an update, my opinion of them goes down - it seems like they are a bunch of clowns. Time to straighten them out.

35 hours in an ER? That should be a crime.

Letting a patient cry out in pain for hours without looking for a solution? WTF??????

This is NOT how things are supposed to go. And normally I would advise you to go home and get some rest, but I can see why that is probably not the correct advice in this situation. Can you get a recliner to sleep in his room?

And plus what Adlham and tushie said. Channel them!!!!!

((((WR))))

Yesterday am he got a suppository with very positive results.

Since then, 2 enemas with very little response.

Yesterday’s X-ray or scan or whatever showed bowel still significantly occupied. (Trying to be as politely Southern with all this as possible -not possible...sorry.)

So they say more enemas. Afraid to do too much orally, because they don’t want “stuck” stuff to push through and maybe tear colon.

They continue the cute 17grams of MiraLAX every day. That’s not going to do anything.

We do that and more every day just for maintenance.

BTW...one gastro doc said to take Metamucil every day. Another said it can be binding.

How am I supposed to know which to use, when, and how much, before or after eating, etc.

Is it coming through that I can’t decide if I am just a total idiot about all this, or if no one really knows what’s what?