Post-Operative Complications

Nov. 24 -30

Fred has had to deal with a myriad of problems post-operatively. He has pain in his throat, chest, and abdomen. He has wounds to deal with. He has two huge areas where blistering has taken place – wherever tape touched him. He had urinary retention. He got a PEG tube site infection. He also got a bowel impaction from the narcotics. Once we got the impaction reduced, he stopped taking narcotics because he was afraid it would happen again, so the pain increased again and he stopped eating. He has lost 10 pounds in one week. I won’t go into tremendous detail with these, just know that all week we have been trying to deal with these problems. It was good that I was a nurse! I don’t know how people do this without the additional knowledge!

The doctors told us that it was a good idea to have the PEG tube and port placed early like we did. Fred had so many complications and he was initially healthy. If he had been debilitated after chemo and radiation, it could have been extremely serious for him. I had a feeling that he should have them placed and now I am glad I pushed for it. At first I thought I was over-reacting, or thinking too much like a nurse instead of a wife, but now I am really glad. I need to remember this lesson and keep my intuition finely tuned. I know there will be more situations like this in the future.

I still can’t believe he has cancer. Being so busy taking care of him doesn’t allow me time to think about it and I am glad for that. I still think denial is a good thing.

K