Hospital Operating Room Thoughts

[Doug_Tipple]

I didn't realize that when I went into the surgical center for what I thought would be a routine gall bladder removal I would be spending the next several days in the hospital. After a number of expensive tests and procedures, I am happy to say that I am back home again and feeling not too badly, especially if I take my pain medicine on schedule. Staring up at the bright operating room lights two times in four days, I was most comforted by the operating room nurses and doctors who in pleasant voices said that they would take very good care of me. I just relaxed and let them be in charge and enjoyed the feeling of the warm blankets on my chest. I will have a plastic tube in the bile duct between my liver and intestine for six weeks or so, but I hope to be feeling well enough to go on a ten day trip to the American Southwest with my wife for our fifth wedding anniversary in May. We have three wild days and nights planned at the Paris Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, and then on to Zion and Bryce Canyon Parks in Utalh and the Grand Canyon and the Sedona Red Rock Canyon areas in Arizona. Since I used to lead high school back pack trips in the area, I have a few interesting side trips to Anasazi Indian Ruins that we also hope to visit. I'm glad to be back in cyberspace and at Chiff & Fipple.

[MTGuru]

I'm glad to be back in cyberspace and at Chiff & Fipple.

Good show, Doug. I know the feeling: Glad to be anywhere. No surgery is trivial. I'm happy you are and will be OK.

[Peewit]

You have a very positive attitude, Doug. I had my gall bladder out a number of years ago, and I know they usually hope they can do it laparoscopically with 4 or 5 small cuts, but it isn't always possible. I was one of the lucky ones; sounds like you took the longer route. I was able to travel to my niece's wedding a few weeks after mine, and the photos of that day show me looking svelte after my "gall bladder diet"-- the only good thing about it! Hope your recovery is smooth, and have a good anniversary trip!

[mutepointe]

Home is the best place to be. Anniversary trips is the best place to be too.

[Innocent Bystander]

Nice to know you are back, Doug. Those gall-bladder operations are no small matter. Take it easy, there.

[maki]

I'm happy you came through your surgery OK.
And Congratulations on your up coming wedding anniversary too.

[brewerpaul]

Glad to hear you're doing well Doug. We do gallbladder surgery just about every day in our hospital OR and while they're "routine", they are anything but minor. I am also glad to hear that the OR staff were comforting and reassuring. It's easy to forget that the procedures we do every day are not an everyday occurrence to the patient.
Keep up that good attitude!

[jim stone]

Glad you are OK! Jim

[weedie]

Wishing you a speedy recovery Doug ..
I think Nurses are the same good folks the world wide....my wife is a Theatre Sister,a dedicated and caring Nurse...like all of the staff at her Hospital..
Also...enjoy your 'three wild days and nights'........sounds like fun !!!

[Doug_Tipple]

My wife loves Paris, having been there five times. She feels that she has spent a previous lifetime there because everything seems so familiar. Considering that she has seen very little of the USA, five trips to Paris, France is quite an accomplishment for her, a lover of art, especially stone sculpture. She really had to sacrifice and save to make most of those trips. Our upcoming stay at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas is what I consider to be the next best thing, although I doubt that our days and nights will be all that "wild", considering that I have to fit into the picture, and I don't gamble or drink much. We do have tickets for three shows, including "Jersey Boys", "Phantom of the Opera", and "Legends", a show of impersonators of famous people in Las Vegas. During one of the days I want to take a bus trip out to Hoover Dam and to see the new bridge over the Colorado. The last time I was there I drove my car across the dam, but that has all changed now.

As I mentioned before, after our Las Vegas stay, we are continuing with a 7-day car trip, and the south rim of the Grand Canyon is one of our stops (two days). We have a room at the Thunderbird Hotel, which is right on the rim. Now we both are beginning to worry about sleep-walking, which so far hasn't been a problem in our lives.

I am feeling much better now in my recuperation process, not needing any pain medication for two days. Even though I had one of the most highly regarded surgeons in Indianapolis to do the gall bladder surgery, because of the severely swollen nature of my gall bladder and the tissue around it, the surgeon evidently snipped the bile duct in the process, causing a bile leak, as seen by the nuclear medicine scan. This required a follow-up endoscopic procedure, called an ercp to remove the remaining stones in the bile duct and to place a temporary stint (plastic tube) through the bile duct to stop the leak. Hopefully, when this stint is removed after our vacation, the cut in the bile duct will have repaired itself, and that will be the end of the process. I appreciate everyone's best wishes for my recovery. Thank you.

[mutepointe]

It's been a long time since I've been to Vegas but I still remember to tell people if they're going to a Las Vegas show, don't go to the first show of the evening. That's the family show. No ta-tas.