The ups and downs of life.

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I am feeling like my gut is getting back to where it was before I had my ileostomy. The issue is that my gut is starting to hurt more every day. Somedays I do not even want to eat because I feel so backed up. I do not see my surgeon until the end of next month and have no appointments with Gastroenterology this year at all. (I am going to work on that on Monday)

My bowel accidents are stupid right now because it is not like it was before. I have been stuffed up for a while now and instead of having diarrhea like I used to my bladder is going nuts and I end up soaked a lot more. I know that I could take more Merilax. It does help but then I risk more accidents that I cannot deal with easily.

So I have a dilemma, More Merilax/stool softeners equals feeling better but at the cost of more very bad accidents.

I have to get to GI and get some tests done to figure all this out now that I am healed up.

 

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I’ve mentioned before that you should try a Dulcolax suppository. You’ll have cramps for 15 minutes then you’ll have diarrhea for 15-30 minutes and it will all be out and you’ll be done. With a suppository, you’re totally in charge of when you defecate. Just set aside an hour. Wear a rubber glove and get it up the pooper as far as it will go. Your butt will suck it the rest of the way up. It’s so easy, efficient, and definitely beats Miralax because you never how long that may take to work.

I took a pretty high dose of calcium for about 25 years of my life until I figured out that it was making me severely constipated. I would go for two weeks without pooing. MiraLAX didn’t even help. The only thing that helped was a Dulcolax suppository. You might feel weird doing it at first but it’s completely worth it.

 

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@snow

I got some Dulcolax suppository when I was still in Florida last month. I did try them once at night after not having a BM for almost 24 hours. They did not help that much. I cannot keep them in as I have no control which is the same issue I have with enemas. Both things cause me spasms for hours or even all day after using them. I end up feeling sick for a long while during the day after doing an enema so I don't like doing that unless it is a last resort.

I could deal with having some spasms if my bowels emptied but that is not what happens unless I take a bunch of Merilax and stool softeners.

Right now I have been cleaning my apartment for the last two days and the amount of activity is making me spasm a lot, like my hands are shaking from it.

Also, the new medication that GI had me try over the holiday is a hit-and-miss. It stops my gut pain but all I do is pee and then not have a BM for 18+ hours.

Before having my ileostomy I was having 6-7 BM a day on all the meds I was on. Now on nothing I don't go at all again and feel sick a lot.

So, I got to get seen and I am going to push for a fasting colonoscopy to see what they see when I don't inflammation from the clean out.

 

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@ThatFLGuy What a drag; sorry to hear Dulcolax doesn’t help. Most people who get enemas really enjoy them so I think your reaction is unusual, unfortunately. I have read on multiple medical websites, and also know that for most women, pooping every third day is fine; there’s no need to poop every day. But certainly some people do; it really depends on how much, and what, you eat. But it’s not mandatory. I’m pointing that out in case it can help you relax a bit instead of putting so pressure on yourself to poop every day. I hope your next appointment really goes somewhere helpful.

 

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@snow

During my first bowel surgery, 14-18 inches of my bowel were removed and Pa. doctors feel like that did me in and I may not have the ability to process or get enough liquid into my bowel without help from the top down. Drinking more just makes me pee more unless I add stuff to it.

From the butt it does not work because my puborectalis muscle is not working right and keeping everything between my anus and that muscle so enemas just come right out as soon as my rectal sphincter fails.

The last surgery undid my ileostomy so that way GI could do the tests that should have been done a long time ago. Now I just have to make them do those tests and hope that they show what is going on.

 

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@ThatFLGuy That makes sense.

 

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@snow

Well the last person with GI that I was seen by here in Pa. let me know how bad Florida doctors messed up. They just hit me with a lot of antibiotics and figured that would be it. They did not try to deal with what was already damaged by having a perforation of my bowel.

Even my Physical therapist was like WTH about the fact that they did not do surgery way back on 12/20/2019 when I first went to the ER and almost died.
There is a lot that was messed up and the hospital here in PA and the big C word in 2020-2023 did not help me any.

I have had countless doctors and family tell me to go after the Hospitals over this. Going after Pa is still an option but I do not know about Florida because of how long it has been and the hospital changed ownership. And, I don't know how stressed I want to be with all of that unless a law firm takes it up and deals with all of it.

 

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@ThatFLGuy

I understand about not wanting to sue. I’ve had some options to do that in my own life but I didn’t want to drag the horrors out into the future of my life; I just wanted them buried in the past so I don’t have to think about them that much any more. Suing someone makes you continue to suffer. Your whole life gets dragged out in court and the public eye. You know the defense would try to make it seem like it was all your fault, which would be so frustrating and potentially embarrassing.

I definitely think you could find an attorney who would take it on for you and who wouldn’t charge you unless they won, then they would charge probably 20-30% of what you won to keep for themselves. It does sound complicated since the old hospital in Florida changed ownership; how frustrating. It seems like you could still go after the people that ran that hospital at that time, and/or the physicians themselves who worked on you. But you must consider if you want that to be a part of your future just to maybe get a few hundred thousand dollars. It would probably take a decade to get the case settled and you might not even win. That’s a long battle for something that’s not a sure thing. Only you can make the decision if that’s worth it to you. I certainly hope that if you pursued charges against them that you would win because they’ve ruined your life and your ability to work. You deserve millions from them, in my opinion. They deserve to pay for you to live comfortably for the rest of your life since you can no longer earn income and that’s THEIR fault.

One thing I’ve read is that when doctors get sued, their insurance companies usually do pay out for the claim. The doctors almost never have to pay themselves for the claim. But they get punished by not being able to get medical malpractice insurance in their future, or it really jacks up their insurance rates for the rest of their lives. So they do suffer if you win.

The best thing to do is to probably Google “medical malpractice attorney” in a big city, like Miami or Pittsburgh, so you get a specialized expert (not just your small town “family attorney”). Pick three attorneys with the highest review scores (don’t settle for less than 4.9). Try to find someone who is middle-aged, not young and inexperienced, and not too old to be losing their mind. They usually do free consults in the beginning. They’d be able to tell you how likely it would be that you’d win, and how much you might win. That could help you decide if it’s worth pursuing. I’m not sure if your attorney would need to be in the same state you are, or in the state where the damage was done. That’s something you could ask them about.