little insight please?

[Dragonfly369]

Im currently in the hospital. I had my appendix taken out on tuesday. its currently thursday. I ended up in the ER because of bloody stool and intense right side pain. The nurses are being awesome and sweet. But the surgeons want to boot me even though I still havent had a bowel movement which they want from me. And I still have intense right side pain. not to mention the pain from the 3 incisions they made when takeing out my appendix. I am currently drinking something reffered to as go lightly. But so far nothing. Should I just go home like the surgeons want? I dont think I will do any better at home, in fact I may do worse as there is no one there to help me really.

[Teskeria]

I don't know if it is appropriate or will work for you. But I have found that a couple large glasses of apple cider or apple juice will allow me to clean out my bowels within a few hours. Nice and simple. I've never had any laxitive that works for me. It also works for just about everyone I personally know.
If you have had a bowel movement in the last day or so, they probably aren't worried. It can be an issue if it is 3 or more days. I am not a doctor, so please, check with one you trust if you don't think the surgeons are right.

[Dragonfly369]

i havent had a bowel movement since monday afternoon. late afternoon.

[Seshat]

The surgeons are probably correct in the 'your surgical scar is nicely healed, you no longer need a surgery post-op bed'.

However; you clearly are not fully well.

Discuss your lack of bowel movement with your doctors, and with one of the senior nursing staff.

Also discuss your home situation with the nursing staff.

The hospital is responsible for ensuring that their surgery didn't obstruct your bowels or anything like that.

The hospital might also have something called 'duty of care', which means they can't send you from the hospital to a place where you can't be looked after well enough. I'm not so sure on that one: one of our nurses may be able to respond to that.
Regardless of duty of care; the nurses should be able to put you onto a home nursing program, or get a hospital social worker who can arrange home care for you until you're well enough to look after yourself.

But the lack of bowel movement should be a giant red flag to the surgeons, one which says 'investigate this urgently'.

[Dragonfly369]

Right now the seem willing to send me home bowel movement or not. tomorrow they are going to try a suppository if i still havent had a bowel movement. i was supposed to have blood drawn but that didnt happen. the scars are tender. the stomach is still tender and bloated according to the nurses. And now i have something going on in one of my lungs.

[Der Cute]

Sweety, we're on the THIS side of a computer screen. We can't advocate for you, you gotta do it yourself.

"Nurse, may I talk to you? Hi. I know on my records Doc Smith wants me to go home today. Personally I do NOT think it's a good idea. According to the Doc, they want a stool sample AND a blood draw. Neither of those have happened yet.
I know that the other nurses around have told me to drink water, but, it's been to damn long for just a poop with water to make it go. What else can we do?
More important, there is some pain/something/alien in my lung. That's not cool. I would really appreciate it if we could work on this...shit..."

[charred]

Be polite, but firm. This is your life we're talking about.

[Marmalady]

This ^^

I've had my appendix out (when I was 17) and I can't believe that anyone in the medical profession would be talking of sending you home, not in the condition you describe. Especially the bowel movement thing - when I was there, the nurse would be there every morning wanting to know (at the top of her voice) if we'd parped / peed / pooped. Whispering the answers wasn't any good either, because the reaction - "Oh, splendid!" or "Oh well, better luck later!" also came fortissimo...

You are not in a position to leave hospital, hun. I know it's hard to stand your ground when you're feeling weak and in pain - do you have no family anywhere nearby who could come and fight your corner?

[Mikkel]

Good luck.
I don't want to scare you, but when I had my tumour out, the same symptoms turned out to mean that my intestines was leaking where they had reconnected them.
It isn't safe to be alone in that case!

Try walking as much as you are able to. If your bowels are just late in starting up, the motion may help.

[Hanzoku]

I agree with the others - refuse to be sent home until you can sit down with your doctor, nurse, and go over what's going on, what procedures they've said they'd like to do and what hasn't been done yet.

[Sapphire Silk]

Patients go home without having had a BM all the time, and usually it ends up fine.

Walking and eating the right things usually helps.

If you've taken Go Lightly and have had no BM, it's because you have to BM to move. If you're passing clear liquid, you are cleaned out.

The pain is not surprising. Usually they do an lapaoscopic procedure; the abdominal cavity is fulled with gas to allow the surgeon to see and manipulate instruments. This causes most of the post op pain and is normal and expected.

However, I am not there and don't know your exact circumstances. There could be something else there going on that I am unaware of.

Ask to speak to an omsbudsman if they keep pressuring you and you don't feel ready. This is an impartial person who exists to protect patient rights. He can explain what your options are. The hospital is likely to back down if they are pushing you out too early.