Ted's two months of hell

Puerto Vallarta August 2009

We found the down side of paradise. June 19th when Ted complained of a stomach ache. After a miserable night he checked into a private hospital that accepts our insurance. They tried several options to open the blockage in the intestinal track unsuccessfully. Finally they wheeled him into surgery. There they removed about 10 inches of small intestine and closed him up. The small intestine is large. If you could flatten it out it would cover a football field so a few inches usually don’t cause any problem. Most of the absorption of nutrients and liquids take place in the small intestine

We were told he could go home on Friday. Thursday afternoon he began to complain again of pain and on Fri. afternoon they wheeled him back to surgery. Somehow the connection had been done on dying intestine and more should have been cut out. I waited in the empty room for hours. Every couple of hours I would go and ask at the nurses station and was told he was still in surgery. Finally about 6:00 pm I was told he was in recovery and would be in his room later during the night. Early the next morning I arrived at the hospital and headed toward his room only to be stopped by a nurse and redirected to the ICU unit. There I found Ted in an induced coma, hooked up to a breathing machine, tubes in every part of his body looking close to death. One of the doctors who spoke English said he had a 50-50 chance of making it. His kidneys had failed. I made sure they had my phone number and left in a fog of uncertainty. My mind was bouncing, not able to clearly focus on any one thought. My partner of 30 years was lying in a bed hooked up to machines and no one could tell me if he would recover. They had performed an iliostomy. The small intestine had been cut and connected to a bag on the outside of his body. Basically his intestine stopped at the bag.

When I returned home the US Consul, Kelly Trainor call to see if I needed anything. No, just a miracle or two. No one from the hospital called and every morning I would return during the restricted visiting hours for ICU to find him still hooked up and comatose. Finally on Wednesday the nurses assured me that he was doing better and might be off the coma on Friday.

Friday came and I returned, expecting to find Ted awake. Instead I found him sedated and unaware of anything. I tried to talk to him, hoping somehow he would know I was there. He suddenly began to shake, eyes open in some type of fear or lost place. No one else seemed to think this was unusual so I tried to stop worrying.

Again on Saturday I visited, finding him still sedated. I again asked the nurses to call me and please let me now when he would really be awake. His surgeon came in and speaks English so I asked why and what was going on. His answer was that after the first surgery Ted had sucked on ice (given to him by the nurses) and some had gone down his intestines. Now because of that, he had an iliostomy bag but that it could be reversed in 2-4 months. According to him it was all Ted’s fault.

Baloney!!

Finally Ted was awake and trying to deal with the situation. He was, of course confused and depressed. They were feeding him and encouraging him to walk. The expensive hospital didn’t have any walkers so I rushed out and bought one, $150 dollars and now used maybe six times.

So far the only visitor we had was David, Ted’s chess partner. I wondered why no one from the writer’s group had come to visit Ted.. We found out later that a woman we had befriended had told everyone that Ted could not have visitors.

After a week where everything he ate or drank just ran through the stomach and out the bag, they released him to my care with the visiting nurse (thanks to Ted’s family) coming over to dress his 10 inch long, 1 ½ inch wide incision which was left open so infection wouldn’t set in, and change the iliostomy bag. He also had a large bed sore due to the fact that no one moved him while he was in ICU.

Four weeks after the surgery and several post-operative visits to the surgeon and Ted’s primary doctor, everyone was noticing that everything he ate or drank was still pouring out of him. We were told that he should gulp 1-1.5 litters of Gatorade a day, drink 3 Ensures and anything else he wanted with eight Imodium’s every day. With everything still pouring out of him he became increasingly weak and dehydrated, finally unable to get out of bed without falling to the floor. I took him to the surgeon and talked to the primary doctor. Both said he was doing fine. I began to think that his depression was winning and his body was failing.

Frustration set in and I began to yell at him. He retched constantly, he would not walk and had to be pushed around in a wheeled office chair. Finally he fell and I couldn’t get him up. After calling the fire dept. for help and then another fall where the paramedics came, I called Ted’s doctor and was told to take him to another private hospital Medassist. Here, another private room with TV, IVs and round the clock nurses, while everything continued to pour out of him causing severe dehydration and kidney failure. He was still not absorbing the liquid or food. They released him Friday evening and his daughter and I moved Ted into an Assisted Living home where two doctors have set up a lovely hacienda to take care of the elderly. We were told that Ted was well enough to fly to the U.S. with a medical assistant. We thought that was strange but the doctor assured us that this was done every day.

Friday night passed without incident and Sat. his daughter who had been visiting said goodbye and returned to San Francisco. I stopped by on the way home to see Ted and all seemed well. Sunday I stopped over after breakfast and watched him eat. Then I had to run a few errands . Returning an hour later I found Ted, the two doctors and another doctor examining him. Everything he ate or drank was still pouring out through the bag and he was in danger of renal failure yet again. This time he would go to the government hospital where costs are low and can be adjusted or discounted.

The hospital is many miles away on the edge of a poor Mexican town called Pittillal which butts up to Puerto Vallarta. After what seemed like hours, Ted was placed in a ward with five other patients on a bed that was at least 12 inches too short. I had to buy pillows to place on the metal bed to support his legs. The air conditioning worked and what seemed like a pleasant temperature was freezing to Ted who by now weights a little more than I. The nursing staff is limited, training doctors visit, patient families sleep on the floor by the beds. The beds are manually controlled and there are no buttons to push for help or a nurse. But with the continuing life around, mentally it is more stimulating than private rooms. I had to buy medicines and anything else he needed but the doctor seemed to know more and explained more to me than any of the previous and expensive so called “good doctors.” Where we had been told so many times, it will just be a couple of days until his body adjusts, now we knew that for five weeks his body hadn’t adjusted. Gulping gallons’ of Gatorade was just washing away any nutrients he might have gotten, sipping a very low cost drink would have been better. The Ensure he had been drinking is not designed for people with iliostomies or shortened small intestines, another was better suited. No fat, no chocolate, no milk products, many small meals a day and with the IV he slowly began to improve. Finally after 6 days there he was released. The hospital may be public but the information we received was better than any we had so far gotten.

We had been given so much bad information from so many people, including doctors, that now we are both very skeptical.

Ted is back at the Assisted Living Vallarta, improving, walking, playing chess and reading. Slowly both his strength and weight are improving. With a little luck he may be able to go to the states in a couple of months to have the iliostomy reversed.

P.S. So far neither of the fancy doctors have called to see how Ted is doing.