Mrs. Wood came out of surgery......checked into her room....felt pretty good....with a pain level of 2-3....wanted to eat something....talked on the cell phone with different people....
All is good...right?
Nope.....Linda suddenly (emphasize suddenly)....developed a pain in front of her right shoulder.....which escalated immediately to a 12 on a scale of 10 on the pain scale....extreme pain....
Everyone panicked....nurses who had inserted her port for the surgery were called in....was the port causing the problem....was there a clot .....no one could figure it out....
In the meantime she was suffering real pain...big tears....the whole thing....scary.....
Long story....short version....Linda had sat up in the bed to eat....this initiated the whole thing....when she finally was "cranked back down flat....the pain subsided....when they sent her to XRAY in a wheel chair to check the shoulder....the pain returned....when she returned and laid flat...the pain went away.
The nurses knew about "referred pain" but had never seen the pain so intense....that's what it proved to be ...."preferred pain".....during the surgery, the abdominal cavity is filled with air....to aid the surgery....this oftentimes creates pain in the shoulders......referred pain.....Linda started the whole thing by sitting up....somehow it created a bizarre chain reaction.....
Is she OK....you bet...the mystery and excitement are over....enough of this drama.
The Oncologist stopped by while she was in XRAY....we will meet with him at 8 am....to talk about what's next.....
Referred pain (sometimes referred to as reflective pain) is a term used to describe the phenomenon of pain perceived at a site adjacent to or at a distance from the site of an injury's origin. One of the best examples of this is brought on by a heart attack where pain is often felt in the neck, shoulders, and back rather than in the chest, the site of the injury.
Doctors and scientists have known about referred pain since the late 1880s. Despite an increasing amount of literature on the subject, the cause of referred pain is unknown, although there are several theories.
Scary isn't she????????????
3 comments:
Glad another "lindaism" is averted. I would not be happy for a long time if my husband published that picture! ha! Shar
It's actually a gas, rather than air, that is inserted into the abdomen (carbon dioxide or nitrous oxide), as a way of holding the abdomen wall away from the organs for easier work. The gas will travel through the body as it dissipates. For some reason it settles in one or the other shoulder for a time, but it's actually pretty common with laps.
With my many, MANY laparoscopies from endometriosis, I'm an expert at feeling that pain in the shoulder. I likened it to being kicked by a horse (though I've THANKFULLY never been actually kicked by a horse).
In this case, Linda, I feel your pain!
I love you both. --Niece Deb
Okay, seriously. Pain in the shoulder areas is something your doctor should have pre-warned you about and shouldn't have been such a panic for the nursing staff. It's very common after laparoscopic gallblader surgery. I experienced it myself, when I had mine removed, but since they'd warned me that it might happen until all the gasses managed to get out of my body, I didn't freak too much about it.
I'm sadly amazed that the hospital staff didn't realize this is what was happening right off the bat!!
All's well that ends well, I suppose. Love to you both, as always.
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