Hi all - I wasn't sure how to edit my original post to add info so I am just replying. I apologize now for the length of this post!
Whew - what an experience! First of all, my hubby donated the left lobe of his liver to his brother and is 11 days post op and doing well. He's tired and sore of course so he's taking things slowly and trying to rest lots. He is being followed by the doctors for an elevated liver enzyme. They are hopeful that it will trend downwards soon, but if not he may need further investigation through CT scan etc.
As for the communication issues with the hospital - here is what happened. The day of the surgery was incredibly long - he was brought into the OR at 8am and at 9:30am we were told the surgery was underway. We had been told that it would be finished between 1:30pm and 2:00pm and the surgeon would be in then to speak with us. They did not take his brother into the adjoining OR until almost 1pm due to the fact that my hubby's left lobe had extra veins and bile ducts they had not anticipated (I don't know how they didn't anticipate this given the extensive testing he went through ahead of time and the fact that they could not use his larger right lobe due to extra veins and bile ducts). We did not have the surgeon come talk to us until 5:30pm. He indicated that it was all done and DH did well - he would be moved to recovery by 6pm and to the step down unit by 8pm at which point I could go and see him.
At 8pm we still hadn't heard how his brother was doing and I called the unit to go and see my hubby. I was told he was not there. I called the recovery room and was told he hadn't gotten there yet either. The surgery had been finished for at least 2 hrs at this point. They would not tell us where he was. We were all alone in a giant family waiting area since the volunteer manning the desk had left long before. We found a list of phone extensions and called the OR extension. They told us he had left awhile ago and would be in recovery. We called recovery again and they indicated that he'd just arrived but could not tell us where he'd been for 2 hrs. They told us that since he had been finished his surgery for over 2 hrs they would only be keeping him for an hour so he would be in his room on the floor by 9pm when I could go and see him.
At this point I was getting angry at the thought that he may have been left in a hallway for 2 hrs. His aunt (who is an ER nurse in our city) called and requested to speak with a charge nurse who put us in contact with one of the surgeons. The surgeons was not very helpful - he just said nothing eventful happened during the surgery and all was well at the end - he had no clue why it took so long for DH to arrive in recovery.
After 9:00pm I called in to the step down unit and they indicated that DH had not arrived. I called recovery again and they indicated that he'd left awhile ago. No one offered to help us find him or even offered an explanation as to why there were such large time gaps where he was apparently unaccounted for. We stood in the hallway outside the step down unit and finally saw him being wheeled in around 9:25pm. The porters stopped and asked if we wanted to see him quickly since we'd been waiting so long. We quickly spoke to him and they told us to give the staff about 10 minutes before calling to come in. At 9:40 I called in and was told that he wasn't ready yet but to call back in 10 minutes. I called back in 10 minutes and was told by another nurse that my hubby had only just arrived 5 minutes ago and I needed to give the nurses time to get him set up. I indicated that no, in fact he'd arrived almost 30 minutes ago. The nurse told me I was wrong - I told him that I had spoken to my husband on the way in and asked that he please not lie to me about the time my husband had arrived. he then backtracked and told me that he wasn't my hubby's nurse so he really didn't know exactly when he'd arrived. He told me they would call me when he was ready - I said I would call back in 10 minutes. I waited 15 minutes, before I called back the nurse told me that my husband had only arrived 10 minutes before - I almost jumped through the phone (although I did remain calm). I was then told that if we came in when they weren't finished setting him up, they would have to "push you around" to get everything done. Yep - direct quote - they were going to have to push me around.
I immediately asked to speak with a charge nurse and was told she would call me right away. She did and indicated that she had not been present so had no way of knowing when my husband arrived - I told her that my inlaws and myself had spoken to my husband so we were quite positive of the time. I told her that her staff lost all credibility by blatantly lying to me twice and asked her what she would feel if it were her family member. Within 5 minutes she had us in the room visiting my husband.
My husband had pain relief issues - they used a TAP block anesthetic directly into his belly - it did not work well for him. He experienced extreme levels of pain for two days. During this time he used his dilaudid (sp?) pump incessantly which caused nausea and dizziness. They also authorized Torodol for about 36 hrs which helped some. They increased his TAP flushes to every 6 hrs (It's normally every 12 hrs) and increased his pump dosage but he only felt good pain relief when they switched him on day 4 to an oral dose of Oxycodone. We've since learned that because my hubby's incision is very long (about 14 inches vertically from right below the centre of his rib cage to below his navel) it may have been outside of the pain relief zone of the TAP blocks.
Since switching pain meds he has made a huge comeback. He's on minimal pain relief and able to putter around the house and come on short walks with me. He's had a bit of trouble sleeping due to physical comfort but is getting good 3-4 hr blocks of sleep which is better than he had at the hospital.
Overall his care by the nursing staff was excellent and his hospital stay was nice and short (compared to some). We will be requesting copies of his charts due to a couple of issues - his left arm has been extremely sore since the surgery. he was told it was because they strapped his arm down however he cannot fully extend it at all - the nurse who visited thinks it may require some physiotherapy. He is using heat and trying to stretch it several times per day. As well, I noticed the day after the surgery that he had dried blood on the back of his head - I didn;t think much of it at the time figuring it was just from one of his IV lines or something. A day later he mentioned that it was sore and I looked and found it all scabbed over - it's an area about 1 1/2 - 2 inches in diameter. He has a huge bump there too. He did not go in to the hospital with this and it appeared after surgery - what the heck happened to his head?
While he has said that he would do it again in a heartbeat, we also will be submitting a letter to the hospital regarding these issues. The fact that the family was left in the dark for hours and hours, the patient seemed to be unaccounted for for hours at a time and the fact that he has injuries unrelated to surgery are all cause for concern.
On the plus side - not only is he feeling well, his brother is doing very well also - he will be released today and so far his good health has surprised the transplant team. Fingers crossed that they both continue to make good progress and return to good health.
Sorry it was so long!
Topic: My Husband Donated Today (Read 5918 times)