Need that good old Dogsey advice and support

As some of you may know I posted over a month ago about my Mam.

She was had a blockage in her bile duct which turned out to be cancer

Well the prognosis was good as it could be removed through surgery.

She had the surgery on Thursday and it took 5 hours.

The operation was very very successful apparently but her heart stopped for a split second while on the table but came back itself instantly. Because of that they took everything really really slowly.

She was put straight on a ventilator, as guess as a precaution, but came off that yesterday morning. But since regaining concsiousness she has been very very confused. She didn't even know her own name but by yesterday afternoon when I rang to check on her she knew her name but not where she was or what she had been through.

I am extremely anxious now as you can imagine. Does anyone have any experience of this, or some medical knowledge.
Does not smoke and isn't a heavy drinker.

I am leaving to see her in about 5 minutes so I will come back on later to check in.

Thank you all in advance.

Wish me luck I am so anxious about seeing her and how she is going to look!

Talk to you all later.

Nic xx

I have no knowledge, just wanted to send you some support and ((hugs)) x

So sorry to be reading about your poor mum Nic, but I'm sure she will pull through and be herself again soon.

I think you need to make an appointment to speak to her hospital doctor (that's what you have to do, I know that from when mum had her various ops and admissions). He/she will be the only one who can answer your questions. I strongly suspect that it's the drugs causing her confusion, especially if she's on that Tramadol they give them as a painkiller when they can't give them any other painkillers, or the fact that it can be given with other painkillers (can't quite remember). What I DO remember is my mum was the very same, and having Googled about Tramadol and how it can make them confused, I made an appointment with the doctor coz the nurse was insistent she was gonna be having Tramadol, and he came along to the drug's trolley with me and insisted to the drug nurse that my mother was NOT to be given it ever again as it was making her confused! That told her!!!!

She didn't like that at all, so I think it might be something that they are allowed to dish out themselves, because it always keeps their patients "calm" ifya know what I mean (less trouble for the staff imo!). Anyway, when she had blown a gasket to the doctor about it, he striked through mum's drug sheet and calmy told the nurse that he would "up" the other pain killing medication and all would be fine, which it was, my mum was my mum again.

Phone the hospital and find out who her doctor is, or get it from the board above her bedhead, then you ring and speak to his secretary and she makes a ward appointment for you to have 10 mins with him when he's there doing his rounds. Hope that helps, but I'm almost certain it's the drugs that will be causing this confusion.

Good luck Nic, you will have your dear mum back very soon I hope.xxxx

If she's in ITU it would be worth speaking with her named nurse about your concerns. They tend to have more time than ward nurses and there tends to be Doctors around more often due to the high level of care needed in ITU. If not then making an appointment with her consultant via his/her secretary is the way to go.

Is she on very strong medication? Just after my dad had a cancer op (he had his tongue removed as thats where the cancer was and muscle from his leg was used to rebuild a sort of tongue for him) he was on lots of meds and became confused. So much so he told my mum he thought he was pregnant.

Sorry to hear about your mum Nic and I wish her well soon and (((hugs))) for you.

Some of those painkillers can make them very confused and maybe thats the case as Helena says. I know last year how bad mum was being on morphine patches. Previously mum was on Tramadol but when she went home and lived back on her own they wouldn't prescribe them to her because of the affect they can have and also because she was unstable enough already on her feet .

No real advice here.

But after my last op (not cancer related) I was in terrible state, drugs combined with going without food for 11 hours didn't help either. I was violently shaking, dizzy, unstable, confused.

I hope she is feeling better soon xxx

Feeling confused after being under a GA for a long time is not unusual & the older you are the slower you can be at recovering from it.

When I had an op I came round in the recovery ward & when asked where I was I said at the vets !!! which had all the staff roaring with laughter & I was only out for around 30 minutes.

I hope she's feeling better when you see her & if you have any worrying as the others have said tell her named nurse & ask for advice

I'm sure she will be fine & back to normal soon

Cyber {{{{{{hugs}}}}} to you all

Hi guys thanks you all so much, as usual you are wonderful!

Mam was very happy to see myself and my sister today. She was in great form but very sore which is to be expected.

She is back to herself mostly. Her short term memory isn't great. She must have told me 4 times that my teeth looked really white! She said it to ally twice! It was quite funny and we did have a good laugh with her.

We told her about three times that the surgeon had said that the surgery was a great success and she kept giving a surprised happy look as if it was the first time she was hearing this. But they don't seem overally concerned about this in the ICU and she was being moved to high dependency just after we left so I also took that as a good sign.

Thank you Helena and others for the great info re pain medication. I will ask timorriw when I see her what she's on and if the memory loss continues I will speak to her doctor. Thanks again everyone xx

I happened to get to talk to one of Mams doctors, well he's part of the surgeons team.

The only pain meds she is on is morphine and she had the patient control button to top it up herself.

If the short term memory loss continues they will other a scan so I am happy enough for that to be done. Other than that she is doing really well and will be moved from high dependency to a normal ward tomorrow.