declining mental health after surgery
 

A good friend of mine for 30 years has gone through a bad experience
and is now not responding and my friends and I are not sure what to do next.
Here is the story.

At the end of December, my friend had gall bladder surgery. this surgery is
considered low-risk and standard nowadays. A week later, she experienced
excruciating pains in her abdomen and was rushed to the hospital where they
discovered a gallstone still lodged in her bile duct. The bile had been leaking
into her abdominal cavity for a week. They performed surgery, removed the
gallstone and placed 3 drains in her cavity to drain out the bile. She was in
the hospital for 3 weeks before being sent home. She went back in 4 days later because the antibiotics that she was on caused a severe reaction. She stayed in the hospital another 10 days and during that time hadn't eaten solid foods nor really kept anything down. They removed one of the drains, so now she only had 2. They discharged her and she was sent back home again.

Over the next few days, she threw everything up she tried to eat or drink. She went to the doctor, told them she was throwing up and they re-admitted her for a third time. The doctors told her had they known she hadn't eaten solids, they would have never discharged her. This was last Friday, the 15th. Over the weekend, they discovered that she had additional liquid that was causing her to vomit because it was sitting on top of her small intestines and causing a reflux-type reaction. On Monday, Feb. 18th, a third drain was placed into her side to drain this fluid.

She has not been the same mentally since. My friends and I either spoke to her or saw her last week and she is incoherent, babbling, hallucinating and
essentially not functioning. She had been on morphine the day after the 3rd
drain was placed (Tuesday, the 19th). They stopped the morphine as of that day and she hasn't had any medication. she hasn't eaten, they removed her IV on Thursday and essentially she's been sleeping and not functioning ever since. We saw her on Saturday and her right arm is swollen, she's sleeping all the time, she cannot feed herself and you have a hard time waking her up. They did CT's on her brain, took multiple blood tests, etc. and all her tests have come back negative. It's like she's given up.

She has not had contact w/her family in 15 years. Her friends are her family.
She refused to allow us to contact them these past 7 weeks. This past Saturday, we called her family. She cannot make any decision about her own well-being and we're not sure what to do. Her family is supportive and has come to visit.
During this time, we've expressed to the doctors to have a Psych consult, but had been denied. Finally, they relented after seeing that she shouldn't be acting this way after getting a drain placed.

I'm just seeking any advice as this is new to me and my friends and we haven't ever experienced anything like this. I can see how she could be so depressed.
She's been in the hospital for 7 weeks, she's estranged from her family, she is
very obsessed about work and now she's not working and her co-workers are moving along w/o her, and her friends aren't able to spend as much time w/her because we have families and jobs. We get down there as much as we can, but we aren't w/her 24/7.

Can you advise on websites, anyone we can speak with?

Electrolyte Imbalance; Exhaustion
 

Dear eaglesfan,

There are several causes to explain your friends psychosis and lethargy. Electrolyte imbalance and exhaustion are the most benign. If either is the cause, once she is healed completely she should rebound.

However, on the basis of what you have said, the best thing that she could do is to transfer to another hospital as soon as she is stabilized. Her current one has made so many blunders in diagnosis and treatment that her recovery there is doubtful.

Cordially,

I agree electrolytes can be totally out of whack.

Also sometimes anathesia can be very hard on a person's system. It takes a while for it to dissapate. Sometimes months. But sometimes is a person's immune system is weak the adrenals can be significantly affected by anasthesia. Google adrenal fatigue and they recommend some homeopathic treatments.

Like Shelley said, the anesthesia used in surgery can often have some strange and lasting effect. I had outpatient surgery on a tuesday year-befor-last. I remember being on the table, then I remember being at home that night, lying on the couch and trying to talk to a friend who had come to visit. But the next thing I remember was walking downstairs on Saturday. I actually lit into my kids for skipping school, since I thought it was Wednesday. For weeks after the operation I had problems with my digestive tract, and lost a lot of weight. I was clumsy and slow to respond, and I couldn't concentrate much at all.

I'm not saying that this is what's wrong with your friend, but it is worth considering. I hope you find the answer very soon, and your friend returns to normal. It's very kind of you to care so much about her. Good luck and God bless you and her both.

Idealist