When my husband had his ileus after open heart surgery he was so desperately miserable,
It’s the only time I’ve ever seen him sink into a deep depressive state for several days. I can only imagine what it was like for your husband (and you.) And still is. Weeks of stress, not knowing, losing touch with your normal day to day life. Yes, they did a colonoscopy for my husband too. That relieved the pressure of the gas but what finally got things going was the medication Amitiza. The GI doc said it would basically cause cholera-like diarrhea. And it worked. Of course, then it threw his electrolytes off and caused his heart to go into atrial fibrillation which extended his hospital stay. He went home on Amitiza and gradually reduced the dosage. I’m wondering now if all that left his bowels especially sensitive and vulnerable to common GI bugs. Norovirus has been going around our community and that is what I thought he had originally. Labs came back negative, however the doc says if there is any blood in the stool specimen that can negate the results. So the mystery remains. Right now the big problem is that his kidney function has been affected by the dehydration and while it improved a little over last night, not much. Thanks for your response and writing about your awful but interesting experience.

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