Posts by mistystag48

I feel like we keep trying to fix deep-rooted corruption with fancy new software, but it’s just a band-aid on a bullet wound. If the people running the show are compromised, no amount of encryption is going to save the integrity of the process. Do you think tech is actually the solution, or are we just chasing shadows?

Elizabeth Price85 said:HELP!

I woke up this morning in a literal pool of blood...😲 My underwear, my pajamas, the sheets—everything was soaked. I wasn't in any pain, and since I'm on my period right now, I just assumed it was menstrual blood at first, especially since there was this massive clot on the pad.

But then, just a little while ago, it hit me while I was on the toilet... I realized I'm bleeding rectally too.😲 It’s bright red, fresh blood. I tried calling my doctor, but they aren't picking up (of course they aren't, it's Easter!).

Has anyone else dealt with something like this after a DG HAL+RAR procedure? I had my surgery just ten days ago.
Please, someone just tell me it's going to be okay, because I really need to believe this isn't something catastrophic...

I started bleeding during bowel movements too... it's been about 17 days since my surgery and it's actually quite a lot, almost as bad as it was before the operation, so I'll be calling my doctor tomorrow. About five or six days after the surgery, the stitches were coming out and there was some bleeding and spotting, but it wasn't a heavy flow like this. I'm hoping like crazy that it isn't anything serious either... Unfortunately, I've been sitting down a ton since the surgery because of my job, and nobody ever warned me that I wasn't supposed to be doing that...

Michael Diaz4 said:Well, there’s a massive gulf between stage three and a neglected stage four... it’s not even a contest. fadedstag1 is going to have to deal with the same reality I am, and for an operation like that, you need a legitimate clinic and a proper surgical suite. That squeaking sound people mention is probably just the Doppler, but if we're talking about high-stakes, complicated procedures, I wouldn't dream of heading over to Pittsburgh for that... A professor is a professor for a reason. If you're just doing some routine General Electric stuff while everything is still caught in the early stages without any postoperative recovery needed, sure, maybe. But for a messy stage four where they actually have to cut and perform a traditional cleaning of the wounds, that’s getting serious. I won't even be able to sit down for at least two sessions after this...

Yeah, I think he'd agree with that, and credit where credit is due, but my situation was clean—no extra complications hanging over my head. It didn't strike me that they'd be equipped to handle sudden, unexpected complications that can pop up during any surgery, even one as mundane as this. Though, I suspect they wouldn't just take on every single patient blindly; they'd likely recommend something else or perhaps they have access to different facilities or specialists that I'm simply unaware of, since I didn't bother asking...

Aaaa, so you want to know, why didn't you just say so right from the start... where was I...
Aha, so there’s this doctor, a fairly stout younger guy, born around '67 I think, and we headed into a side room to have a real talk. I forgot to mention that a colonoscopy report is mandatory, and on top of that, I had a mountain of bloodwork and other results to deal with. He went through everything quite thoroughly—the nurse had already screened them and gave him a verbal rundown while he was scanning the papers—and then he asked if I knew anything about the surgery itself. I told him I was actually pretty well-informed regarding the procedure and the equipment involved, but what I really cared about was the postoperative phase, the recovery, and all that... At that, he tells me there’s practically no recovery period at all; he mentioned one patient who drove himself all the way out to Maui right after the procedure, and that you can basically eat whatever you want... It does help take the edge off the anxiety, though it sounds almost too good to be true... I stripped down to my waist and we moved into the next room, which, honestly, looked more like a storage closet than a medical facility. They laid me down on one of those maternity beds, hoisted my legs up, and we got down to business. He asked about anesthesia, suggesting that if the pain wasn't too intense, he’d rather skip the local anesthetic via injections—which involves four separate shots directly into the backside—and just apply some lidocaine to the device to numb the tissue; since I am deathly terrified of needles, I agreed to that plan. Honestly, I don't know what any of you have been through, but that was easily the most uncomfortable experience of my life... he inserted the plastic tube and began rotating it, and the whole time the machine was beeping incessantly, sounding just like a police radio, and whenever he hit a blood vessel, there would be this heavy pulsing sound, and then he went in with the needle and thread and stitched it up about three times (or so it seemed, I wasn't exactly focused in that moment). They kept talking to me the entire time, telling me to relax—as if that were even possible—because if you tense your muscles, it only makes it worse. It hurt quite a bit, and there was this constant, unpleasant sensation of fullness and a dull ache while he was stitching... Fortunately, after maybe three or four rotations, it was over, and he did one last check with his finger, and that was it. It’s such a relief when the pain finally starts to subside...

So, here’s the situation... I was dealing with third-degree internal hemorrhoids that were bleeding quite a bit. Honestly, I was pretty skeptical at first—I mean, being in Pittsburgh and all, you wonder what the deal is—but there it was. I started looking into the different types of surgery available, seeing that in the US, places like Arithera and Mercury are the main ones doing this kind of thing; specifically at Arithera $2667, I checked in to ask about the costs since I was in Pittsburgh, and they told me it would be around $250 or so. That kind of thing just fuels my skepticism, but I didn't really have much of a choice... my iron levels were plummeting, my blood work looked terrible, and the bleeding during bowel movements just wouldn't stop, so I figured, fine. In mid-March, I gave them a call to see when they could fit me in, and I suggested one of the Fridays in April; they said they’d call me back once they cleared it with the surgeon. They ended up calling me for April 8th at noon, everything very polite and professional... I asked if there was any special preparation needed, and my girlfriend mentioned I just needed to do a cleanse the day before. I arrived at the clinic (you can find the name online easily if you want to look it up, I don't want to advertise them), located right at the base of the building, a rather unimpressive entrance, though not hard to find, situated right across from the train station. Once I got inside, the impression wasn't actually that bad, moderately well-kept, not like some of those high-end private clinics in our country where everything is nothing but marble and steel, but tidy enough. My girlfriend was apologizing at the reception desk because the doctor had an emergency—his name was Ed, I can't recall his last name—something about an appendix bursting, so they told us we’d have to wait about 45 minutes... I thought that was actually perfect, giving me a chance to rest after the drive since I arrived exactly on time (barely, I was driving slowly because there was so much police presence everywhere), so my girlfriend and I went for a walk through Pittsburgh. It's a really lovely city, I actually quite liked it, beautiful parks, a Catholic seminary, and some great kebabs right across the street... though I didn't realize that until later.

I underwent surgery at General Electric in Pittsburgh this past Friday, April 8th.