Dan Israel Was born in Long Island, New York on October 3, 1941 where he was introduced to sailing on Long Island Sound at an early age. He was skipper of his own small boat at age 7 and started racing sailboats. At age 13 he moved to Pacific Palisades, California and continued his sailing. He married Lynne at the young age of 19 has two daughters and two grandchildren. He is a fireman and is on medical leave at this time. He still sails his own sailboat as well as long distance racing and cruising on large boats. He has sailed to Hawaii, Tahiti, Mexico and Canada extensively and looks forward to resuming his active lifestyle.
My 60 year old fireman husband (Dan) had his prostate removed on Aug. 8, 2001. The day after he had an ultra sound and an aortic aneurysm was discovered. He recovered from that surgery immediately. NO problems with the recovery at all but the biopsy showed that he had some cancerous cells at the sphincter muscle which was the location where his prostate was removed. The lymph nodes were cancer free. Actually, he is scheduled to begin radiation next week. He will go 5 days a week for 6 weeks.
The second day after his AAA surgery he began having severe gas and bloating. He was given an epidural prior to surgery and morphine was administered by that means. On the fourth day the epidural was removed. That same day he had a slight infection and was given antibiotics by IV and on the 6th day he came home. He was absolutely miserable when he was in the hospital. He ate only a few tablespoons of food the whole time he was there.
The day he came home he smoked a whole pack of cigarettes and the next day he drove and the following day he started pulling nails out of the wall where drapery rods had been so he could " Prepare for painting". He also drank some beer which he is fond of. The following week he was IN BED and very sick. He was given blood pressure medication and anti-cholesterol medication which he had been taking prior to his surgery. Plus he was sent home with antibiotics. After that really bad sick week he began to do things again. He edged and mowed the lawn the first day he was out of bed. While all of this was going on I was going nuts until I finally decided to look the other way because I, nor anyone else can do anything to change this guys mind. I feel like he will probably be fine because he is so stubborn. He has painted the living room and the dining room as well.
So that is the history and his questions are regarding his intestinal tract. He is still having gas, loose stool, no appetite, constant indigestion and heartburn. He is still having trouble sleeping and is up and down all night. Do any of these symptoms sound familiar to anyone?
I forgot to mention that he finished all of his antibiotics but HE decided that his problems were caused by the medication that he was prescribed so he quit taking them cold turkey. Even the blood pressure medication. I should add that prior to his surgery his blood pressure was good before medication. I am in disagreement with this but as I said, I have finally reached the state of mind where I just figure there is nothing I can do and he is going to exactly what he wants no matter what.
Thank all of you for your time and responding to me before. Also, if anyone has had to undergo radiation soon after AAA surgery I would be interested how that went. I am concerned about the additional "intestinal" problems he will be having with the radiation as it will be focused in that area.