Ended up in the ER, little stay in the hospital due to blocked intestines about 2 weeks after surgery.

Well hydrated, eating only purée & watching what I was eating turns out I have some inflammation & swelling - hopefully not permanent - which ended up creating blockages.

Amazingly painful, takes X-Ray & CT Scans to figure out - not something you want to encounter.

Back home & relaxing, on baby food and plenty of Water.

Watch what you eat, drink plenty & listen to your body!

What would you / should you have done differently to avoid this problem?

Or was it just deemed by your doctors to have been unavoidable?

Unavoidable but I'm definitely staying away from cream of wheat or anything else that could possibly expand.

Not that I had much of it but I've focused more on very well pureed Soups and [baby] foods without binders like apples, bananas & Pasta. Drink constantly, being hydrated really helps - thankfully I was not dehydrated or I could have had a longer stay.

Also getting away from the pain meds (which I was well on my way to) is a good start as they can cause another issue which does not help evacuate what little food you may be eating at the time.

Not sure if everyone is irregular or not but keep an eye on how you are out processing, I chalked it up to post-surgery irregularity & perhaps the pain meds but I was wrong.

Essentially the blockage was the cause of very intense pain (reminded me of waking up after surgery) and an inability to eat/drink anything additional - terrific as they have you drink contrast which was the tipping point for me later that evening.

My scans & fluoroscope tests did not show any hard kinks but certainly swelling & irritation from the procedure.

The solution was rest & a lot of IV fluids, if there is a recurring issue it will likely have to be resolved via additional surgery.

Scary!!

More educational than anything, good object lesson on why to stick to the diet (I do, 100%), to rest and to stay hydrated.

While I did not anticipate the return to the hospital (ER first, which always takes forever it seems) the net result was a good outcome and hopefully no long term issues.

I'm back home, tolerating foods well (puree only at this point) and my incisions and drain are at least superficially healed so that is all good for now.