I started feeling sick on Sunday night. I just chalked it up
to eating something new and thought nothing more of it. I took my normal meds
and everything seemed fine. On Monday, I went and played racquetball in the
evening and struggled. I was in pain and kept seeing stars but I pushed through
and just attributed it to not eating more than a banana that day. On Tuesday, I
woke up not feeling well but pushed through the day at work. I kept taking all
my meds and I wasn’t able to eat because I was so nauseated. That night, I went
home and tried to eat some soup but became sick very quick. I threw up for a
few hours and was in a lot of pain. But I didn’t think anything of it, once
again sometimes this is my normal so I just took a bunch of meds and went to
bed to try and sleep it off. On Wednesday morning I woke up and was just in a
little bit of pain and still nauseated. I went into work and was only able to
make it a half day. I went home and took some Percocet and more Zofran and
tried to just sleep it off. By the evening, I felt a little bit better and was
able to eat some soup and keep it down. At this point, I thought it was the flu
so I just went to bed. On Thursday I woke up and was in a lot of pain and at
this point the pain meds I was taking were no longer helping. I went into work
and called Dr. Frechs office. As the day went on, I was still very sick and in
pain and hadn’t heard from the Dr’s office yet so I called Dr. Rasmussen’s
office and let them know what was going on. They called back an hour later and
told me to get a CT scan done. At this point, I was already on my way to the
ER. I needed some sort of relief and I knew that there was something more
serious going on.
In the ER. I wouldn't take off my boots in hopes of going home! Ha.
I checked in at the ER and was seen by Dr. Jemmett
immediately. He ordered pain meds right away and also ordered an x-ray. He was immediately
suspicious of a bowel blockage. They had given me morphine and Zofran and
nothing was touching my pain. They also drew some blood for lab work and took a
urine sample. I had the x-ray done and Dr. Jemmett came in to give me the bad
news. Bowel blockage and intestinal dilation, just as he suspected. Then, if
this wasn’t bad enough, he told me I would need to spend the night in the
hospital to which I flat out refused. He explained the risk I would be taking
if I went home and he highly suggested that I spend at least the night. He said
he would page Dr. Rasmussen and if he said that I needed to stay the night as
well, then I would agree to it and only if Dr. Rasmussen was the admitting Dr.
and not a hospitalist. He also ordered dilaudid for the pain since the morphine
wasn’t working that well. I also got a shot of bentyl in my hip and a shot of
relastor in my shoulder. The bentyl was to help relax my intestines and the
relastor was to counteract the opiates in blocking the receptors in my
intestinal tract so they wouldn’t slow down the motility. After all this, Dr.
Jemmett informed me that Dr. Rasmussen also said I needed to spend the night
and he would be admitting me. I was admitted to the 7th floor later
that evening. I will spare all the details of this lovely stay but this was by
far the worst hospital stay I have ever had. Ever. I had to have enemas to try
and clean out my colon and was given pain meds every 2 hours and fluids as
well. Of course, you don’t sleep in the hospital so this only adds to the pain
and misery. By morning, I wasn’t entirely cleaned out but had to get out of
there. When Dr. Rasmussen came in, I told him he better sending me home and
that I was fine (although not 100% the truth). He agreed to let me go and also
let me know that my labs were still a little off and that my white blood cells
indicated either an infection or something viral going on which was probably
attributing to why I didn’t feel so good. I feel like the bowel blockage was
just attributed to having crappy moving intestines and the combination of
taking pain meds that just slow down the colon as well.
This was the picture in my room. I thought it was funny because I felt like a prisoner there.
All my lovely bracelets!
The schedule board in my room!
So right now, I am
still on all the normal medicines and have just increased the dosages of Miralax I
take every day and have also added Milk of Magnesia to my daily regimen of
laxatives. I am waiting to hear from Dr. Frech’s office to see what are the
next steps we need to take. Nothing like a little weekend jaunt in the hospital! I know I should be grateful that I have good Dr.'s who take good care of me (and I am) but I am running out of patience with my health!
