Sick again!

Ugh! I feel like this is all I keep writing about...but I had another stay in the hospital this last weekend. Let me first go back to the last time I was in the hospital, about 7 weeks ago. The day after I came home, I had my 3rd Remicade infusion and within the next couple of days I started to feel really good. I went to work that week on my normal schedule, Tuesday-Saturday and was totally fine. I have felt great ever since then. Yay! But then Thursday (the 12th) I was at work and around 10 am started to not feel so good. A different pain than usual, but one that seemed familiar...I ate a pudding cup at noon and was still feeling really bad so I didn't eat anything else the rest of the day, which was disappointing because I had brought a lunch with leftovers that I was really excited to eat. Anyway I got home about 4:30 and crawled in bed. Chris came home about 6 or 6:30 and I was still not feeling good. I knew by this time that I had a blockage but I was hoping it was just pass. I have read that massaging your stomach would help it pass so I was trying to do this, even though it was painful. Not long after Chris came home, I started to feel significantly better. I thought that it was finally passing and we could avoid going to the hospital. Chris made me a smoothie, which I ate, but not long after the pain returned. I went to bed still having lots of pain. I had an appointment with my GI doctor the next morning at 8am, and thought if I could just make it until then, then I could avoid the ER. We also didn't want to go to the ER at 9pm because last time we had to wait over 2 hours to get seen and I was in agony. I slept off and on. The pain would come in waves, sometimes I would feel like I could do this, and then I would have a few minutes where I just wanted to go to the hospital. Finally around 2am I threw up a few times. This helped me feel somewhat better and I went back to sleep. But I woke up again a little after 3 in more pain that I had had yet. I told Chris we needed to go to the hospital, so we packed some things and Chris drove me there. Luckily there was no one else in the ER, I was so happy. We had to wait a couple minutes for someone who was in the triage area, and then they took me back. The lady registered me and actually started an IV and gave me some zofran (med for nausea) right then. By the time we were done, a bed opened up and they took me back. But they were really busy back in the ER and it was quite a while before I got any pain meds. The doctor couldn't see me for a while, so I had to go get an x-ray before I even had pain meds. I wasn't happy about it, but I survived. After the x-ray was done, the x-ray tech left the room and said someone would come get me and take me back to my room. I waited there at least 20 minutes ( I know because there was a digital clock on the wall) and I was really upset. Finally I called for him and he came back in and I asked him if someone was going to come get me. He said in a minute and left again. A minute later he came back and said that he would just take me. When we got back to my room, the nurse said the doctor had just been in looking for me, but I wasn't back yet. Great. Well he came back a couple minutes later and said that my x-ray showed I had a bowel obstruction. He was going to give me something for pain (finally!) put an NG tube in, and call the GI surgeon on call. The GI surgeon cam and said that since this was the second time I had had a bowel obstruction in 6 weeks, that I might need to think about having surgery to have scar tissue removed that was causing the blockages. He said we wouldn't make any rash decisions, but it was something to think about. I finally got up to a room about 7 am I think. I had to share a room and I wasn't happy, but they said they could get me a private room the next day. That night I asked if Chris could stay the night with me, and they said no since my roommate was a female, and he was a male, and that I needed to be considerate of that. I started crying, so the nurse asked my roommate if she minded if Chris stayed, and she was really nice and said it was fine. But they never got Chris a cot so the poor guy had to sleep on 2 chairs pushed together. I felt bad after that. I actually asked him in the middle of the night if he wanted to go home, but he said he wanted to be here when the doctor came. I really liked the doctor on call this time. He has actually been recommended to me a couple times, and I think he is the one that my GI doctor likes to refer people to. My surgeon came in on the morning I was admitted (Friday) and said that she wouldn't be around on the weekend, but that I was in good hands. I really like my surgeon too. I asked her what she thought about having surgery to get rid of scar tissue, and she said that surgery just causes more scar tissue, so she wouldn't jump to that right away. That made me feel a little better, but then I didn't know which doctor to believe. Anyway, the next couple of days were ok and I started to feel better. I was able to have ice chips and popsicles which was really nice. I had really good nurses this time and the second morning there they moved me to a private room. Then Chris got a cot to sleep on the rest of the time.
Before they moved me to the private room on Saturday, a dietitian came and talked to me. I never really had the chance to tell her that I am a dietitian too so I felt like the whole conversation was kind of awkward. She was saying that if I couldn't eat soon, then they might have to start "nutrition through an IV." I was like, "you mea TPN?" Haha she was surprised I knew what that was. Anyway, on Saturday they did a test where they put a tube into my stoma and injected contrast (which hurt my stomach and I cried a little). They were continuously taking x-rays to see if the contrast made it all the way back up to the stomach. The doctor said later that they didn't see anything physically blocking anything, like food. This means that I am probably getting these obstructions from scar tissue. On Saturday they clamped the NG tube and waited 4 hours and hooked it up to suction again for 30 minutes, and if there was less than 150 ml of output, then they would clamp it again. So they clamped it again and there was not very much output a second time, so they removed the tube Saturday night. The doctor said I could have clear liquids which I got for dinner. The next day at lunch I got full liquids, and the next day (Monday) I got a regular diet. They also switched me to pills for pain meds instead of a pain pump, and said if I tolerated breakfast and lunch well, then I could go home. So I got to go home on Monday about 2pm. We were so happy to go home! (I will spare you the picture Chris took of me sleeping with an NG tube in my nose and my mouth hanging open-I was pretty out of it some of the time).

I felt pretty good when we got home, but Monday night I started to notice my throat was REALLY sore, and I was getting a stuffy nose and body aches. My throat had been sore ever since they removed the tube, but now it was worse. I woke up yesterday feeling REALLY crummy. I stayed in bed most of the day. In the afternoon I got up and took a shower and got right back in bed, with my hair wet and everything. Chris surprised me by coming home around 4:30 when he got off of work, instead of going to class. I was really glad to have him home. I had body aches all day and felt like I had the flu. Last night I didn't sleep great, so I was up on Pinterest at like 5am, but was able to go back to sleep around 7 and sleep until 10:30 this morning. I have showered and made it out of bed now and am already feeling tons better than yesterday. Luckily things worked out so I could stay home from work until today. We have a student with us right now who has been doing a lot of my work anyway. :) I was pretty put out that I had to miss Tie Dye day and Western Day at work though. This week is Rehab Week, and so they have something different going on every day at work, and give treats and things out to all the employees every day. Friday there is a BBQ and they give out awards. I was nominated for the Rookie of the Year award. :)  I will let everyone know if I get it! (I can't believe it has been a whole year since I have worked there)! I always feel bad when I get sick and can't work, but am blessed to have a great boss and great co-workers who understand. Just when I was feeling great, I had to go and get sick again, but I try really hard to take care of myself. I drink lots of water and chew my food really well. I will have an appointment in the next week or so with surgeon, and talk about the possibility of surgery. If I do have surgery, they will go ahead and remove the rest of my rectum at the same time. At my last appointment with my surgeon, she said if my fistula doesn't show signs of healing by November, then we would do surgery. She said it's not a major surgery, but is sometimes hard to get the incision to heal because of where it's at. But right now I just take it one day at a time and try to not worry too much. We will deal with whatever comes when it comes. :)