Weeks Three & Four: The Hospital

Shit.

Poop.

Defecate.

Whether using slang, the informal or medical term... each of those words sounds somewhat negative. I mean, if someone is having a bad day, they describe it as "shitty."  The next time someone tells me they are having a "shitty day" I'm going to say "Congratulations!"

Because at the heart of those words above is one meaning: getting rid of waste. 

Who doesn't strive to get rid of waste in one's life? Be it wasteful spending, time wasting or those "friends" who, when you leave their company, actually make you feel like garbage?

As I just learned, not getting rid of waste can be dangerous, even deadly. 

Week Three:

If you didn't read my last post, most of Friday and Saturday were spent (what I thought) dealing with endo cramping and bloating. Sunday was just fine. Now I'm starting the work week, and the endo bloat is back. The symptoms I've been having for months. The ODD bloating where I literally look pregnant. My normal waist size (or at least what I use to make online clothing purchases) is 28-29 inches. 

On this Monday, my measuring tape showed a whopping 36 inches!  Of course, because I'm blogging about my endo experience, I got proof of this massive bloat. 

Crazy, right?

Tuesday things seemed to be leveling out.  My waist size went down by four and a half inches.  Wednesday, the trend continued.  My waistline was nearing normal at 30 inches.  And throughout these three days, work was no problem. There really were no issues.

Thursday I woke up with more cramping and bloating.  I actually canceled on my personal trainer about 20 minutes before we were scheduled to work together and called in sick to work.  WTF is going ON?  Truly, because of what I'd read online, my thought process was that I was one of the lucky few who was having pretty bad side effects from the Lupron shot.  I mean, the bloat and constipation really weren't unusual.  The amount of throwing up on Thursday was odd, though.  As a matter of fact, I had a can of Progresso Light soup which contains two cups of food.  Only got through one quarter of the can, and violently threw it up. That was the only attempt at nutrition all Thursday.

Friday? Spent all day laying on the couch.  Drank six tumblers of water, which I violently vomited about 30 minutes after consuming.  When The Man came over, he said "this isn't typical. These aren't side effects, and if they are your doctor needs to know about it."  I yeah-yeahed and continued to watch TV.  Of course, his words stuck.  And of course, waiting until right before bed, I called the emergency line at my endocrinologist's office.  The on-call nurse told me what I was describing were not typical side effects of Lupron, at least not like any she had seen, and it sounded like I had a bowel obstruction.  She said I needed to get to the emergency room to have things checked out.  The Man was literally putting the down comforter over his feet when I walked into the room and said, "I'm sorry.  We need to go to the ER."  He hopped out of bed, said no problem, and we were off.  

The care I received in the emergency room was phenomenal. I got right in, and pretty soon the ER nurse and physician were talking about bowel obstruction. I described the pain to them like a lava lamp. It felt like there were gas bubbles inside me that would slowly move up and down, without releasing itself. I went off for x-rays and a CT scan which concluded: yes, I had a small bowel obstruction. 

And that meant I was being admitted. 

(Meanwhile, my parents and I have a family pact. If any member of the family is admitted to the hospital, the family must be notified.  My parents were on a two week vacation riding across America to participate in the Sturgis motorcycle rally. I did not want them to cancel their vacation! But, sent the texts anyway to inform them.)

The non surgical way to treat a small bowel obstruction is to insert what is called a NG tube (nasogastric tube.) Or as I like to call it, the Not Good tube. The patient cannot be drugged or asleep when the tube is inserted, because the patient has to be an active participant in the insertion. It goes in one nostril, down the back of your throat, at which time the patient needs to swallow to make sure the tube goes down the esophagus and not into the lungs and finally goes into the stomach. 

Once the NG tube is in place, it vacuums out the stomach contents. NG tubes are used first to try and prevent needing surgery to clear out a bowel obstruction. 

My NG tube was administered late Friday night, and in the wee hours of Sunday morning... Let's just say it worked. And my body was getting rid of waste again. A lot of waste. But throughout my stay at the hospital, my heart was being "tacky." Tachycardia is when the heart rate is increased. An adult's normal heart rate is 60-100 beats per minute at rest. Mine was faster than that. Also, some of my labs came back and indicated I may have a blood clot somewhere. So, we had to wait for more testing to clear that worry before I could be released from the hospital. 

Week Four:

I was discharged from the hospital Monday afternoon (August 3rd.)

It's funny how one's mind and body can be so out of sync. Upon my discharge, my goal was to be back to work by Thursday, especially since I'd called in sick to work the prior Thursday and Friday. Yeeeaaaahhhh. My body said otherwise. 

Exhaustion. Pure exhaustion. That's all I can say about the days post-hospitalization. My body was relearning how to digest foods. But at the same time, the food I ate was very sparse. Mainly soups and apple juice, and sometimes I'd eat some saltines. And my max caloric intake was about 800 calories. I couldn't fit any more food. 

By Thursday, it was quite apparent that I couldn't return to work until the next week, Monday, August tenth. 

My parents vacation ended by the weekend, and they arrived in Reno Sunday evening to make sure I was okay. It was decided Mom would stay with me a few days until I felt better... That would turn out to be a wise decision.