Hospital Time

Okay, so I have a fever of 102.8 and have narcotics in me. So, if this update is a disgrace to the English language, I apologize. Happy reading!

September 8th: The past few days I've been feeling feverish, weak, etc. I'm having big time nausea. I go to the hospital to get a shot of Zofran through my port so I can take my meds. The nurse is kind enough to leave my port accessed. This means that the needle that goes into my port is left in like an IV. There's a tube sticking out to administer medication. Accessing my port can be a pain, so having it pre-accessed is nice. Saves me a poke if I have to get more med put in.

Nightime: I'm having bad stomach cramping and lots of gas. I take my breakthrough pain narcotic (hydromorphone) but don't have any luck. I'm up all night with pain.

September 9th:

7:30 AM: We go to the ER to get my pain under control. I get an X-ray that shows I'm somewhat constipated but have a lot of gas. I'm given an enema and I go home.

The rest of the day is spent at Gramma's so I could be in a supervised drug coma. Mom had to work. I continued to have pain and took lots of narcotics.

That night I started to have body aches and a fever of 99.5.

September 10th, 2009

Midnight: Mom and I go back to the ER. An X-ray is done and it turns out I have a partial bowel obstruction. Time to suction! One of those nasty tubes is put down my nose and into my stomach and is them hooked up to suction. I started to get some relief from that, although the tube was a pain in the rear. Or rather, the throat. I'm admitted to the hospital for the night so they can continue to suction and give fluids and pain med.

During the day I have X-rays, blood tests, etc. The main thing is the pain in my throat from the tube. I even had to have major doses of pain med to make it somewhat bearable. I learned from my local GI and some of the on-call docs that the obstruction had happened because scar tissue in my abdomen (from all the surgeries) had tangled itself in with my colon. By late afternoon my tube was pulled. Hallilujah!

I'm on clear liquids, which to me means coconut water, clear veggie juices, water, herbal tea and vegan veggie broth with no MSG. To the hospital clear liquids means enough high fructose corn syrup to give me fatty liver disease. Jello, "fruit" juices from concentrate that have all sorts of weird acids in them and caffinated tea. The veggie broth was tolerable. I had coconut water (high in electolytes, potassium and mighty tasty) and herbal tea brought from home. Otherwise I ate a little jello, veggie broth and water.

At night I had serious itching so they tried Benadryl through my port. Omg, I was so out of it and asleep in minutes. I have very little recollection of the rest of the night other than continuing to itch and getting a pill of some sort that cleared it up.

September 11th, 2009

I'm put on a "soft foods" diet which includes milk, pudding, more high fructose corn syrup drinks and more milk. Thank God for Cream of Wheat. I mean, what's a semi-vegan, lactose intolerant girl to do? I got to have foods of my choice for dinner. The salad was sad, but hey, it was salad! I asked for whole wheat bread and got white bread with brown coloring in it. Mom brought me brown rice cakes. Thanks, mom!

This day I slept a lot. I read. I organized my room. I waited for doctors. Mom was at work so I was alone most of the day. I had a student nurse taking care of me. She accompamied me on an X-ray check-up. A nice guy always pushed me there in a wheelchair. The student nurse and the wheelchair dude were talking about school and careers and whatnot and I realized they were both younger than me. It's werid to be getting older and have people younger than you taking care of you in the hospital....

At some point I spiked a fever around 101.7 . Of course, there was no leaving the hospital with that going on. I had blood cultures, stool cultures, urine tests, one of those nasty nasal swabs and an exam by the doctor. In the evening my temp started going down to about 99.2 . They tell me I can go home in the morning provided my temp doesn't go any higher.

I'm still having body aches and needing pain med for it.

September 12th, 2009

5:00 AM: The tech comes in and takes my temp. It's 101.8. Later it's 102. 8 . My blankets are taken away, a cold cloth is put on my head and my room temp is brought down to 60. It's awful. I'm always cold.

Blood cultures are done, I'm given Tylenol. Now we're waiting for further instructions from the doctor. UNMC will be contacted.

My temp was just taken again and it's down to 101.2

Phew! It's a crazy world.