22 Months Post Op & Sudden Hospitalization

Aug 21, 2011

Some times things change in a moments notice & there’s nothing you can do but just sit back, try to relax, & accept the path you’ve been abruptly dropped on.

Of course my recent experience is not nearly as traumatic as many whom have been affected by a statement such as that above, but this is my personal lil story:

About 2 weeks ago I awoke one morning to our dog Orly whining to go out at about 7:30am. I jumped up out of a sound sleep and quickly let the two dogs out for bit.

As I stood at the back door waiting for them to do their business I became acutely aware of an increasing pain in my upper belly. It felt at first like a cramping sort of feeling & I thought maybe a lil snack & a drink well I waited for the dogs would help. So I went off to the kitchen, had a granola bar & a few sips of juice then got the dogs back in & went back to bed.

Laying in bed I curled up in a fetal position, the pain progressively intensifying. I started visualizing the call I was going to make to Roy at work if it didn’t soon stop & it hurt more to even whimper. I feared I wasn’t even going to be able to explain to him what the issue was if the pain got any worse but thankfully it slowly started to disappear once again & I drifted back to sleep.

Then there was nothing, until a week later which just so happened to be last Tuesday. I’d had a relatively uneventful day at home & when Roy got home from work he stayed with the girls, who were napping, & I ran out to the grocery store to stock up on some things we needed.

When I returned home about an hour and a half later I could feel this cramping sort of pain returning. I put the groceries away, sat down for a lil while, then went off to make dinner for everyone.

Slowly the pain worsened.

By the time I’d finished making dinner and had sat down to my own plate I could barely touch it. I just picked at it for a while whimpering to Roy about my dilema & waited for the girls to finish up then managed to shower Alanna since I’d given Brooklynn one just the night before then left them to play for a little while before bed.

I sat back down to attempt to finish my dinner & the pain started to then become agonizing so I decided to try laying in a fetal position on the bed as I had done the week before hoping it would just pass like the last time & thinking it felt oddly familiar to the gallbladder attacks I had been experiencing earlier in the year, before it’s removal in late February.

After laying on the bed for a while Roy came to find me & suggested that if I was in this much pain maybe I should consider going to the ER.

For most people this might be an easy decision but it’s something I always struggle with. I know that a typical ER trip lasts hours & it was already after 9pm by this time. The following day was also the girls first day back to school & I didn’t want to go to the ER get stuck there for hours, get told it was nothing major, be sent home in the middle of the night & then end up having Roy wake up the girls, load them into the van, pick me up, load them back into their beds & then expect them to get up for a full day of Preschool, after all summer off, with an interupted night of sleep.

I also didn’t want to have to find someone willing to come in & babysit on only a moments notice for half the night while Roy stayed with me. So, after much agonizing concideration I finally decided that if Roy & the girls could just drop me off so I could at least make sure it was nothing serious then I would take a Taxi home when I finally got released so that I didn’t have to disrupt the girls or anyone else.

Yes, I think of all these things despite being in severe pain & my worries are almost immobilizing. I am just so grateful that this time (unlike a major gallbladder attack I had back in January) Roy was actually here to stay with the girls so I could seek immediate medical help.

Around 2 or 3am, after some lab work & a CT Scan, the ER Doctor decided I had a bowel obstruction & admitted me telling me there was a possibility I may need a tube down my nose or possible surgery.

Moments after updating my Facebook status to keep Roy & my now concerned family members in Canada, all in the loop, the nurse (who had already blown a vein in my arm while roughly trying to insert my IV) returned to announce she was going to be shoving the dreaded tube down my nose also.

I. Freaked. Out…. Completely!

Not just because she was “rough” but I had already had a previous nose tube experience after waking from my Gastric Bypass surgery back in 2009 & I knew it was far from pleasant. The difference however is that in my previous experience I was unconscious from surgery when they inserted the tube & this time I was wide awake. I begged her for some sort of throat numbing spray or sedation of some sort & she just shook her head no. So like any other mature adult I broke down & bawled like a baby.

Seriously.

She left for a while as I tried to compose myself, frantically Facebooking an update of my impending trauma that was about to ensue.

When she returned with a second nurse she produced a bottle of throat numbing spray & told me she could in fact numb my throat for me a little bit. So she gave it a spray & both nurses moved around me until I had one on each side. They then produced the long tube & a cup of water with a straw telling me the best thing I could to was swallow when they told me to in order to help it go down.

The rough nurse held the tube, while the other held the cup with the straw in my mouth & each of them put a hand on the back of my head holding it so my chin was against my chest & then the rough nurse with the tube began shoving it home while they both barked at me to swallow.

I did. Frantically! Up until the tube began clogging my throat making swallowing nearly impossible. They just kept barking the order at me while I spewed water everywhere exasperatedly trying to explain that I couldn’t!

Finally the tube bottomed out once it hit my lil stomach pouch & they backed off to test & make sure by pumping a syringe of water into it causing me to belch as my lil pouch suddenly filled with a blast of air & water. I was horrified, humiliated & definitely a bit traumatized fearing what the night with this thing was going to be like.

Around 4am I finally got taken up to my bed on one of the upper floors where I got very little sleep for the next night & following day. I think the tube was only in for that one night (it’s all a bit of a blur now) but it turned out to be a waist of time since it didn’t do anything they’d hoped & the Xray which I had the following day showed there was no blockage there. So they weren’t sure if it had somehow passed or if there was another issue we were dealing with.

Apparently some of my laps were showing elevated levels such as in my liver & after my assigned Doctor & hospital surgeon consulted with one another they decided what I might actually have is a left over stone in my Bile Duct left over from my Gallbladder removal. They ordered some sort of special MRI to be done on my belly, which ended up taking a day & a half for me to get in for & I’ve since been waiting over a day just for the results of it.

If it is a stone then I will aparently need surgery but because of my Gastric Bypass they will not be able to go in through my mouth like they normally would & the surgeon here is claiming it can’t be done Laproscopically either so I’m possibly looking at major surgery which means a big(ish) scar & a lengthy recovery. Not to mention all the added risks that go along with it.

I’m considering contacting my Gastric Bypass surgeon if it is indeed a stone because he knows exactly what’s going on with my insides & he is a professional at the Laproscopic surgeries so he might be able to do it that way for me. That would however mean having to go 3 hours away for it to be done.

Ideally I hope it’s not a stone at all but the question then is; what is it?

I’m still experiencing pain although not as severe as Tuesday night & I know my body well enough to know that what I’ve been feeling is definitely not normal for me. So I’m also a lil afraid of just being sent home if it shows nothing because they don’t know what to tell me & then find myself back here in another week or two when it reoccurs as severely once again.

Tomorrow I hope to have answers… but it may take till Monday since not a whole lot tends to happen on the weekend.

Fortunately, Roy’s chain of command gave him the immediate time off he’s required in order to take care of the girls while I’ve been holed up here for the past 5 nights & all without forcing him to take any personal leave for it. If I do require surgery they will also get him on a longer term family medical leave in order to get us through it.

I’m saddened however, to of missed the girls first day back at preschool but thankfully, Roy took pictures for me & the girls have thoroughly enjoyed their time back.

I am extremely grateful for my wonderful MOPS group & Roy’s squadron spouses group who together have come together to create a meal sign up & have been bringing wonderful home cooked meals over to Roy & the girls in my absence. I feel truly touched & blessed by their support during this time & I know Roy & the girls are truly grateful for it too.

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