Fistula stuff - CT Scan

Nov 19, 2010

I went on vacation last week. It's the first time in seven years that I have known my husband that I have been on vacation without him. I must admit, I rather liked it. Of course it helped that I had some pretty cool friends to stay with and in general just had a really good time.

I left on a Tuesday from Philly airport. Normally I would have flown out of Newark airport, but I had an appointment with the Gastro surgeon (Dr. Matt Kirkland) early that morning so instead of driving from Philly to Newark I just flew out of Philly. The appointment with Kirkland was pretty standard and not much was really done. I wasn't draining and hadn't been draining for about 2 weeks prior to the visit. Of course Dr. Kirkland hoped that my fistula and leak were healed, but having been through this before I didn't really think it was. I felt fine until Thursday when someone picked me up off the floor (which totally surprised me, because when have I EVER been light enough to pick up off the floor? I mean, not since I was like 3 years old!) in surprise of seeing me. His rather large belly smashed into my belly and I noticed some tenderness. I knew then that I was going to be getting another collection and getting all sore and icky feeling again. By Sunday I was feeling pretty horrible. I left the activities of the faire at noon and headed back to the trailer to lie down. I slept for nearly 6 hours. Bret and Kathleen, the great folks I was staying with, came and said that they would be playing a gig in this Irish Pub that I love and asked if I wanted to come. I was still feeling pretty horrible and as much as I wanted to go I decided that it would be better for me to just relax in bed. Rachael, Kathleen's daughter, put in a DVD for me and I settled in to watch it. I fell asleep about forty minutes into the movie. It was 8:00 p.m.  I solidly slept until 8:00 a.m. the next morning. I woke to more pain, swelling and lots of tenderness, but I pushed on and went to the farewell breakfast. During breakfast my fistula broke open and I began to drain copious amounts of ick.  I've been less than hungry since last Saturday and keeping my protein above 50 grams has been tough. I haven't been hungry and drinking was tough because once the fistula opened up anything I drank came leaking out too. What a mess.

So today I had a CT scan that Dr. Kirkland ordered. I had to drink contrast and had to have contrast pushed though a peripherial IV. I viewed the scans but I can't make heads or tails out of them. My guess is that the reading doctor will be able to see more than I can because all I can make out are my kidneys and some of my bowel.  I'll be sending the CD results to Dr. Kirkland tomorrow. I assume that I'll hear from him sometime the following week with a surgery plan.
No, I really don't want surgery, but 15 months of chronic leaking, swelling, pain and so forth is more than enough. I mean, I have to wonder if this thing would EVER heal on it's own or not. I have serious doubts that it would.

One good thing that has come out of all of this though is that I weigh 176 pounds and have just 26 more pounds to lose to get to my 150 goal.  I can barely beleive it!  I'm wearing size 14 jeans and medium tops, though sometimes large depending on the cut. I did have to buy a new winter coat this year because the one I got last year is too big.

Well, I'm off to get some cleaning done.

Maddie out
(ILAMYM)

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