Life's Path

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

End of May 2011

The morning of May 22, 2011, I woke up feeling not too bad.  I thought that maybe Glenn and I could go for a walk as it was a nice day out.  We were going to be babysitting the grandkids as their parents were going to be celebrating their wedding anniversary.  But by lunch time, things changed.  I was in pain and on the couch.  Maybe I just needed to rest some more.  The pain didn't go away.  Nicole came and dropped the kids off and I was hoping to get better.

Not long after the kids got here, I was in extreme amounts of pain with cramping in my belly and I was on the toilet.  I was screaming in agony and the sweat was pouring off my body.  Glenn was trying to see if he could help me, while taking care of a 4 year old (who was very curious and wanted to know what was wrong with Granny Red) and a crying 6 month old as she was not happy mom had left and was probably upset as well with what was going on with me...she could probably feel the tension.  It was awful, no other way to describe it.  Poor Glenn was going out of his mind...what does he do, how does he handle all of this?

In between my screams of agony, I suggested that we call his other daughter to see if she could pick up the kids and take care of them for the evening.  It was apparent that we would be going to the ER once again.  The pain was out of this world.  We finally got a hold of Jenna to come and take the kids and then we went back to the ER...remember, doctor's orders from Friday.

We go into the ER and we get the same doctor and nurses as we did a month earlier in the ER.  They focus on getting the pain under control.  They ask what has been going on in the month since I was last there and we give them the update.  FINALLY, I get some relief from the pain.  They keep me in overnight to continue the pain control and then release me as I have a follow up appointment with Dr. Zeeman in 2 days.  They figure let her try and sort it all out.

I see Dr. Zeeman on the afternoon of the 25th and she says that she is going to admit me to the hospital that night so that we can do testing on me and try and get to the bottom of all this.  I am shocked...hospital?!?!  Well, maybe this will help us out.  I go back to work, finish out the day and call the temp agency that I work for and tell them I will need a temp to fill in for me as I will be in the hospital for the next few days.  How ironic is that...a temp filling in for a temp?!? 

I go home, pack a bag and we head to the hospital.  I get checked in through the Emergency and wait on a gurney there until they find a bed for me in the hospital.  It is a long night but I think around 2 AM they take me upstairs to a room.  I am going to be the 5th person in a room made for 4.  I have an incredibly small and very uncomfortable gurney that I will sleep on, in a corner.  They bring in a small divider to try and give me some privacy.  They tell me as soon as a bed opens up, I will move to a bed. 

The morning of the 26th, I am taken down for a CT Scan.  Been there, done that.  No big deal.  Tomorrow I am scheduled for yet another gastroscopy and colonoscopy.  My second one in a month.  Oh the joys!  The days are long as I wait for visitors and for these appointments.  I hate being in the hospital...especially since I am jammed into a corner with very little room to turn around.  In the meantime, I am prepping once again for a colonoscopy. I so despise drinking that awful stuff and running to the bathroom every 5 minutes. What a horrible night again of prepping!

The 27th in the afternoon, I am taken down for my colonoscopy.  Now this is like my 4th one in 2 years so I know the drill.  The on call GI specialist is going to be performing my colonoscopy.  I go into the room where they start to prep me.  No big deal, done this before.  They give me the dose that is supposed to put me to sleep.  Nothing happens.  They continue to prep and the nurse looks at me and says "You aren't sleeping?"  to which I say "Nope"  I think she tried to give me some more stuff and I was still awake.  They start the procedure.  It was awful.  I was awake and could hear and feel everything.  My mind did shut me down for a little while and took me to a better place...funny how the body can do that.  But I came back and felt and saw everything again.  I told them that I was awake, was hurting and asked for pain meds.  They wouldn't give me anything.  I started getting distraught.  It really hurt and I could feel when they were doing the biopsy of my colon and I could see it on the screen which was right in front of my face.

They finished the procedure and I was a mess.  It was very disturbing to go through that, especially when I knew that I should have been asleep.  I asked for pain medsmeds and it hurt so much and I was crying.  They wouldn't give me any.  I was very upset.  Luckily one of my roommates mother was there and she came over and asked me what was going on.  I told her through my tears and she called Glenn at work for me.  The whole thing really upset me to the point where the nurses finally came and gave me an Adavan...a calming drug.  It did calm me down and the roommates mother stayed with me and put cold clothes on my head until Glenn could come.  What a horrible thing to go through!

The morning of the 28th, Saturday, the doctor who did the colonoscopy comes in.  Glenn is there and is waiting to ask her about what the heck happened yesterday.  We ask her and she tells us that she heard what had happened and she was shocked as she said I was asleep for the whole procedure.  I told her that I was most definitely NOT asleep and even the nurse knew that.  She denied it and told me that they didn't see anything but we will have to wait until the biopsy results come back.  She doesn't think that there is anything more for me that they can do so she will discharge me.  I am thankful as I want to get out of that horrible place.  I forgot to mention that on the Friday afternoon, one of the roommates was discharged and they wouldn't let me move into the empty bed.  I couldn't wait to get out of my little corner.  But at the same time, the doctor discharged me without me eating anything for over 3 days and I still was on pain med's up until the hour that she let me go.  This place was a joke.  But I couldn't wait to get home to the comfort of my bed and to get some real rest.

I still continued to have pain and cramping but I just continued with the Buscopan and pain meds to get me through.  I will see Dr. Zeeman again for the biopsy results.  Until then, I just have to try and cope and get through and hopefully this will just all go away.





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