I’m probably going to have to take a nap after I write this.

I’m going to try and break this post up into days because it’s easier to remember things that went on in that order for me. But here’s the short version: I was very, very, very, very sick.

Tuesday:

I woke up at the normal time of 4:30AM and hopped in the shower. I usually stretch really good after I get out of the shower and my muscles are all warm and toasty and I felt a slight twinge in my left lower abdomen like I had a slightly pulled muscle there. I kind of blow it off because it’s not that bad and head to work.

Around noon I mentioned to Ben via Gmail Chat that my side is hurting and I can’t tell if its gas or a muscle pull but it’s getting a bit worse. I get REALLY distraced with WORK at work so I tend to not even pay attention to what’s going on with me but as I’m turning in all my paperwork for the day one of my co-workers asks me “Did you hurt yourself? You’re limping!” I totally did not realize till that point that I was limping because of the pain in my side.

Got home from work and took Cassidy to cross country, ran to the post office, then came home and took some Gas X and ate some Tums thinking it was just bad gas since that’s what google told me. I rode with Ben to pick up Cassidy and on the drive, I could feel all the bumps on the road in my side. We got home and I said I was going to lay down to let the gas work itself out and PASSED OUT. Ben woke me up at 11:00PM to move from the couch to the bed.

Then I didn’t sleep all night. The pain was pretty bad but I really just though if I could move things around in there enough, the gas would eventually… you know… work itself out.

Wednesday:

At 3:00AM I feel like I have to go to the bathroom so I get up and immediately the pain is BAD. Like a 8.5 or 9 on the 1-10 scale. I have a pretty high pain tolerance and it hurts so bad that I have to hold myself up on the bed and dresser to keep from falling down. I get to the bathroom and then as I’m walking out I get dizzy, the room starts to go black, and I sit down on the floor with my head between my legs, in intense pain, and will myself not to pass out.

I woke Ben up and told him I think I need to go to the ER like NOW and start to get dressed. In the process of getting dressed, I get the dizzy, pass out-y feeling again and have to lay down.

Luckily, we have a hospital about 5 minutes from the house and since we are in a really small town, they are not busy at all. I get in and triaged right away and they get me in a bed. The doctor comes in and feels my stomach, listens to my problems and has the nurse get an IV, some anti-nausea medicine and some pain killers in me right away. I only let the nurse give me half a dose of pain medicine because I do NOT like the feeling when they push it in via IV. You get hot all over and your head swims and it’s not not a pleasant feeling to me not to be in control of my body AT ALL. Apparently, I am alone on this.

The doctor orders a CAT scan, and a pelvic exam. Before the CAT scan, I told the doctor the pain medicine is NOT working so they give me another half dose. It doesn’t help either. Get the CAT scan and the pelvic exam and am still in intense pain. The doctor comes in and tells me that I my colon/large intestine is swollen and the blood shows an infection so she gives me two antibiotics to take and some Vicodin for the pain. I tell her that the pain medicine is STILL not working so she orders more to be put in via my IV before I leave so I am at least comfortable for awhile. They give me a full dose of something STRONG. Within a minute of taking it I am LOOPY. Like, pink elephants and rainbow unicorns loopy and I think this pain killer stuff is OKAY AFTER ALL!

Then I go to leave and sit up and immediately I am hit by a wave of nausea. It’s STRONG. I had to lay down and get dressed. The nearest bathroom was right outside my room and I make it out the door, immediately walk into the bathroom and lose it. When I walked out the nurse was there, handed me a pill to chew to help the nausea and we went home 5 minutes away. I had to run in the house to throw up again. And now I’m starting to realize that the pain medicine doesn’t really kill the pain, it just makes you not CARE that you are in pain. Which I am.

Go upstairs, sleep off the pain medicine. I don’t know what time it was but Ben brought me some chicken broth to drink and I was able to to get about 4 spoonfuls down before I am feeling like it’s going to come up. Go back to sleep. I’m able to drink a bit of water here and there but I realize pretty fast that the best way to NOT be in pain is to be asleep so that’s what I do. I was able to get about three bites of rice down in the evening so that I could take my antibiotics.

Thursday:

I am able to keep a few bites of rice down in the morning to take my pills again and then sleep. Later in the day I say that I am just SO DRAINED and NEED MORE SUSTENANCE so I convince Ben to let me have some leftovers from Tuesday night. I eat exactly three bites of ground turkey and it stays down for exactly 10 minutes and I am throwing up more violently then I ever have IN MY LIFE.

Not too long later, Ben comes up with some Pedialyte and insists that I drink it and heads off to drop Cassidy off at her first Cross Country Fun Run (which I missed 🙁 ) and heads to the gym. The stuff tastes HORRIBLE so I take a good 5 chugs of it just to get it down. It stays down for exactly 10 minutes then rinse/repeat from earlier.

Then… then I realize that I haven’t “gone to the bathroom” in two days. Great. I’ll skip most of this part of the story except to say that it takes a suppository and the worst 30 minutes of my life to clear out that problem… 🙁

Friday:

Get up and head to the doctor. Again as Ben drives I am able to feel every single bump in the road. My side still hurts as bad as it did the first day. I’ve stopped taking the Vicodin though because it doesn’t get rid of the pain, just makes me sleep and not care about it as much.

The doctor takes a urine sample and I am REALLY dehydrated. A normal ketone level is a negative number. My was positive 40 which is at the borderline of “dangerous” levels. My body was in starvation mode. The doctor insists that I have a bag of saline before I go home as a “boost” to get my ketone level to drop.

I am poked FOUR TIMES by two nurses to get a vein. I was so dehydrated (and the room was cold) that apparently my veins had “clamped up”. They didn’t have a warmer for the saline so within two minutes I am shivering uncontrollably and they have to slow the drip down. It ended up taking almost an hour to get the full bag in me. The last 10 minutes I told them to just crank it up because I don’t care if I’m cold, I just want to go home. It was crazy too because I could feel the cold UNDER MY SKIN. I could literally trace the route the saline was taking into my hand, up my arm and into my chest by feeling the coldness in my skin. I was so exhausted when we left there that I was asleep in the car before we hit the freeway.

The GOOD thing is that I also got a shot of anti-nausea medicine and for the first time in three days, when I woke up that evening I didn’t feel sick just from rolling over. I convinced Ben to let me eat some mashed potatoes AND THEY STAYED DOWN.

Also, he forced me to drink about 80 gallons of water.

Saturday:

Today! I am still in some pain. Enough that if I move in the wrong way, the stabbing pain is still pretty strong. I’d say it’s about a 5 now though. I’ve been able to keep down solid food and only get that nauseated feeling when I take the antibiotics so I’ve been taking an anti-nausea pill at the same time. I’ve also been drinking more than the recommended amount of water.

The big problem now is that I am SO DRAINED which makes sense since over a three day span I ate around a cup of rice TOTAL. It’s just hard to be so low on energy. I can come downstairs and sit up for about two hours before I feel like I just have nothing left and have to head back upstairs to take a nap.

They don’t know what caused the problem which concerns me because I do NOT want to have to go through this again. Also, you can not imaging how sore you get from laying in bed! My hips feel like they are bruised and ache really bad when I walk.

I am just happy that I’m beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I feel like I need another 3-4 days but I plan on being back to work on Monday.

Thank you all so much for all the well wished via twitter and facebook, they really meant a lot to me! <3

7 thoughts on “I’m probably going to have to take a nap after I write this.

  1. Oh man, he has been. He’s been to the store for antibiotics, anti-nausea medicing, suppositories, Pedialyte, etc. Plus, he’s been running up and down the stairs to bring me food, drinks and medicine. Plus, he’s been on kid duty all alone! I totally could not have gotten through this without him!

  2. Ugh, that sounds terrible! I’m glad you’re doing better, though, hope you keep getting better. Hopefully your doctor will be able to pin point the issue, so you don’t have to go through that again. I remember when I was 28 weeks pregnant I had my first gallstone attack. None of the doctors figured it out, and I put up with it for 5 months =[

  3. Oh, Anna, that sounds awful! I hope you feel better really soon, but don’t push yourself too hard! Have you been able to eat anything today? Pedialyte was a good idea, even if it didn’t taste/work so well in theory. Go Ben!

  4. Geeebs Anna. I’m so glad it’s finally getting better!! Antibiotics can really kick your ass. I remember when I had every. single. thing. on the list of possible side-effects to my antibiotics. I barfed everything, but luckily it was only a one-time dose so I didn’t have to go through it for days like you. 🙁

    *hugs* Feel better! I hope you get some good food in you and that saves your Monday.

  5. I ditto your concern,because I don’t think I’d want to do this twice! Maybe it’s a fluke thing and you’ve had your sickness quota met for the next 5 or so years! Hope you are feeling better and chipper for work on Monday!

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