Licorice High

CAUTION, DO NOT READ IF YOU AREN'T IN THE MOOD FOR SOME MEDICAL WHINING!

(Don't say I didn't warn you!)

For the past few days I have had a headache. I first noticed it after we had begun to run the heat in our home because it's December already-wait, it's still October? What the HELL happened to our October weather, and when are we getting Indian Summer? DAMN IT.

Back to the headache. It's been annoying, dull and there, above my left eye and temple, but oh well. It's cold out, heat's on inside, sinus maybe? Tired maybe? Hormonal perhaps.


Then I had an "episode of the poop shoot" Saturday evening.
Still not a big deal.
My specialist said I'll have them on occasion.
I am aware of what I need to do (DOODIE) to help curb the runs.

But then I start to feel a tickle in the back of my throat. It started up Sunday afternoon, and by Monday it was obvious enough that I felt it necessary to go to my doc's office to make sure I didn't have strep throat- again.

I didn't think I had it, but with the heat on inside the house, the cold on outside the house, and whatever else is growing inside our rental home, to play it safe, the boys and I drove over to my doctors office yesterday for my 11:30 am appointment.

On the way over to my doctors office, I noticed that my head felt hot, that my eyes felt blurry and I had a general feeling of yuck, but nothing painful-aside from the killer headache. We arrive at my doc's office-to see the doc, who I happily call "Tony Pip." They get me settled in a room, with my three boys, after stepping on the scale of doom, to get my weight.

The nurse takes my blood pressure and then expresses concern. My blood pressure was high, as was my heart rate. On the first read it was about 138 over 87, and my pulse was about 107. Just a little high at that point. I told her how I "felt" on the way over, but that it wasn't a painful feeling. I wasn't anxious, panic-E (screw the spelling!), or well, nervous.

Reads are taken again, and they were going up.
I lay down.
I Drink some apple juice.
I chew on some whole grain cheerios.
I drink a bottle of water.
They do three more readings.
First:Laying down.
Second: Sitting up.
Thirdly: standing.

Yep. Still high, and going up.

Keep in mind, I'm there for my throat. Which, the doc checks and it's not strep, just a virus. But what's up with the BP and heart? Their concern is hydration. Then there's the talk of, "you're not driving home."
Great, how am I going to get home, with three boys when I was clearly not feeling "right."

The headache continued to grow, and interestingly enough, when I covered my right eye, it was far more foggier looking out my left eye, then when I covered my left eye. Make any sense? Then again, one eye is always dominate over another and I am right handed.

I call Brian, and he calls my mom for help. Mom leaves work, comes to pick me and the boys up, who by now had been cooped (sp? I don't give a shit about it right now) up in the small examination room, for over an hour and a half.

Three boys,
during lunch,
three hungry boys during lunch,
stuck in a room while their mother shoves cheerios in her mouth.
I felt like I was that Mom, you know the one. She has 8kids, one set of twins and sextuplates. Remember when she didn't share her bottle of water with her daughter?
When her daughter was thirsty?
Her.


They arranged for me to head over to our hospital, where I would visit the treatment center to receive some bags of fluid at a fast drip, at .999 and have some blood taken. Mom picks us up, runs through McDonald's for the boys, and before long we make our way towards the hospital. Not before meeting Brian at the train station. Which is located a block south of the hospital, just a few towns away from ours.

They drop me off, I get registered and not long after, I am being brought back into a room in the treatment center. Then I meet her. The one that has to administer the IV.
What a bitch of a woman.
Her name was Pat.
First she just had that look to her.
Crabby.
Her eyebrows were arched so much, she looked like a Nun ready to smack my hand with a ruler.

She sticks me with the catheter tubing for the IV. We all know how that first feels. Yes, it will be bothersome when someone first puts it into your vein. However, if it continues to hurt, and you'll know what I mean, it means that it's not in the vein, or the vein rolled or collapsed. That's what I felt, but this damn woman continued to push it into my nonvein, obviously hoping for a miracle. What a crackpot! I finally said to her in between groans of "this really hurts" and "it's never hurt like this before," I told her, "would you please check the line?" No one likes to be told how to do their job, that was clear on her face. But sure enough, no blood came back. Which means, no line in the vein.

She crabs up even more, mumbles something, throws the empty packet onto the bed cart, and this time, sticking my right arm, she gets it right. (I do have to say it wasn't completely all her fault. When you're dehydrated, your veins are more, colicky to work with.)

Two bags of IV fluid later, my pressures are still quite erratic. So obviously it wasn't just dehydration. Because if it was, then after the two bags of IV fluids at such a fast drip, there would have been an improvement. I would have perked up like pretty boobs on a 20 year old outside in the cold.

A phone call to Dr. Tony Pip, and I am suddenly being sent over to the emergency room because Dr. Pip was concerned that I might have a Pulmonary Embolism (Blood clot).

Many hours later, many tests later, still with a headache, there was no pulmonary embolism. Which I didn't think I had.
First of all, my legs or leg would either hurt or be swollen, or both.
I would be experiencing shortness of breath, none of which I was experiencing.

However, I was content to have it checked out because of the concern, and was comforted by how involved my doctors office was with the attending ER doc that was taking care of me. Who's name, might I add, just so happened to be, Dr. Sloan. Not much of a looker though. So the name, very misleading. However, he was a very nice Doctor.

They did chest xrays, catscan, EKG, and finally, after some chats with the nurse and doc, I did agreed to a slow push of benedryl, and then a narcotic. The Benedryl gave me a reaction, but nothing that wasn't under control within a few minutes.

Soon enough the Dilaudid was diluted and slowly pushed through my IV, and within 20minutes, I was quite high, and my pressures had slowed down.
Not to mention, I had stopped crapping "water."

I didn't feel any "pain" or pressures" in regards to my heart or blood pressure, but my headache was nasty and by this time I had some annoying pain under my rib cage.

All along I felt as though it were a "flare up" (i hate saying "flare up." It makes me think I'm a spokesperson for a herpes commercial with Joey from FRIENDS!) of my colon. Why the pressures were high could be due to the pain I was experiencing. Because when your body is in pain, your pressures go up. You don't have to be in pain to have high pressures, according to Dr. Sloan. It was my body's way of saying, "hey there, something's not right and I don't like it." But, I didn't feel anxious, nor did I feel pressure in my chest- aside from the nasty headache-

I didn't have a fever, but my face felt and was hot--which is common or rather, a symptom or affect when your bp is now 148 over 90 something and your heart rate is in the high 130's and things are going up.

Blood work was finally back, and on one of the panels, the SED rate (ESR), did come back slightly elevated. All that means is that somewhere in my body, something is "inflamed."
But no blood clot. PHEW!

After some back and forth, they did allow me to go home. There was talk about possibly admitting me, but since I wasn't throwing up, (as I clearly pointed out), I could continue the fluid intake at home. Who wants to pick up something else just for some observation. The Doctor did agree, and was happy to say that he too would much rather be in his bed with bottles of water on his night table, versus being bothered by patient care aids while laying on a 16inch, firm yoga mattress.

By the time I was discharged, I had been given almost 4bags of IV fluids.
I could have been a urine donor.

They 'determined; it was related to my colon, and that I needed to stay in bed and drink fluids until my symptoms went away. They were right when they said narcotics would help slow my pressures, and like I said, the doodies. Haven't had to run for runs since the Dilaudid, thank you very much. But I will say it was almost impossible to focus on CSI Miami, while under the influence of that narcotic.

Flash to today.
My headache continues to really hurt, and I'm quite weak. I'm on Darvocet and Zofran to help curb the Darvocet side affects, and whenever I do happen to get up for the bathroom, I can feel that sudden flushed face, and blurry feeling. So I'm guessing that's the blood pressure going up when I get up.
Just a guess.

My Doc called a little while ago and wants me to call them tomorrow. He's thinking he might order a catscan of my head, since that's the only thing they haven't scanned, on my entire body.

The odd part? My throat doesn't hurt whatsoever. So was my throat irritation G-d's way of getting me to the doctor? Who knows. But what I do know is that I'm sick of feeling sick.

Personally? I feel this is all linked to hormones. Something tells me the colon, the blood pressure, the heart rate, the female parts,.. are all involved.

Does that mean that the next step is a partial hysterectomy? Not sure. We'll see what Dr. Pip says, and then we'll chat with Dr. Vic, my gyne, and my gas specialist. HA! Gas specialist.

But it has made for a very long night. Very long day, and I am looking forward to feeling like myself again. Until then, it's back on liquids and bland food.

What I did find out through all of this, is that eating licorice, can and will increase your blood pressure. Not that I have had any to eat, just an interesting fact that I wanted to put out there. My gift to you for making it through this rambling post of words regaring my craps, my narcotics, negative nurses and swollen colon.

Is it Hump day yet?

"STOMASODES"

I haven't had a chance to go see Jimmy today because I've been basically bedridden with another episode of what remains in my colon as colitis. At least now for sure I know it wasn't Cdiff, because if it was Cdiff, the antibiotics would have made the bathroom visits that make the bowl all bubbly and frothy cease. The only thing the antibiotic did for me is do what it does with bread.

Yeast.

So, today I've been bathroom, bed, bathroom, bed. I'm sticking to my strict diet. Not drinking milk. Lactose free. I haven't had coffee or coke or anything since the Saturday after my surgery. I'm not eating fiber, which means no fruit or veggies. I'm staying clear of liquor, and I'm getting cranky. But I'm too afraid to have something that could cause the colon to get really ticked off at me, so I'm sticking too it, not losing weight because of it, but sticking with the game plan.

Today was H E double toothpicks. Oh my gosh. For awhile there I thought, "well, we're going back to the hospital." That's the last thing I need right now. I can't do that to myself, Brian, Brian's job, the kids, my parents, my friends, no one. It's enough. Not to mention the cost of the medical bill from just being in the hospital. Four days = $20,000. YIKES!

So I've been bottle water, bathroom, froth, dia-haahaa, bed, Gatorade, bathroom, froth, dia-haahaa, bed...it's soo frustrating. Things seem more settled so I'm hoping the episode has past. But it is exhausting. I get tired, and crampy, and sweaty, and feverish, and weak, and faint and I am amazed at how much the colon impacts the rest of the body.

It could be worse. I could be going in for a STOMA (a bag to help collect the poop when you have portions or all of your colon removed). I'm just dealing with episodes. I don't have colon cancer. Sure there is a bigger risk of someone that has colitis, distal colitis to get colon cancer, but the risk is greater for me falling and breaking my hip. So I'm not concerned. I'll need more frequent colonoscopies, but even that I'm willing to deal with. Its all part of aging.

Plus, what has happened with my brother Jimmy, has put everything else into perspective. I'll take what I am given. I'll complain about it, but you'll see a much quicker recovery from that complaint. People may not always want to be a part of my life, but as long as I know I tried, that's all you can really expect. I can't expect people to give me what I want. I can only expect to give what I feel I want to give, without wondering how it's sent back.

Time to head back upstairs, I am wiped out. But I do (I almost just decided to type BUTT) want to say I'm sorry for always venting about my poops or periods. That must get annoying. Plus I haven't been around lately or even doing a lot of lurking, so I'm sorry. I'll be back to the crusty lurker before long.