Monday, January 30, 2012

A setback, part 1

Last Wednesday in the early morning hours, I awoke in pain. This hasn't been unusual as my CPAP would force some air down into my pouch causing gas pain. The severity of the pain was unusual though. I made a quick and fruitless trip to the bathroom, and decided to try some Gas-X. Immediately after I took that small sip of water with the pills, I knew something was VERY wrong.

I woke Chrissy up and told her to take me to the hospital immediately. I struggled through the pain to even put on sweatpants and a T-shirt and only put on slippers. They skipped the triage room and took me straight to an ER bed.

They gave me a "stomach cocktail" pretty quickly. I begged them for pain relief but they wanted to make sure the stuff they gave me wouldn't work first. After they determined it didn't work, they gave me some strong painkillers and sent me for a CT.

Shortly after getting me back in the ER, they hooked me up to I-V antibiotics and told me I had a perforated ulcer. They started calling my Bariatric surgeon to get me transferred to St Agnes. After a long back and forth, several hours later I was loaded on an ambulance and sent on my way. That ride would be the most painful of my life. Bay bridge, Severn river bridge, 97, 695, Rt 1, and Caton Avenue....why not 95 to Caton?

Anyway, they put me in the ICU and just a bit over an hour later I was being operated on.  After surgery, I was put back in the ICU for Wed night. I had an I-V line in each hand with antacids, antibiotics and fluids being pumped in to me.  I had the nurses giving me painkillers every 4-5 hours. I barely knew what day it was but was able to move better on my own then they expected. I drifted in and out of sleep all night.  And thus, Wed was over.  I will cover Thur-Sat in another blog post later.

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