Hiya Girlies!!
Wanted to pop in while I had a chance. I'm at my mom's right now who just got her power restored today, after six+ days without it
, and who has
actual internet access, YAY!! My house has power right now, thank God, but no cable or internet so that's yucky, but not the worst thing in the world. (However, it would be a valuable source on entertainment for this house-bound invalid right now
)
So here's the down and dirty on this most recent debacle in my life:
Two weeks ago yesterday, BF and I went out for dinner after work. I ordered steak tips and all was well until about half way through the meal. I started feeling these really weird pains in my stomach, and just could not get comfortable. I turned to BF and said I thought I must have some
really bad gas or something, and that I was going out to the car to walk around a bit while he took care of the check. So I did, and while I was out there the pain just got worse, and alas, no gas. He rushed me home, and I sent him immediately to the pharmacy for something that might help me while I ran into the bathroom. At this point, I was starting to think that the steak tips must have been bad and I had gotten food poisoning. However, even after getting sick, I was getting no relief from the pain. BF was back in about 10 minutes, and when he came in I was drencehed in sweat, curled in the fetal position in my bed and unable to move. He asked if I wanted to go to the hospital, and I told him to call 911. (Best move of my life!!)
I live about two minutes off the center of town, so the ambulance was there in less time than that. It took them about 20 minutes to get me to the emergency room, where I then had to wait about 2 hours until I finally got someone to realize that I hadn't been vomiting or had diarrhea, so they're/my initial assumption that it might be food poisoning was probably way off. An x-ray, cat scan, and three additional hours finally revealed that I was experiencing something called cecal volvulous, which meant that the beginning portion of my large intestine had twisted on itself
On top of that, I had these adhesions of scar tissue resulting from a hysterectomy I had nine years ago (almost to the day) that had grown out of control. One of the adhesions ran along side the intestine, and when it twisted, the adhesion had wrapped around the intestine, thereby strangling it and causing portions of the intestinal tissue to die!
So, at four in the morning on December 5th, they opened me up and removed about three feet of both my small and large intestine (about 1.5 feet of each). The doctor chose not to reconnect them at that time, because he feared that to do so might jeopardize the healthy tissue and render it impossible for me to ever be reconnected. Instead, he left me with an iliostomy for now, which means I have a bag (ugh!!!), but it's only temporary for about 3-6 months. When he feels I've recovered fully, he'll go back in and reconnect all my tubes, and I'll be back to normal. I'm pushing for the shorter end of the time span rather than the later. I think it's likely going to happen in April.
I'm still very sore, but gaining energy every day. I'm out of work until mid-January sometime, as right now I can't drive or even climb stairs. So once I get internet back you'll all be seeing a lot of me here. I have to live vicariously through you until I get the clear to exercise again.
The whole things sounds pretty horrible, I know, and I have to admit that it was
the most painful thing I've experienced in my entire life, without a doubt. But it's not getting me down. My spirits are high, and I'm fully aware and greatful for how incredibly lucky/blessed I have been through this. It really could have been so much worse.
Thank you all for your healing vibes and support. I swear to God and I feel them all, and they're helping me on my way back to health.
I am
totally ticked that I've got to abandon the rotation I was doing before this happened I was having so much fun with it! But the only brightside to this whole thing is that I don't have a need to diet anymore, 'cuz I lost the extra weight I had been carrying and then some. I weighed in at 118.5 yesterday. That's about 12 pounds in two weeks. Not a diet I would recommend, though I do have to stick to a low fiber/low residue diet though, which means that I have to stay away from all uncooked vegetables, fruit, nuts, anything with skin or lots of fiber...I have to eat white bread and white potatoes....basically, every nutritional principle that I've learned and applied over the past few years I've have to abandon for the next few months. Go figure
Oh yeah, and as if that's not all bad enough, the night I got home from the hospital (which was a seven day stay, woo hoo ***sarcasm***), our area, as you probably know, was hit with a severe ice storm that knocked out power to one million residents throughout the New England region. It literally looked like a war zone here with all the trees and power lines down. I cannot even explain it. But my dad bought a generator, so I stayed with my parents for five days on their couch until I finally got my power restored. It was a little inconvenient, but likely a blessing in disguise, because mom took really good care of me.
So I'm reading our thread everyday, but it's so hard to post from my phone that I'll likely be away for a few days until my cable is back. Keep your fingers crossed that it's back sooner rather than later!!
Thank you all again for your concern and support, and I'll BBS to catch up with you all.
Take care,
Jen
