Hello my loverly readers! It is I, your fearless blogger, back from the proverbial dead of not having written in this poor, neglected weblog in ever so long.
Now, I'm sure you're probably asking yourself,
"Self? Why has this little blogger spent such an inordinate amount of time away from indulging in the wonderfully fulfilling narcissism that is writing about oneself in a blog?"
Well, my dears, the answer is quite simple.
I have been caught in an epic battle of Odyssean proportions between myself and a lovely little disease called Crohn's.
I was going to write some long, drawn out explanation of everything that's been going on with me & my intestines, but I'm thinking the bulleted, highlights version may be an easier read, so here we go.
- May 10-13: hospitalized in Memorial.
- found out GoLytely is the most vile liquid known to all living species
- had a colonoscopy
- was told I had Ulcerative Colitis (an Irritable Bowel Disease that makes you feel really sick after eating almost anything & also causes small ulcers to appear on your colon)
- found out that if you accidentally lean on the nurse call button, they will respond right away, but if you actually are in dire need of something, the nurses will take their dear, sweet time getting back to you
- Weeks after Hospitalization
- felt great
- was able to eat food without feeling as sick as I had before
- was told I actually didn't have Ulcerative Colitis, but that my biopsy showed that I have Crohn's Disease (this was apparently a step up because the chances of me getting colon cancer decreased A LOT since Crohn's can incorporate ulcers & all that fun stuff all over your intestines rather than just in a concentrated party in your colon)
- started getting sick again
- started getting REALLY sick
- started getting so sick that everything that went into my mouth (food, water, etc) was being vomited back out within a matter of minutes
- was admitted to two different ERs twice within a few days because of fever spikes, vomiting, and the most randomly awful neck spasm that Amy thought may have been meningitis (...thankfully, it wasn't)
- was admitted to the ER once more, but rather than getting to go home after 6 hrs like the other times, was told that I would have to be admitted to the hospital
- June 2-11: hospitalized in Mercy (on Truxtun)
- had Barium Swallow, Endoscopy, and several more blood tests done to try & figure out what was wrong with me
- was finally put on Prednisone steroids since the inflammation in my intestines was too much to be treated by Asacol
- went through 3 different roommates (lady who was gone within my first night there, Swamp Monster, and black lady whose entire Huxtable family came to visit)
- went through a cycle of nausea, fatigue, and a brief fever spike every morning followed by feeling fine in the afternoons & evenings, only to have the same process repeat the next day
- mom argued with on-sight physician who wanted to let me go home early even though they didn't know why my temperature kept spiking...things got ugly
- Infection specialist had to be called in to see if she could figure out what was wrong...more tests followed
- got a new GI (thank God) who has the coolest British accent
- it was finally decided that my fever spikes were just byproducts of Crohn's disease & that I could carry on at home since my nausea and vomiting had gone away...HOORAY!
So that pretty much sums up the end of my junior year/beginning of my summer...got to run...more to follow.
mjl.
