My Adventure in the Hospital

I haven’t written anything in a while now.  I have been really busy trying to recover from this damned surgery.  These past two weeks have definitely been THE hardest weeks in my life.  When I first got the surgery and was waking up I expected pain and stuff, but I also expected painkillers to control it so I would be fairly comfortable.  They did give me pain killers but it turns out that narcotics slow down your digestive system, which in my case was just waking up from surgery.  So here you have this awesome cycle, I’m in pain so I use the narcotics but that just slows my digestive system down which ultimately will just cause me more pain.  So for the first week I had been taking narcotics liberally (mind you at this time I did not know the effects they had on my digestive system at this point).  There was a night were we decided to advance my diet to regular food.  This was possibly the worst idea in the world.  Here is the dinner I got:

Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

Stuffing

Ground Turkey and Gravy

Steamed Carrots

Soup

Pudding

That is all I can remember for sure I just remember that they gave me two meals: my full liquids meal and my general diet meal, then they gave me an extra plate of mashed potatoes.  So as a starved boy on hunger inducing prednisone, I ate all the solid food and I may have drank most of the fluids.  Bad Idea…..

This caused me to throw up several times later that night and they eventually had to put a tube down my throat to pump out my stomach.  Having a tube down your throat is the most uncomfortable thing in the entire world.  I would gladly trade an enema a day for a tube down  my throat.

Anyways, after a day they got the tube out and I was so relieved, but after that I was so cautious about not eating too much and puking again.  I had trouble sipping clear liquids and couldn’t stomach a whole lot.  When Christmas rolled around the Hospital kind of kicked me out ><.  I felt like going home and all but I wasn’t 100% convinced I was ready to go.  I guess that explains the next couple days.  When I got home I felt great!  I was home, I could walk around my house, I was with my family.  But that night I felt really sick and ended up throwing up some.  We thought that maybe it was the Oxycodin that was making me nauseous, so we stopped that and started Advil/Ibuprofen (which didn’t really do a great job with the pain).  So I toughed it out Monday, and Tuesday we went to see the Surgeon, Dr. Frankhouse.  He said it would be a good idea to re-admit me to the hospital and get some IV fluids going.  That’s what we ended up doing and I was in the hospital for a week.  It was kind of rough, I was drinking and eating my  full liquids slow, I got dehydrated at one point when they took me off the IV.  It was really hard for me to drink enough fluids.

My last couple of days in the hospital were probably the best.  My mom spent two nights with me there.  We played games, watched movies and TV.  She was really a great comfort to me right when I needed it.  I love my mom.  She is the best mom in the world.

It took a while but I think I’m to the point where I can drink enough water and Gatorade throughout the day to keep me hydrated.  The real test now is getting enough nutrition.  I still have trouble with full liquids, I need to drink them slower and they fill me up faster.  I can eat saltine crackers fine but I think I would have a little trouble with full on food.

So here I am, out of the hospital, weighing 120 lbs, just trying to get back to my life.  It’s been a struggle, and I think it’ll still be a little bit of a struggle for the next couple weeks.  I may not feel completely normal until the end of January, that would suck.  Once I’m there though, I can’t wait to eat normal food…..

I can handle this bag, that’s a minor inconvenience compared to the eating and drinking part right now.

Terraria

Steam is a beautiful program!  I just bought Terraria today for $2.49.  Its a pretty fun game so far.  I have no idea what I’m doing, Haha.  I want to make some weapons but I haven’t found anything better than wooden weapons.  I guess its just a lot of exploring the world that is created.  I built myself a little bunker that I can hide in at night to protect myself from the Zombies.  Unfortunately, whenever I save and exit the game my character is moved back to the start and I have to run back to my cave.  It might be smart to build a little hut at the beginning.

So far I haven’t done anything major.  I made myself a bow and some arrows and turned those arrows into fire arrows.  Not sure how big the world I made is but I think I said I wanted a large world.  I’m scared to go too far.  Night time can be pretty scary, those demon eyes will get you.  I think I need to stock up on arrows and travel somewhere see if I can find a city or something.

Name my Stoma

So I don’t know how popular this is with others and their stomas but I have heard that people do actually end up naming their stomas lol. I thought that seems like a pretty cute thing to do and I am starting to feel kind of attached to my stoma as I get to know it a little better.

I was thinking of naming it something like Bernard or Renault or Reynard.  However I am definitely not set on a name yet.

Any suggestions?

Do you guys have names for your Stoma? (if you got it reversed, did you have a name for it?)

Mr. Stoma

I got the surgery!  It was nerve racking waiting for them to start the surgery.  I had to be there 2 hours before hand and I just wanted to lay there and relax before they wheeled me away.  Unfortunately people kept coming in to talk to me.  I didn’t mind my family, and I didn’t mind the doctors (except the fact that my Dad asked too many questions).  It was when the pastor came in to talk to me about how great of a guy I was …  I remember specifically saying that I didn’t want her to come talk to me before my surgery.  The last thing I want to do before surgery is smile and nod about some shit I don’t care about.  I tried to make it look like I wasn’t really interested while still being polite, she thought I was loopy from the drugs (I told her I hadn’t gotten any yet and that I was just trying to relax).

They gave me an intrathecal injection to help with the pain 24 hours after the surgery, but it didn’t really help.  When I woke up from the surgery I was in my bed, but I don’t remember being in any terrible pain.  It wasn’t until later that night that I really felt the pain.  The nurse gave me pain medication shot, each one knocked me out and got me a little sleep.  This made for a very sporadic sleep cycle.

The next day went a lot better though.  The docs set me up with a PCA (not sure what that means) but it is a machine that allows me to give myself doses of pain medication every 12 minutes.  It takes a couple clicks to get going but I think it does a good job at keeping mild pain away.

Last night was the first night that I felt stuff actually come out of the stoma, boy was that weird.  It didn’t really hurt so much as surprised me.  Lol, I was like, “Did I just fart?”  Regardless, this seems to be going alright, hopefully changing the bag and cleaning it out won’t be too bad.  Going to have to find a cute name for my ugly stoma lol.

Originally the doc had said that I would be in the hospital for 5-7 days but now I think I may be getting out in 4 days.  I still need to talk to the Ostomy nurses about changing the bag and emptying it.  A crash course in bag care is needed.  If I can get out in 4 days I can be home for Christmas!!!! So exciting.  I just wish I could have done Christmas shopping for my family.  Maybe I will go shopping for them after Christmas.  I have a good/bad feeling that I will be getting a lot of presents this Christmas because of my surgery and being sick.

Stop………… Pooping!

Lol this is a joke that I think really pertains to my situation at the moment.

We wrote this underneath “Goals” on the hospital whiteboard lol

Colectomy!!!

Updates on my Colon!! Yay!

I was just in the hospital for two week.  From Saturday Dec. 3 to Dec. 17.  Boy was that fun.  Being in the hospital for that long is pretty depressing.  I am out of the hospital now, but I will be going back on Tuesday to get my Colectomy.

When I first was admitted they got me on a new Biologic medication called Humira, like Remicade just a little different.  It seemed to make my symptoms slightly better.  Very slightly.  Went from 10-12 BMs a day to 7-8 BMs a day.  Still had Diarrhea and frequent bloody stools.  So we gave Humira a week and I hadn’t gotten better.  We also figured out that my Ulcerative Colitis is Steroid Refractory, meaning I don’t respond well to steroids, even very high doses.  Being steroid refractory, in combination to the Humira not working as efficiently as we had hoped, both the doctors and I figure that even if we wait to see if the Humira recaptures me and it puts me in remission, the possibility that I would fail Humira and flare again is very high.  When I flare again after failing Humira, we would have reached the end of the line and would require surgery anyways.  I want to just get the surgery doe with now so I don’t have to go through that and so I won’t have to be on harmful medications for the rest of my life.

I feel like this is the best decision and it is going to save me a lot of worry later down the road. I will get used to having a bag for possibly a year, people will accept me, I won’t be shunned.  Of course, ideally, I don’t want to have to deal with the bag but it looks like I need to man up and deal with it.

I do still have some questions about life with a J-Pouch.  Can I still drink Alcohol?  Or is that a really bad idea?  The surgeon told me that I wouldn’t have any particular diet restrictions, but he did mention that certain things will run straight through me.  He also mentioned that plenty of people with J-Pouches take Imodium.  So I think I would still be able eat and drink Chocolate and Carbonated drinks and probably Alcohol, but I think it may just go through me faster than other things.  Imodium here I come!!

Is there anyone out there that has already had this procedure and is now either with a Bag or has a J-Pouch?  Please comment and I would love to talk a little with you about this or at least hear your story.

Hospital: Round 2

So I was released from the hospital last Sunday and I went back to school on Wednesday.  The plan was to finish classes, unfortunately my symptoms got worse and now I am in the hospital again.  This time I made the decision that I would be out for the rest of the semester.  I will take Incompletes in all of my classes and my teachers will give me ample time to finish over the upcoming break and semester if need be.  This really takes the stress of doing school work and study for finals away.  Now I can simply focus on getting better and relaxing.

When I have flare-ups, I always have trouble getting enough food.  I usually lose from 15-25 pounds.  If it gets really bad,  I get cramps after every meal, no matter what I eat.  This semester I lived in a triple dorm/apartment with come friends I met last year.  It is nice because it has a mini-kitchen and a bathroom.  These two things are very useful in the event of a flare-up; Kitchen for making my own healthier food and a close bathroom is a must.  Next year I don’t know what I am going to do.  One of my roommates is going to live off campus next year and I do not have enough credits to get into an apartment or live off campus, I am going to try and convince the Dean of Student Affairs that I need to have a living space with my own bathroom and kitchen.

I have Indeterminate Colitis.  From what we have seen so far it is only UC, but it is possible that if I get my Colonectomy that (if there was Crohns in my colon) it could move to my Illeum effectively removing my colon for no reason.  I don’t want to deal with a Colonectomy right now…

Time to relax and get better!

I’m sick….Again?

Unfortunately I have been bitten by the UC bug again.  My colon seems to be VERY upset with me at the moment.  I have lost 15 pounds and am still losing weight.  More frequent then not my bowel movements are filled with blood.  Paints a lovely picture doesn’t it?  Well, in addition to that, sometimes when I go to the bathroom my gut contracts as if I were having a bowel movement and yet nothing comes out, sort of like a dry heave.  These are outrageously painful and often times make me wish I was dead.

Death would be the easy way out.  I am hopeful though that I get better by the end of this Thanksgiving Break week.  Then I can get back to a normal diet and focus on my school work to finish off the semester.  I am kind of worried about it all though,  have an essay due at the end of November and I haven’t even started.  Not even sure what my Thesis is going to be.

This whole flare-up is really exhausting though and I am not sure if I will be able to muster up the will to work on my homework this week.

Wish me luck, please I would love comments.  If you read my blog, comment, it would really make me unbelievably happy.

Final Fantasy XI

Back on the MMO train!! Choo Choo.

Nah, its actually really quite terrible.  This game is so addictive!  The community is great though, 75-85% of the people are pretty awesome.  I have played it for about 6 years with one year on and off.

Here is my Character:

Firesofiso, Jack of all trades!  Well not really, he is mainly skilled in controlling pets.  Occasionally he will dabble in the more barbaric arts of melee combat.  However, currently he has combined his magical abilities and melee skills and is training to become a Blue Mage.  Blue Mages learn abilities and spells from their opponents and use them against them in later battles.

This game has given me lots of entertainment the last few years.  Unfortunately the game has taken a bad turn and I do not like how it has turned out.  Now, instead of gathering people to grind on higher level monsters, it is normal to simply leech experience points in large alliances in order to get to a high level.  Doing this however neglects your skills, leaving you as harmless as a worm with boxing gloves.  This CAN be fixed!  Though it will take you hours and hours of mindless soloing to level your skills to an acceptable level.

My opinion:  The experience gain in the game has become unbalanced with the rest of the game.

 

 

Dance?

This video is pretty awesome.  Wish I could dance like this, kinda freaky how flexible he is though.  As long as I’m on the topic of dance I should probably post this: