Well, I'm not so drugged up that I might be able to type this long story of mine....

In short, the last week has been tough.  We had a family reunion Saturday afternoon and then did fireworks at my parents that night.  I was a little rough, but nothing unmanageable for me.  I took a pain pill knowing it would help me get rest and take the edge off things.  By Sunday morning, it was not any better.  I stayed on pain pills through Monday and my parents took her while Charley worked both days.  Tuesday, Charley was off, so I tried to go into work thinking the rest was good.  I was close to my Remicade infusion, so I just needed to buy another 48 hours or so.  I felt okay to try work, but I went in late because I needed the rest.  Well, things went south quickly.  I just stared at my work.  I couldn't think straight to even know what I was supposed to do.  I called my doctors and they recommended we go to ER to get fluids and nausea meds and pain meds.  I was having quite a bit of nausea and had thrown up on Sunday night even.  The pain wasn't much better either.  I hadn't been eating or drinking from all the nausea and diarrhea.  So, off the ER we went.  I got some great nausea meds and had benadryl with it as it caused me to be jittery.  They sent me home with some pain meds and some nausea meds.  Wednesday was hard, but I slept so much and was okay.  Thursday, I got my Remicade!  My nurses knew I wasn't well, but I ordered a menu of a homemade chicken pot pie from the hospital (we have GOOD food at our hospital!)  I was able to eat and enjoy it.  I just thought for sure we're headed to a good place here.  Well, I took Friday off because I was so weak from no food, not much liquids, and all the meds.  I thought I was "okay" and had high hopes by Saturday evening,  I'd be almost back to normal as the meds usually kick in.  Well, at 3am Saturday morning, I was rushed by ambulance to the hospital.... here's where this begins.....


At around 1:30am Saturday morning, I woke to some pain, not much, but enough to warrant the thought and taking of 2 pain pills to get some rest.  Over the course of the next hour, the pain escallated instead of getting better.  I woke Charley by banging the door on our cabinet in our bathroom because he couldn't hear my weak screams.  He woke up and I was trying to tell him things to grab for Addy inbetween dealing with the enormous pain and talking to my mom.  We got downstairs and he got her settled in the car, and I went to sit down and couldn't make it.  It simply hurt too bad.  I ran back inside back to the bathroom and just rocked on the toilet.  He decided to call 911 and called my sister-in-law as well, Tera.  Once the ambulance got there and loaded me up, Tera and Charley & Addy followed behind in 2 different cars.  Then, Steven, my brother, went to pick up my mom who was out with my dad at an R/C (Remote Control airplane) meet and was without a car.  He brought my 14 month old nephew. 

In the meantime, I get to the hospital and with the help of Tera, they get my pain meds in about 30 minutes.  I was at a 12 on a scale of 1 to 10, no exaggeration necessary, trust me there.  They gave me an opiate called Dilaudid, which is essentially 10x the strength of morphine.  I was on this about every 90 minutes until around Noon.  I stayed in ER until around 9am when they got me a room. 

In the ER, they gave me phenergan (Nausea meds) and the dilaudid (pain meds) every 90 minutes.  They ran a CT scan to ensure where the pain was and what to make sure there was no blockage.  No blockage, just severe inflammation in the lower descending part of my colon to my rectum. 



They had paged the oncall GI (Gastroenterologist) to get plans.  The ER doctor had already decided I was being admitted because it was quite obvious my pain was out of control, but he knew I was pretty sick.  He got ahold of the oncall GI and they came to see me before I left ER.  Dr. Rusche is who is dealing with me at the moment and will be this week, but then I'll go to a different doctor as Dr. Prasad (my old GI, but still handling care if needed) and Dr. Rusche will be out for several weeks.  He ordered up a slew of meds and a sigmoid colonoscopy and was super nice. 

Once I got in the room, they had to wait on my pain meds so they could do my enemas.  Those scared me to death just because I knew I was in pain down there and I had no idea how I was going to handle it.  Luckily, with my moms help, I made it through that one.  They started Flagyl and fluids on me while we did the enemas, but they had to wait for IV therapy, because my previous IV site failed.  (I had already had 2) So, IV therapy gave me my 3rd IV and we finished the enemas and all and we got down to DTC (Diagnostic and Treatment Center) for the sigmoid colonoscopy (look at the picture - a full colonoscopy is the entire colon, a sigmoid is just a short 10in at most).  He wanted to biopsy and such.  Well, that didn't go too well either.  He went a few inches and had to stop... it was just too swollen and he didn't want to push it.  Then, while asleep, I threw up on the nurses without my knowledge.  When I woke they were frantically pulling sheets and pillows and everything off me trying to clean me up...and I had NO clue.  I remember I kept waiting up during the procedure and I remember moaning in some pain, but they kept shooting me down.  I was quite drugged after that.  They took me back to my room after a short recovery and when I got back to the room, they tried to start my fluids and my 2nd antibiotic, Cipro.  Well, my IV site failed again.  So, IV therapy was called again.  This is IV #4 for the day (#7 for the week).  The IV therapy nurse and the check-in nurse (That's another story, they discharged someone across the hall and erased all my info, so we had to check-in twice because in the computer I was sent home.) talked to me heavily about getting a port.  So, they recommended I talk to the doctor about it.  Then, I got a quick shower, and then they started more meds.

I slept from about 4pm until around 3am Sunday morning.  Woke up for a few hours and was okay.  I received no pain meds in that time, only a few nausea meds.  But, then at around 10am, I started to eat some clear liquids (I'm on a clear liquids diet).  I ate some jello, and it didn't go over well.  I had a bowel movement and the pain came back, not as fierce, but back it came.  So, I received more nausea and pain meds (the dilaudid).  I'm still a bit loopy from it, but okay.  I've had some icee for lunch, but now my 7th iv for the week (4th IV from yesterday) has failed because it is burning even with just fluids.  So, I'm waiting on the doctor to come in to discuss getting a port put in because my veins are failing...  This would involve putting me under and putting a direct line where they can draw blood labs and put meds and fluids in a central line in my chest.  In the long run, it'd be better.  My Remicade could run through it and it would just need flushed every 28 days, but with all the IVF I have done, they are pretty certain I can do that myself.  There are a few labs they'd still have to draw from my actual veins, but it'd cut WAY down on the number of sticks I receive in the future.  They are also working on getting me some lidocaine rectal gel as I'm having a difficult time getting my medicinal enemas in from being so tender down there.

That is the gist of it all for now.  I'm weak and resting and when I was admitted, they said at least 3 or 4 days.  But, given I'm having all this trouble, I hesitate to say I'll be home in that short of time, but it's day by day.  They have me on bowel rest and once things are under control, we'll try food and once we try food and we pass it, then we'll be good.  They have also started doing stool samples.

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We interupt this blog entry to announce:
A PICC LINE HAS BEEN PLACED!  They would have to wait a day or so for a port and I had no vein access at the moment, so they went with the PICC since we still are on almost all IV meds.  So, this is a bit uncomfortable, but I'm sure it'll get better....
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So, here's a list of meds...
Flagyl - Antibiotic #1
Cipro - Antibiotic #1
Lovenox - Blood thinner - I'm apparently at greater risk of blood clot from active Crohn's
Steroids - 10mg/dose, but 4x per day, so 40mg total
Rowasa enemas - this is hit and miss at the moment because I'm so swollen, but twice a day
Phenergan - Nausea meds, as needed
Dilaudid - Pain meds, as needed
Fluids - Round the clock, 24/7

Oh, and he's requesting 3 stool samples and daily blood panels...

I think that sums up most of it for now!  Dr. Rusche stopped in during the PICC line and well, I didn't get to talk to him in depth.  So, more to come, but I'm just on bowel rest on a clear liquid diet.. I still think I'm going to be in longer then 4 days, but time shall tell.....

More to come.....

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Interruption #2
Dr. Rusche came back in....
He just wants to see me get better day by day.  He's super!  Addy was on the floor playing and he was super good with her too.  Anyway, everything is the same until tomorrow.  He's waiting on the viral cultures from the colonoscopy yesterday and we'll know more with that, but he's 99% certain this is all Crohn's.