bad scare
Just wanted to share my weekend with you all in hopes I can spare
anyone else from this same fate. This is a little long, so bear with
me.
It all started a week ago when I got diarreah. Not sure what
caused it….could have been stress, I was up for a new job. I got it
by the way…I’m the new Freshman Principal at our high school…say a
little prayer for me…lol. Also my son graduated that weekend and I
put on a party, etc. I ate too much fat and dairy at the party so
could have been the culprit too, or a combination thereof.
Anyway….it started. The following Thursday, 3 days ago I left for
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania to spend a leisurely weekend at my sister’s
house. The highlight of the trip was an Indigo Girls concert on June
7 at the Pittsburgh Arts Fair.
My diarreah got markedly worse on Thursday sorry for being so graphic but it was
like water and pretty much like an explosion and I was going to the bathroom 5
times in the space of two hours. I had my hubby call our surgeon that day to
check to see what I could take for the diarreah so I could walk around
Pittsburgh all day on Friday and not be looking for public restrooms
all the time.
Well our surgeon was in surgery all day and didn’t get
back to us so I thought I would read the labels and make my best bet.
I got Imodium AD advanced chewable….good for gas and diarreah. I
took at first as instructed and one more before bed and one more the
next morning when I got up. Right after that my sister’s friend
handed me her phone to listen to a message from my hubby. It went
something like….What ever you do, don’t take Imodium AD.
Take peptobismal (sp) or Kaopectate (sp) but Imodium is the worst thing a
wls patient can take. Worse case scenario, it’ll shut down your
system and you’ll end up in the hospital with an NG tube down your
throat. YIKES!!!!!
So I called my hubby back just a little worried and said, Uhhh, just how will I
know if I’m having a problem?” He said our surgeon said I’ll have terrible gas
pains and bloating. Well, I went WHEW! because I was feeling great and my
diarreah seemed to have subsided. We ran around Pittsburgh all day and I ate
lunch around 2:30 pm. I was still having some diarreah but it was very
managable and not urgent.
About 5:30 pm we set up our chairs for the
concert…it was outside… and about the same time I started to feel
a little badly. Crampy and gassy…..hmmm. But I thought it couldn’t
be the Imodium cuz it was so long since I had taken the last dose. I
started feeling worse and worse and my sister’s partner offered to go
find me some kaopectic.
Bless her heart she ran all over downtown
Pittsburgh and found me some and was back before the concert.
Meanwhile I was feeling horrible. I got up and walked toward the
public porta potties set up near the concert and there was a long
line. I stood in line for a few minutes until I began to feel cold,
clammy, sweaty, a little dizzy and nauseated. I went and found some
security people from the PD and told them I needed a restroom NOW cuz
I was going to be sick and the female officer took me to front of the
line and asked if I could cut in and the people were happy to let
me….I think I must have looked pretty bad by then. If you can
imagine hovering over a porta potty puking……UGGGHHH!!! That in
itself was enough to make me sick. I couldn’t throw up anything, just
horrible dry heaves. Then I found my way back to my sister and her
partner and meanwhile the concert had started.
I heard two songs…one while puking “The Power Of Two” and one more while I
was making my way back through the crowd. When I found them I just said I
think we better go and they grabbed up our chairs and we headed out.
I was in such pain by then I had to keep stopping and leaning over
holding my stomach and crying. Then once again I got the dry heaves
over a public trash container on the street. An EMT asked if he could
call an ambulance and I said No, I know what’s wrong and I’ll be fine.
My sister and Claudia, her partner, begged to differ with me, but they
agreed not to call an ambulance if I would let them take me to the
emergency room at a nearby hospital. I couldn’t even make it back to
the car. Claudia and I stopped and my sister, Brenda, ran the rest of
the way for the car. Meanwhile, I’m retching again and people are
asking to call an ambulance again…..Jeesh!
Claudia was so wonderful…and I had just met her the day before. She held on
to me, just in case I fainted, and wet down something…I’m not sure
what..maybe an extra shirt and put it around my neck and forehead. So
we got in the car and I’m retching again, hanging my head out
Claudia’s Mercedes…lol. Luckily it was still just dry heaves…it’s
just wrong to puke on a Mercedes….lol.
Ok, by now I’m convinced I need to go to the hospital, but I have them call my
hubby and have him get ahold of my surgeon so they can consult with him before
they do anything. By now I’m worried that I have an obstruction of some sort
and thinking OMG, surgery. And I’m wondering how much it’ll cost to
get lifeflighted to my surgeon in Ohio…lol. Cuz no one else was
gonna do surgery on me!
So by the time we get to the hospital, my hubby, Bill, has talked to my surgeon
and has his home phone and cell phone number. I called him myself and he told
me his best guess from there was that the diarreah was from a bug or food
related, but all my pain and suffering was probably from the Imodium. I wasn’t
buying that, it was the worst pain I have ever been in…including labor pains!,
and he said he couldn’t rule out a partial obstruction from
there so have them look at me and make sure they call him.
The intern who examined me said from the xrays they couldn’t find an obstruction
but from the pain I was in and the bloating and gas still present they couldn’t
rule it out and they wanted to put in an NG tube and relieve
the pressure. So by now I’m panicking. This was2-3 hours later and
the dry heaves had stopped and the gas was getting a little better, I
had two explosive bowel movements by then and I didn’t want any intern
putting an NG tube down my nose and possibly right through my little
pouch.
So I basically told him that my hubby was on his way to
Pittsburgh and when he got there he would take me directly to
Springfield Ohio to my surgeon and he would treat me and thanks for
everything. I also gave him my surgeon’s home number and told him to
call him. My surgeon told him not to put in an NG tube at this point.
So about 30 minutes later his supervisor came in and said he
understood that I was wanting to leave and I said yes and he said,
“Well, lets think about this logically. My hubby had been up all day
was driving 5 hours to get me and would get in about 3:30 am and I
wanted him to take me 5 hours back without any sleep.” He assured me
that they wouldn’t be placing an NG tube since I was a wls patient and
my bowels were still moving, but he thought I should stay at least
until morning and we could decide what to do then and meanwhile I
would be admitted under the care of the surgical team that handles wls
patients there.
So I felt much better about that and said ok. I was on an IV and nothing by
mouth until the next day, then was on clear liquids until this morning. Today I
ate breakfast and lunch and everthing was fine….not diarreah and no cramps or
anything, so they let me come home. What an experience!!! As it turns out I
did this to myself….there was no blockage it was all just a reaction to the
imodium AD….so I learned a tough lesson. I will NEVER EVER take
anything without running it by my surgeon first!!!!! And I still have
not been to an Indigo Girls Concert.