Here's a little history. Anyone who knows me from high school may remember that when I was a junior I had severe food poisoning and ended up severely sick for 3 weeks, with 1 week spent in the hospital. Not people know but after that I ended up with an unofficial diagnosis of Crohn's Disease. It was never made official because of my age but throughout college I managed it with medicine and when I moved to Fayetteville I quit having problems. Then when Chris and I got married I quit taking the medicine. For the almost 9 years we've been married I haven't had any problems. So it's been 11 or so years. But things changed over the weekend.
Sunday afternoon I laid down to nap when Sara Kate did and couldn't really sleep. I started cramping and was just able to lightly doze off. I was able to eat dinner Sunday night, do laundry, bathe Sara Kate, get her to bed, normal Sunday stuff, but during the night I couldn't sleep because the pain had gotten so intense. At 4 am I started throwing up. Cramping, throwing up, cramping, throwing up (dry heaving, actually). That was my cycle. My mother in law brought me some Ginger Ale Monday morning and I couldn't keep anything down, not even a little sip. Chris wanted me to call the doctor so I got an appointment for Monday afternoon. Basically the doctor just said I had severe constipation, and gave me some medicine for that, along with pain relievers for the cramping, along with some anti-nausea pills. I went back home and still couldn't keep anything down, no pain pills or anti-nausea pills, no drink, no crackers. I stayed in bed with intense pain all night and Monday night was awful. The cramping/throwing up cycle continued all night. Chris had me call the doctor's office again Tuesday morning and I talked to the nurse then waited for a call back from the doctor. He ended up calling the nurse an hour later and she said go to the ER. So we came to the hospital and once I got back to a room they started an IV with fluids, administered pain relievers (THANK GOD!!!!), and anti-nausea medicine.
The doctor also ordered a CT scan. The results of the scan came back and showed my entire colon is inflamed, which indicates...Crohn's Disease. I was shocked. My mom was shocked. They admitted me and had me prep for a colonoscopy. By the way, if you've never had a colonoscopy the prep drink to clean you out is HORRIBLE. Beyond horrible. Like hold my nose, try to chug, chase it with a sip of juice, and I had to drink a gallon of it. That was a rough night/morning.
I was taken down for the colonoscopy Tuesday afternoon and unfortunately the results weren't good. The doctor was in the waiting room talking to Chris and my mom, who came up during the day, within 15 minutes. The doctor couldn't get far because of a stricture, which is basically a scar tissue blockage. So the course of action going further is to administer steroids to try to reduce the inflammation so they can complete the colonoscopy. The GI doctor passed my case onto the colo-rectal surgeon and he came in Wednesday evening. Again, not the best news. He basically said we're not talking about IF with surgery, but WHEN, and the other unknown is how much colon will be removed. He wants to give the steroids 5 days to decrease the inflammation so he can hopefully complete the colonoscopy and see what the rest looks like. He drew a lovely picture on the dry erase board to demonstrate what he thinks whats going on. It doesn't make alot of sense unless you heard his explanation but it's amusing.
He's planned another CT scan Monday, the next colonoscopy on Tuesday, and then he'll make a decision on when for the surgery. And after all this the Crohn's will be treated with medicine, regardless of what happens next week. So I'm just playing the waiting game, sitting in the hospital, getting IV steroids and fluids (but they disconnected the fluids this evening as long as I continue to drink). As I sit in the hospital for what seems like hours on end (because it is), I can't eat. I'm on a liquid diet...so some lovely broth (which I don't like), jello (which I only like red jello and I only tolerate it, not like), sprite or coke (which I don't really like either of those either), and juice (which I'm not a big juice person). Yes I'm a picky eater! And at this point this is the hardest part because I am STARVING...I haven't eaten since Sunday.
Another negative is the steroids keep me wired so I can't sleep. And they cause awful night sweats when I can sleep.
But I'm going to back track a minute...I said the hardest part is the diet but really the worst part is being away from my baby. I miss her. She's come to visit everyday and I'm so glad. Wednesday afternoon she was stand-offish, didn't know what to think, didn't want to come talk to me, but she also didn't know my mom was going to be here and she was excited to see her. It made me sad but I understood her apprehension. She did manage to have a little fun with a balloon glove Meme made her.
Thursday afternoon Chris went to the Dollar Tree and picked up a coloring book, some crayons, and a puzzle before he picked her up and brought her by with her goodies. She was much more normal. She climbed into my bed next to me and we colored together. She ate her dinner in my bed (which was torture watching her eat Chick-Fil-A but it was totally worth her being here). She wanted me to keep her papers from school and hang them in my room. She told me she missed me. She gave me hugs and kisses. And it made me so happy.
Today her Meme picked her up and brought her by and she immediately got her crayons and coloring book (we made her a drawer with her stuff!) and she climbed up to color with me. And she shared my Sonic slush with me while she ate an apple. I loved her sitting there with me.
So that's what's going on. As for me, I'm holding up ok. I'm in shock by all this. It has all happened so fast, even though the doctors said according to the CT scan this has been building for a couple of months. My emotions are doing ok staying in check. I got emotional this morning just thinking about the upcoming week, this will sound bizarre but I got a little emotional about being so hungry and watching Chris eat dinner (I insisted he eat in here with me, he wasn't being rude), and I teared up watching Sara Kate leave this evening. But we play with the cards we're dealt, deal with it, and move on! You're prayers are much appreciated and I'll update when I know more! Or if I get bored...haha. :-)
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