Our whole family, me, mom, sister and her family, all 7 of us took the train to visit my other sister and her family on Friday to celebrate the birthdays of my niece and nephew. On Saturday there was a big birthday bash with a magician, balloons, pizza, etc.
A couple hours after that I started feeling a bit off and my stomach was feeling a bit funny so I downed some activated charcoal went to lie down. That's when the stomach pains started. I didn't sleep that whole night, I had intense stomach pains that came every 10 minutes or so. I assumed it was a stomach bug I caught somewhere, and there were so many kids at the birthday bash, I thought it was probably something I caught there.. or maybe that bagel I ate on the train? Although I did not think so. Either way, I did not sleep at all that night and the pain continued. At noon or so I called my sister, who is a nurse practitioner, and she came in to check in on me and gave me some pepto and some pain pills. By 7pm the pain did not go away and was getting worse, plus I had a new and not so exciting new symptom. I was keeling over every 10 minutes, in intense pain.
We drove to the hospital, 30 minutes away, and I waited in the waiting area for like 4+ hours. They took my blood and when the doctor finally saw me after midnight, she told me I had some sort of infection. High white blood count, etc. I also had a fever. I stayed in the hospital overnight so that I could get a CT scan in the morning. The problem was that our train back home was departing at 11:45am, and the train station was a 45 minute drive from the hospital. We were told that the CT scan results might take up to 4 hours, which would have meant that I would miss my train. but my health is more important, even though I have important things going on at work right now, so I tried to figure out a way to maybe get the CT scan here in my home town.. but that would mean going through the whole ER process again (for some reason, I still don't get that. Can't hospitals pass notes and patient histories to eachother?)
Luckily I got my diagnosis at about 9:30am yesterday. Diverticulitis. My mom actually called this.. My dad had stomach pains at the cottage, the last time all of us hung out together, a week before his untimely hear attack. My mom drove him to the ER and he got checked out and had to take anti-biotics. So.. That's what I'm starting now, a 2 week antibiotic regiment. At the hospital they pumped me full of pain meds, antibiotics, steroids, and all sorts of other stuff. I was hooked up to IV stuff and there was stuff continually being pumped into me. The pains are now GONE.. for the most part. I have had to alter my diet for now, as anything that would aggravate my stomach would be bad, obviously. So no high fibre foods, nothing acidic, no coffee, little spices. Thankfully sourdough is a good thing to eat, bananas, and probiotic yoghurt.
Diverticulitis is basically when you develop a pocket in your intestines in which food gets caught, which builds up into an infection, and from what I've read eventually could even create a hole in your intestines, which would require surgery. So.. I'm glad this was dealt with. I had to pay $46 for the anti-biotics at the pharmacy, but I totally forgot to ask them if I could pass them my health insurance card. I'm going to file that manually and likely get most of that money back. I had to obviously pay nothing else at the hospital, and will be sending the staff a thank you note, because they were amazing to me.
These stomach pains were so intense though, I have never felt anything like that in my life. They started as "hey I think that's a stomach bug of some sort, it will pass", but built up into something that felt like torture.
As for the train back home, we somehow ended up running to the gate as it was already closed, but luckily they let us through. We made the train! Everything worked out..
BUT now all 5 kids are sick, as is one of my sisters. Hopefully I don't come down with that as well
It was an adventure of a weekend, that's for sure. Right now I am catching up on sleep, I didn't sleep for like 2 nights straight, unless a 1-2 hour nap at the hospital counts. I'm feeling amazing, I'm being told because of all the stuff they pumped into me at the hospital, but it also feels so amazing to not feel these stomach pains. I mean, I feel some discomfort here and there, but it's so amazing to not have to be in that kind of pain, every 5-10-15 minutes.
So I might be posting a bit less for now.. we will see. I need to rest, but I also have important things at work to take care of, and a big snow storm is coming. This will be interesting.
As for the Diverticulitis.. It makes me think of my dad again.
![[pissed]](/images/smilies/pissed.gif "Pissed [pissed]")
