Quick 4-Day Visit to Hospital

So guys.. It's been a while since I last made a blog, so just letting you all know a few things that have happened recently. On three separate random occasions, I've had severe abdominal pains that literally had me crunched over in agony. I went to the hospital, was given IV morphine, and the pain disappeared. Each time I had two sets of blood tests and two X-rays, and they found nothing. After the painkillers kicked in, everything was fine, and I went home. On the third random time, the pain came back after a couple of hours. Luckily, I was still in the hospital as they wanted to keep me in overnight, but yet again the same results. X-rays + blood tests = nothing there. After the first two times, they put it down to a random stomach cramp and then adhesions. This time, because it came back, they got me in for an ultrasound.

Overnight, I spiked a massive temperature and didn't get much sleep. I was first in the queue for the ultrasound the next day, and I was laid on a bed ready to get squirted with some ice-cold ultrasound gel. Luckily, she had warmed it up, so it wasn't bad at all, although it did go bloody everywhere, including all over my football shirt :( Within a minute, she had grabbed a consultant to have a good look, and some of my pouch and small bowel seemed inflamed, so they figured that along with the pain, it was likely pouchitis. I was on IV antibiotics for two days before being sent home with a five-day course of the same antibiotics but oral tablets.

All in all, I was in the hospital for four days on a gastro ward, which also had three old men that had just had ileostomies and another young lad who had just had a J pouch reversal. As you can expect in the hospital, it was really noisy at night, etc., and with three old blokes changing their stoma bags behind just curtains, it didn't smell too pleasant either. I found myself wandering around the hospital a lot just to get away from the ward and couldn't wait to get home. The first night home, I must have slept for a good 14 hours with only one or two toilet trips in between, so I was a happy bunny. Haven't managed more than six or seven hours of sleep since my reversal back in March.

These antibiotics seem to be doing the trick, and dare I say the fissure is almost healed. Just got to try and keep a good constant rhythm on stool motions to ensure it's not one step forward then three steps back, but things are looking a little brighter now, and for the days that things are dull, I've got a full bottle of Oramorph and a cocktail of other pills stacked up on my bedroom shelf to make things easier. Can't wait to be another six to twelve months down the line and see how things are then. Hopefully, I'll be fully fixed and back out doing all the things I used to do :)

Hi Steave, here's to your recovery after the storm. Sounds like it's been a tough few days for you. Pouchitis, ouch, sounds really painful. I'm pleased they have sorted you out. Time to rest and recover; the cocktails and oramorph should do the trick :) Speedy recovery. TC ambies ..

Hi Steve, what a horror show! Why, oh why, don't hospitals give the necessary diagnostic tests when we arrive in the ER with a level 10 pain? Of course, morphine drips are going to stop the pain, but the cause of the pain is just left unaddressed to fester and grow. That's what happened to me. Four ER visits over a 2-month period with no ultrasound or CT scan. X-rays don't show that shit (no pun intended)! Well, I'm glad they caught the infection before it killed you. Mine almost did. Thank God for the oncology surgeon who was called in to consult, as by the time they did give me a CT scan, I was so filled with pus, they couldn't see a thing. He took me right into the OR for an exploratory without a minute to spare. I'll be sending good thoughts your way. I've never even heard of pouchitis. I hope you are well on your way to recovering with no more infectious incidents. You are very brave. Hang in there and keep us informed of your progress. I go in on the 19th to see if I have a parastomal hernia. I think I do. My PCP thinks I don't. I hope she's right and I'm wrong, but I don't think so this time. I've already lost 16 pounds in anticipation of surgery. Pray for me that I don't have to be in the OR again. I am not a good candidate for surgery. I'll pray for you in turn. Loretta

Good doctors need to educate their patients about possible issues arising from their surgeries. I knew about pouchitis before my surgery, and I had plenty of Cipro around in that event. As I have said in an earlier post, readiness is all. Even though my GI is over 100 miles away in NYC, I feel comfortable that he has covered all the important bases. Again, there is no substitute for a good doctor. Make sure you get the best one available.

Jeez Steve, sorry to hear you hit another wall on your way to full recovery. Nothing is worse than being in the hospital ward, especially with people who have just come out the other side of getting the bag. You must have felt like you were taking a major step backward. :( Things have to change for you soon. Look at 2012 as being your year to look forward to, and hopefully, all these hiccups will be well over for you by then! :) Good luck and keep us all posted. x

My Ostomy Journey: Kimberly | Hollister