May 17-20, 2003
Well, today wasn't going all that bad. I woke up, not feeling as much pain around my new feeding tube as I previously had felt the day before. I thought that maybe I was going to start feeling better from having both operations done. My mom and I had been driving around, and decided to go stop by my unlces house to see what he was doing. When we got there we decided to cook dinner and eat at his house. It was going to be a while till the food was done, so I had my mom take me to taco bell so I could get a taco to hold me over till the other food was done. When we returned back to my uncles house, my abdomen started to really hurt. It had already been starting to hurt quite a bit. I also noticed that I was changing the dressings alot more around it. and that there was this green drainiage from around the feeding tube site. I tried laying down to see if that helped any, but it didn't. Then I asked my mom if she could take me back to the ER to be looked at because her and I both thought something was wrong with it. The drive to the hospital was a long drive, some 60 miles away. When we arrived, there was no wait at all. I got taken back right away. I was sooo glad. The ER doctor came in to see me, and as soon as he seen the green drainiage, he went and called up my GI doctor, and they admitted me for a possible infection in my J-tube.
Today my doctors came to my room. I had blood cultures taken from my picc line, and then I had to get stuck once to get blood else where. They had already started me on anti-biotics, plus ordered a cat scan. I wasn't allowed to eat anything by mouth until they found out what the problem was. The cat scan, I have to say was pretty bad. I had to drink this orange contrast, and it tastes like..horrid.
Today my Nutritionalist came in to see me, and said that the site around my feeding tube was looking alot better. He asked me if I had just as much pain when I eat as when I don't eat, and I told him yes. It doesn't matter really wether I eat or not. I still have pain. Then I asked him if I was allowed to eat yet. He said "Oh yes, you can eat!" Then I asked him to make sure that he wrote down in my chart that I was allowed to have food. The minute he left my room, I called my nurse in and told her that he said I could eat, and I asked for a pass to go down to the cafeteria and get food. My nurse went out and checked my orders, and then she gave me the pass to get whatever I wanted from the cafeteria for free.
Well today they said I could go home. Yay. They said that my feeding tube was infected and there was no evidence of anything like an abscess around my tube. While I was waiting for my mom to come and pick me up, I took a shower and got ll dressed, and then I gathered up all my belongings. When my mom arrived I was raring to get out of that hospital!