This was the begining of the end!! After months of being in constant abdominal pain I begged my GI doc to please do something. He ordered some blood work and wanted me to come to his office to see him in a few days. I picked up my blook work results later that day. The day of my appointment our car broke down and I was unable to make it to my appointment. I was so angry. My boyfriend was lazy anyways and probably could have gotten someone else to take me, but he wasn't the one that was sick so he really didn't care if I got there or not. Since I couldn't make it to my appointment I took my blood work results to my now x-boyfriends aunt who is a nurse. She was very shocked to see that my h&h was 7.2 and 21%. I told her that I had not been feeling well, and was feeling very dizzy and tired the past couple of days. She told me to immediatly go call my GI doctor and tell him what my h&h was because it sounded like I was going into shock from it. I went and called my doctor's office. He wasn't on call, and it was another doctor that worked at the same hospital. I told him what was going on and he told me that I needed to go to a hospital, either the one he was at, or the one in my town, and get re-checked over and possibly get blood. My now x-boyfriend was so lazy he didn't want to even take me to the hospital, but he did. When we got there he just dropped me off and said "call me when you are done". How mean is that ???? I was left all alone in the ER. When one of the nurses was checking me in she checked my pulse, which was really low, and my temperature, which was 102.5, and then quickly took me back to a room. I didn't have to wait at all to be seen. The ER doctor came and took a look at my blood work and said that he wanted to check my blood again. They placed an IV in my arm and gave me a super strong dose of anti biotics, dripping it in as fast as it would go. After the anti biotics were done they gave me an entire bag of fluids in one hour. It was dripping in at 1000cc an hour. They were giving me the fluids cause I was dehydrated and because they needed to dilute the anti biotics in my system. I was so dehydrated that my vein kept swelling shut, and someone stood there and would give me benadryl so my vein would open back up. There was no way they could get another IV in me. After that I was given pain medication and nausea medication, then went home.

Second week of April, 2000

The following day I called my GI doctor to tell him what happened. He asked me to have the latest blood work results faxed to his office. I didn't hear back from him for a few days so I called him from my work. Apparently they only recieved the first page of my blood work, which didn't show how bad my blood was at the time. After he got the next page he ordered a CT scan of my abdomen, and asked for me to get it faxed to his office, and to call him. When the CT scan results were done I called him from my work and read the results to him over the phone because he didn't receive the results. It showed a large segment of intestinal inflammation and a left sided cyst. He asked me what I wanted to do because we had previously talked about bowel rest in the hospital. So I told him to put me in the Fort Sanders Cedar Bluff hospital of Knoxville (his primary hospital)and give me bowel rest for a few days. It sounded like a good idea to me! I had never missed a day of work and I explained to my boss that I would only be in the hospital for a few days. I was going in on a Friday, and expected to be out monday by the latest. That night I went home and packed the items I wanted to take along with me to the hospital. I didn't take that many things cause I was only planing on staying a short time..or so I thought!

April 20,2000 Getting admitted to the hospital

The next day a nurse that I liked asked me if I'de like to have a central line placed on me. She explained a little bit about what it was, and I said sure!! If it means I won't need a new IV every 6 hours I'm for it. Eventually my nurse got the "ok" from my GI doctor to put a central line in my neck. They told me of all the risks associated with getting a central line and assured me that only 1 out of 100 people ever have complications. Putting the central line in my neck was one heck of an expierience I'll never forget, and very painful. I was very stiff and unable to turn my head. For the next 2 days I had a pain in my chest that seemed to be getting worse. I was sent for a CT scan of my abdomen and upon reveiwing the pictures they found out I had 5% air in my chest wall. As it turns out.. when they were placing the central line in my neck they had accidently hit my lung with the needle!! It was very painful to breath. I was placed on oxygen and confined to my room. This put a hold on everything the doctor wanted to do on me. Every morning at 8AM I had a chest x-ray to make sure that the air I had in my chest was clearing up. If it didn't clear up I would have to get a tube placed in my chest to let the air out!!! The air did clear up on its own in 4 days.

STILL in the hospital April 29, 2000

A few nights later I was having more pain than ever in my gut. I got out of bed to use the restroom. There was nothing but blood. It came out like a fully open faucet. My GI was called immediatly. I was scheduled for a colonoscopy the very next morning. Through the night I would bleed 3 more times, loosing alot of blood. After my colonoscopy the doctor had little that he could tell us. He said that he couldn't even get to see anything because there was just too much blood! I was ordered to have a bleed scan of my entire body to locate where the blood was coming from. By the time they got me down to the testing area, and got the dye injected into me it was too late. Nothing showed up. As mysteriously as I started bleeding, it had stopped. The doctor theorized that I probably had some closed ulcers that broke open in my small intestine. He ordered a barium follow-through in 4 days. *UGH*

Begining of May, 2000

I wasn't allowed to have any food to eat to give my bowel some rest. The day before my surgery I was finally allowed to have some food. Thank GOD!! For the special occasion my mom went to Kentucky Fried Chicken. She returned with 2 chicken legs and some mashed potatoes. I took several bites of the potatoes, and a bite of the chicken..and then BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM in my belly..I thought I was going to die the pain was so bad. I almost collapsed on the floor, but there was a chair that I grabbed a hold of and my knee's hit the ground. I was gasping for air, and my head felt funny. A few minutes later I was able to make it to my bed where I laid down on my back. I had these horrible pains in my stomach like it was stretched to its most fullest capacity. I could only take very shallow breaths. I felt like my stomach was going to rip open. My mom went down to the nurses station and informed the nurses of my condition, and told them I hadn't passed any air for almost 4 days. The nurses paged my GI doc and he ordered me to go have an emergency x-ray to make sure I was not obstructed. A transport person arrived about 10 minutes later with a wheelchair to take me downstairs for the x-rays. Every little movement that I made felt like murder!! Going over bumps, and just the wheelchair moving caused me pain. I just held my mouth shut and beared it as best as I could. At the x-ray center I had to get 2 x-rays. The x-ray of me standing wasn't that bad. BUT the x-ray of me lying down was bad! I had to climb up onto the table, and I wasn't allowed to bend my legs for the picture. After they were done with the x-rays I was taken back up stairs..and I felt every single little bump on the way. My x-rays came back fine. By this time it was almost midnight, and I had to wait a whole nother hour before I was allowed my pain shot of demeral. That was the longest hour in my life. I didn't have a room mate so I stood at the side of the other bed with my head resting on it trying to breath as easily as I could. Finally I got my pain shot and I tried to go to bed. My mom was up with me most of the night but we eventually fell asleep.

May 5, 2000

I had to go for my barium test at 9AM. I wasn't allowed to have my next demeral shot until 9:30AM. The transport person with the wheelchair was late getting to my room to take me. The didn't arrive until 9:15AM, and I told them that I was NOT leaving until I got my pain shot because I was in pain. They said that was fine, and I called down and my nurse gave me my shot. My mom came to the diagnostic testing center where they do barium tests. The radiologist brought me the lovely supersized glass of barium to drink, along with some ice chips in a pan. Every little swallow I took of the barium made a wave of cramping,ripping pain from my neck to the bottom of my belly. I tried and tried to drink the barium but it seemed so impossible!! 30 minutes later they took me in for a x-ray to see where things were going. They told me I needed to drink MORE barium. All I could say is that I'de try my best. I sat out in the hallway in my wheelchair holding my barium. Every little bit I would take a small sip. While I was sitting there in the hallway a pizza delivery woman walked by with a few pizza's, then a few minutes later a hospital employee came walking by pushing a big cart that had about 25 pizza's on it! Holy Cow! They smelled so good and I yelled out to him to please take some to room 223 on the 3rd floor, but he didn't hear me =(. About 5 more x-rays were taken in the meantime. The radiologist was disgusted at me because I couldn't drink the barium, and it wasn't moving at all even when I was drinking it. I took a deep breath in and swallowed as much barium as I could, then came the horrific wave of pain. That was it, I couldn't drink anymore. I started developing a new pain in my lower abdomen. All of a sudden I had the horrible urge to go to the bathroom. My mom wheeled me to the restroom where I did go to the bathroom. I was so releived that my system was moving again. My next x-ray was my last x-ray and I was allowed to go back to my room. Instead of lasting the usual 1 to 2 hours my test lasted over 4 hours!! I was sure glad to get back to my room. Arriving at my room i noticed a tray of food waiting for me. My mom said "I would wait and call down to the nurses station and make sure you are allowed to have that before you start eating it." I looked at her like she was crazy and told her that I wasn't going to take any chances and I started eating!! If I wasn't allowed to eat it, then it was their mistake by putting it on my desk in my room!!!!

May 6, 2000

As the days went by I did start feeling better. I consulted with a few surgeons who did not want to do surgery on me. I did want the surgery! I had been in pain long enough! But they still insisted that surgery was not the right answer. I was then finally sent home. My Grandma had a stroke in mid April. I wanted to go see her in Pennsylvania so I went home with my mother to visit for a month. I was in the hospital for 17 days in Tennessee, with no support from my now x-boyfriend. When he would call it was always "poor him". I told him that I was moving back to Pennsylvania and his attitude quickly changed, and he all of a sudden was going to come and visit me in the hospital. He did come one time to see me in the hospital before my mom got there from Pennsylvania. He had just arrived in my room and sat down when my phone rang. It was my mom asking me if the doctor had been in yet to tell me the results of my test. My x-boyfriend was so jealous of my mom. He got up to leave and I told him to wait, then he told me I was on the phone. I told him I was going to be just a minute, but he walked out my door and left anyways. How mean, selfish, inconsiderate, and immature of him to do that to me! I was slowly learning how much of an a$$hole he REALLY was. But I told him I was coming back to Tennessee after a month of visiting with my family in Pennsylvania. He even had the nerve to tell me I was sick on purpose so that I could get attention. I guess I have this amazing ability to bleed out my butt anytime I want to!! Maybe I should turn it into a business!!

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