Full of ..... : FSGS Sucks

I went to the urgent care place yesterday because I had been having these acute, shooting pain on the right side of my belly....so painful to the point of shallow breathing because deep breaths hurt.

Anyway, the doctor essentially (and thankfully) came to the conclusion that I'm full of shit.  Literally.  Last week's hospital stay, combined with iron pills and a severe lack of good nutrition has essentially stopped my colon dead in it's tracks.

Do you know how weird it is to look at an X-ray of your poop?  Bizarro....but glad it's nothing worse. My husband had me worried it was appendicitis or something (and here I always thought my appendix was on my LEFT side....hmmmph...learned something new).

So now, it's a bunch of miralax for me to get "shit" going again.....wooohooooo, sounds like a FUN weekend! ;)

I'm back to being ridiculously sleepy again.  This morning I had to get up at 4:30am in order to be in Eau Claire, WI at 8:00am for a meeting.  Then it's another 2 hour meeting this afternoon, a drive back to Roseville for the NKF Awards dinner.  Gonna be a long day, but I'm powering through...

My first hospital stay....: FSGS Sucks

Last Sunday my friends came over so we could make Christmas candies and cookies.  It was a fun day, and LOTS of food was made.  I thought it was odd (for me at least) that I didn't feel like snacking at all throughout the day.  My stomach was a bit upset, but I just figured it wold pass.  I had plans to go to North Dakota on Monday morning with my boss and co-worker..around 9:30pm I confirmed things and went to bed.  About a half hour later, I started having diarrhea, and then a half hour after that I started vomiting.  Profusely.  At the same time.

I can honestly say that I've NEVER EVER felt that horrible.  EVER.  I was nervous about how this would affect  my blood thinner medication, since I had most likely thrown it up.  That, coupled with the fear of dehydration, made me drive myself to the emergency room, and I'm so glad I did.  I have no idea how I made it there, but they were kind enough to bypass the formalities at the desk and let me take a shortcut to a bathroom and a room.  I feel so sorry for the poor sap who had to collect my stool sample in there.  It wasn't pretty :)

I think I shit 4 times before they got my blood pressure, and vomited at least once.  The first 24 hours were all a bit hazy...but since I'm ALWAYS thinking about fodder for the blog, I managed to take a few pics of my stay.

This is me once I got a bit settled in the ER, along with some Zofran for the nausea.

I threw up so hard that I had petechia around both eyes...

The attending physician was a bit worried about me being dehydrated since the vomiting and diarrhea weren't stopping, so he thought it best if I were admitted.  He asked me what hospital I wanted to be transported to (because the place I went is not a hospital, but an emergency room only), and I had absolutely no idea, so I guess that means I need to do some research now in case this happens again.  I went to St. Francis in Shakopee, and I gotta say that they were absolutely GREAT!

This was my 2nd IV....the ER had placed on in the crook of my arm, and it wasn't comfortable at all, so they moved it to my hand.  This totally creeps me out, btw....I was so dehydrated that my veins started collapsing when they tried to draw blood.

This picture I took on day 2...petechiae still there...

FINALLY, after 24 hours, the diarrhea stopped, but then I started to get a headache.  They were generous with IV pain meds, but it kept coming back again and again.  And then I started vomiting again.  Even this little cracker here cause me quite a bit of discomfort.

And then, of course, I had an itching spell when I was trying to sleep, so they got me some ice packs to  numb my arm.

After 4 bags of fluid, my face started to swell.  You can see how my eyelids are starting to get puffy.

They had to move the IV AGAIN in order to do some albumin infusions .  I'm so grateful to the nephrologist on staff there who ordered the infusions.  It's something I've asked about more times than I can count, so it was nice to have a nephrologist who was willing.

Izzy and Joacim came for a short visit on Tuesday night.  The nurse had given me a percocet in order to kill the pain, and she warned me to eat something with it, but I was SO nauseous.  I wish I would've listened, because within 10 minutes of them arriving, I had to throw up.  I was afraid that it would freak Izzy out, but she handled it quite well, and I felt fine after that.  Clearly she was fine since she decided to steal my apple :)

And then she made herself comfy in my bed and we watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer on TV.

Sadly, after they left, the headache came right back with a vengeance.  At this point, it was a migraine and I was miserable.  I had a WONDERFUL nurse, though, and she gave me a lavender inhaler, put some oil on my back and gave me a pressure-point massage, which felt AMAZING.  She was a fantastic nurse, and her name was Carole.

Finally, by Wednesday morning, I had the headache under control.  The doctor on staff had given  me migraine medication the previous evening, and gave me some to take home until I get into see my PCP.  I felt MUCH better....tired, but better, but my face was ENORMOUS!

Can you see the swelling UNDER my eyes?

How about now?  :)

It took 3 days for my face to return to "normal", but I'm VERY happy that I decided to go to the hospital.  I know that I can't be too careful when it comes to my defective beans, and that I should trust my gut when it comes to how I feel.

I'm a bit nervous as to what my boss thinks about it all, since I had to text him at 2:18am on Monday morning to tell him that I wasn't going to North Dakota.  At this point, I think it's time to tell him what's going on.  I no longer have the confidence that I can "power through" things every time....things like this are going to continue to happen, and possibly more frequently, so I think it's only fair, for both he and I, that people know the status of my health.  Wish me luck!