Thursday, January 28, 2010

Health Update..

I know I haven't posted anything lately but honestly I haven't been in the mood to and the darn Internet at the hospital is so slow its annoying!

Today was 2 weeks from the time I was admitted from the ER. There isn't any more pain in my stomach (thank goodness) so now I am working on getting the old lungs up to speed so I can feel better and go home.

So, the 2 test I had on my stomach came back and they think they have the problems narrowed down.

The first one was to see if my gallbladder contracted like it was supposed. Well shock of all shockers mine is "dysfunctional." They do some sort of calculations to see if your gallbladder contracts like its supposed to with 30% or higher being considered "normal." Mine is 25% so its not that bad that I need to risk surgery.

The 2nd test I had to eat scrambled eggs that had contrast in it and then lay under a camera for two hours so they could watch my food being digested. What they found out is that my stomach was emptying to slow and that's what was causing my pain (they're pretty sure)
so they gave me Reglan via IV while I was still under the camera and my stomach emptied right away. Reglan increases muscle contractions in the upper digestive tract increasing the rate at which the stomach empties into the intestines. So now they have me taking it by mouth 30 min before I eat lunch and dinner. I haven't had any pain since late last week so I'm glad for that.

As for my lungs my Dr just switched one of my abx yesterday and started me on 50mg of prednisone so I am sure I will be feeling up to par soon. I am most likely going home Tuesday so I will be home for my bday but will probably be going home with one last week of IV's.

OK well I am gonna go try and find something to watch on TV...I just finished ALL 3 seasons of Mad Men and now I have to watch normal television again! Thanks Sara for recommending it to me I LOVED it and I am going to have my mom watch it next!

Monday, January 18, 2010

ER Visit

A week ago I started having stomach/back pains but thought it was because of PMS so I just took Motrin and dealt with it thinking it would be over in a few days.

Well when Wednesday came around and by then I was still in ALOT of pain and meds and a heating pad didn't even dull the pain I started to get worried. So by like 9:00pm I knew I wasn't going to make it through the night because I couldn't get comfortable...nothing helped it, not sitting, not standing, not laying on my side I was miserable! So I decided I should go to the ER.

Because it was so late already and I knew Danny had to get up super early for work I called my sister-in-law and she came and picked me up. While on the way to the ER I texted my friend Felicia who works on the hospital floor I usually get admitted to to see if she was working and luckily she was! She also had a friend working in the ER that night so she called downstairs to let them know I was coming in so when I got there I got brought right back and didn't have to wait in the waiting room at all (thank goodness!)

Right away they got IV's started and blood work drawn. I got an EKG done, xrays done, and an ultrasound done. They thought at first maybe I was having gallbladder issues. All while doing this they were giving me morphine for my pain which helped right away.

6 hours later and my wonderful SIL STILL with me they still didn't know what was wrong with me except that my gallbladder looked fine and so did all my other test except that my WBC was up to 25,000. So they called my doc and they admitted me which I figured they might do so luckily I packed a bag and my laptop! :)

Once upstairs my doctor had them xray my lower back and my stomach and then my SIL went home at like 4:30am and at around 6 I finally got to bed!

When my DR came in the next morning he told me that he looked over my xrays and the problem I was having was that I was full of crap...LITERALLY!! So he put me on a full liquid diet for 2 days (I was starving!!) and I had to drink tons of mirolax along with them giving me reglen (sp??) all to help me go...

The weird thing about this whole thing is that I was going fine at home so it shocked me to hear that I was "backed up" but apparently that can still happen in people with CF. I am telling you if something weird is gonna happen to someone...it WILL happen with me!

So now I am still drinking the miralax twice a day (which miralax is just fiber) and apparently its something that I might have to drink all the time now which I am not looking that forward to. Oh well.

In the mean time I was planning on coming in today anyway for a "tune-up" before my birthday so looks like I am here for awhile. I am still having a little bit of stomach pain but its definitely not as bad as it was. I will keep you posted!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Check-up

Well, I got home last night around 6:00 from my tx check-up in Gainesville. It went well...like it usually does and I don't have to go back again for another 3 months.

My weight is up another pound to a total of 116 pounds and my PFTs are the same as they were last time I was in Gainesville about 6 months ago (they were actually an improvement to the PFTs I did a couple weeks ago at my CF drs office that I was a little worried about so thats good.)

So all in all I am doing ok...holding my own. I think I am definitley going to try the liquid oxygen thing. Everyone I have talked to seemed to like it better than regular O2 tanks so we will see.

I am most likely going to admit myself in the hospital within the next couple of weeks. It will be around my usual time for needing a tune-up anyway and I want to be proactive and get in an out so that I am not admitted for my 28th birthday on February 3rd!! :)

Monday, January 4, 2010

???

Does anyone have any experience with liquid oxygen?

My O2 provider keeps suggesting that I might want to use liquid O2 instead of ordering tanks all the time.

My doctor says there really isn't a difference I was just wondering what blog land thinks and if you had any comments....Thanks!! :)

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Happy 2010!!

I hope everyone had a great New Year! We had our 3rd annual New Year's eve party at our house and it was a blast. I didn't go to sleep until 6:30am (and yes that is after doing my treatments/vest!) my in-laws live next door to us and my MIL was actually getting up and going to work and we were still sitting by the fire at 5. We had a ton of laughs and as always had a great time with all our friends.

Here are just a few pics...

Me and Danny

Me and my sister

My SIL Steph, Me & my good friend Amy


Tuesday, my mom and I are driving to Gainesville for a transplant check-up. I have blood work scheduled for 9:30am on Wednesday but we decided to drive up the night before and get a hotel instead of getting up at a VERY unreasonable hour to drive all in one day!

It makes more sense to go the night before but I hate sleeping anywhere other than my own house...I have to pack/bring so much crap just for one night it is ridiculous! I like being home where all my things are in there usual spot. :)

Have a great week everyone and I will let you know how my appt goes when I get home!