Tap…tap…tap…Is this thing on?
It’s been weeks since my latest blog post in which I left you hanging with my OvuSense Review and I apologize. My presence on my social media Facebook page, Waiting for Baby Bird, has also not been as active, for that I also send my regrets. But I have a good reason. I had a medical emergency that I am still struggling to recover from.
On Father’s day, June 18th, I went to the emergency room at 10am with severe abdominal pain and by 2:30pm I had found my way to the Intensive Care Unit due to diverticulitis in my colon that had ruptured, therefore sending my body into the beginning stages of sepsis. Many people have asked….”So what happened? Did you have any warning signs?”
And the answer is no…or at least I don’t think so.
Saturday evening (June 17th) around 5:30pm my left side began to feel bloated with a dull, aching pain. I shrugged it off and thought maybe it had to do with a new prescription medication I had taken just an hour earlier. Or perhaps it was “just gas.” And the thought that maybe I just needed to “drink more water” crossed my mind.
Regardless, I thought nothing of it.
But within two hours that dull, aching pain had me in fetal position. I couldn’t sit up. I couldn’t lay down. I couldn’t do anything to get comfortable or relieve the pain. The warm bath didn’t help. The four Tums I frantically chewed and swallowed didn’t work. The Pepto I chugged didn’t make it better. And the prayers I prayed didn’t seem to bring me relief.
By 4am, I was not only in excruciating pain (a mix between intense gas cramps and a pulled muscle), but I also had flu-like symptoms (nausea, weak, dizzy, chills, sweating). My husband kept begging to take me to the emergency room but for someone who rarely goes to the doctor, let alone the emergency room, I just couldn’t bring myself to make the hour-long drive for possible “gas pains”. Besides who wants to pay thousands of dollars for someone to tell you that you just need to go home and poop? Not this girl.
However by 9am, with tears streaming down my face, and my Daddy stroking my hair as I lay helpless in bed, I agreed it was time. And friends, I am so thankful I didn’t wait even another hour.
My emergency room visit was nothing like I had expected. After waiting only 15 minutes in the general waiting area,the male nurse called me back to his small office and after he took my vitals, in which my blood pressure was 80/58 and my heart rate a whoppin 122, he stood up, whipped my wheel chair around and through the double doors we went!
As he walked very briskly down the hallway I heard him order a team of nurses to room 24 where a glucose test and EKG were needed ASAP. I will never forget it. I expected room 24 to be small where I would need to wait once more for the doctor to mosey on into, but nope. Huge room. Lots of machines. Big table. Five nurses charging in behind me. One taking my shirt and bra off as another one helped me onto the bed. There was a male nurse to my left telling me not to be alarmed as he would be pricking my pointer finger. Then as I looked to my right I saw another nurse putting in an IV, while one more was close to my head smashing stickers all over me.
As I lifted my head to find Dan, my hunky husband, I saw him sitting in a chair up against the wall with my purse on his lap staring straight ahead, as if he is waiting on a bus. I am not going to lie, it kinda made me giggle as I put my head back down and closed my eyes. I just couldn’t believe I was topless in a room full of strangers all because of “potential gas.”
But friends, it wasn’t gas.
A CT scan revealed that I had diverticulitis and it had perforated. Many of you might be wondering…what is that? And I get it because until this happened I had no clue either. Basically the condition starts with diverticulosis, in which small pouches begin to protrude from the walls of the intestine. If the pouches became inflamed and infected, the condition becomes diverticulitis, and it is accompanied with symptoms such as abdominal pain, tenderness and nausea. At this point, there is a risk that an infected diverticulum could rupture, leading to perforated diverticulitis. And friends, this is what happened to me. Mine ruptured and the infection began leaking into my abdomen causing me to go septic. Typically when this happens it requires emergency surgery for treatment.
However according to the surgeon on call, he was afraid that due to the severe inflammation of my intestines, if he were to perform immediate surgery I would need to wear a colostomy bag for 6-9 months (maybe longer) due to my colon possibly crumbling when he would try to sew it back together. No beuno! Thankfully his conservative approach of pumping me full of strong antibiotics, combined with morphine and a clear liquid diet for 2-3 days worked. *Sorta*
As of today, nearly 3 weeks since my luxurious five-day hospital stay, I am no longer on the medications as the infection is gone but I am still in a lot of pain despite bed rest and sticking to a “soft food diet”. In the upcoming weeks I will have my first colonoscopy at the ripe ol’ age of 33 in order to see the extent of the damage and if parts of my colon need to be removed. It’s crazy for me to think about…ya know, having a colonoscopy before I even have my first mammogram.
According to the doctor’s this is an “older person’s” problem and I am one of the youngest patients they have seen with this issue. Go figure, right? It appears I have the egg quality of a 60-year-old woman and the intestines of an 80-year-old grandma. Not to mention, this also hinders me from being able to conceive and shatters my dreams just a little bit more. But all that aside, the purpose of me even writing this blog post is tell you this: I need you.
Every single one of you.
I need your encouragement. I need your well wishes. But most of all I need your prayers. I have had far too many meltdowns over the last few days as I worry about what is ahead. I have never had a cavity let alone surgery, therefore I ask that you pray for God’s grace in this situation as the surgeon doesn’t find anything that would cause concern and therefore require parts of my colon to be removed, or a colostomy bag to be part of my daily wardrobe (because let’s be real, ain’t nobody got time for surgery. Not to mention, colostomy bags aren’t exactly cute. And if I were being honest, I struggle thinking about being intimate with one…Ay, yi, yi!) However, despite my feelings and fears, I know that regardless of the test results and regardless of the outcome, God has me in the palm of His hand. He is faithful and I have no reason to be anxious or to worry about what the future holds. He already knows the beginning from the end and because He is true to His word, I know that He will use what the enemy is meaning for my harm, to somehow and in someway come together for my good. Therefore I will cling to one of my favorite verses which says, “He will fear no bad news for his heart is steadfast trusting in the Lord.” ~Psalm 112:7
On the bright side (if there is one), I have lost 12 pounds on the “grilled cheese and Miralax diet” and I have finally been able to see what all the hype was about in the TV series, “This Is Us.” Wow! What a great show! I have also binge watched Desperate Housewives (I know, probably not the most appropriate) and caught up on all my emails. Or so I think…if you have messaged me and I haven’t responded, please send it again! Chances are it got lost in the mix.
Thank you in advance for your support, encouragement, prayers and well wishes! Each one keeps me going!
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