Hey Friends!! I hope your week is going better than mine. In the field I work in in healthcare, the fall is our busy season. When I say busy I mean BUSY. Can’t.Keep.My.Eyes.Open.Busy. I have been working a lot, but I am lucky to work from home so I will survive.
The last few months have been hard… to say the least. Ever since February, I have been having nausea and pain in my stomach about every 3-6 weeks. I have seen a couple new doctors down here in San Antonio and finally found one (thanks to my husband) that I feel like really gets my situation and understands I can live this way. Each month I get sick, it lasts about 5-10 days. 5-10 days of no eating, minimal Popsicles and sips of water. It is awful. After a day or 2 I get used to it, and my stomach doesn’t hurt as badly, but the bigger issue is what a week or two of not eating/hydrating enough does to my body. I am mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted all of the time. This was definitely a huge stressor in my last office job as it was hard to even get into the office when I had these flare ups. I am fortunate enough to work from home now, but work has not slowed done or become easier. And typically, this is how I like my work life to be. I like to be busy and productive every single day. Which is hard when I just feel like crap all the time. Thankfully on these really bad days, Jon will set up an office in my bed for me with multiple computer screens (how do people work with just one??).
I also spend a lot of time (and money) at hydration spas getting pumped full of saline and vitamins. These seem to help on the days I really can’t eat or drink anything without feeling horrible.
But I usually spend at least $150 per treatment… out of pocket. Eek! My new doctor hooked me up with an at-home health program and they will come to me during my next issue with my stomach and come every day I request to give me some hydration, which is really really nice. (Haven’t used it yet since my stomach has been ok since I got connected with this company. But the way this week is going, I might be getting one tomorrow.
I don’t know if I have shared this with you all or not, but one of the medications I take for my back makes me have night sweats like crazy. I will wake up 3 to 4 times a night drenched. I told my husband I want to wean off this medicine, but until then I told my husband we had to find a solution because it is gross and highly affects my sleep. So a couple weeks ago I came home to find this on my side of the bed. It is a mat that goes under the sheet that is hooked up to a water system tank that pumps cold water in throughout the night. It is amazing… well it was until it got a leak. But my husband said he is going to return it and get me a new one. Yay!!
After the last time I was super sick, my husband had to leave on a business trip so my momma booked a flight that day and came to take care of me for the week. I literally am the luckiest.
Finally started to feel a little better so we got to have dinner and lunch at two of my favorite spots (Bird Bakery and Down on Grayson).
I haven’t been able to exercise much with all my stomach stuff so i have been taking plenty of walks with the pups (no, Jon did not let me get a third yet.. we were just watching our friends’ pup).
So my new surgeon had me to an MRI Enterography (had to drink 3 bottles of contrast and get an IV contrast) to see if she could tell if it was the old surgery spot that was causing the issue. And ofcourse, she said they still couldn’t really tell…. and yall I almost projectile vomited the contrast in the MRI machine… it was bad.
But anyway, we met with her to discuss our options and she didn’t think any more testing was necessary (thank the lord because my doctors from last year wanted to do 500 of every test available… and they all showed nothing) because there just isn’t a test that can accurately see where they need to.
All of this said, my doctor thinks an exploratory laparoscopy is the best course of action (basically what they finally ended up doing to me for my last surgery). It is scheduled in early October. But if I am having pain before then, the doctor said she could try to move me up. Best case scenario is that the issue is scar tissue and she will be able to remove it without an incision. More than likely the last surgery where they sewed up my intestines did not heal properly and she will have to redo it (cut me open, cut out more intestine, and sew me back up again. The worst case scenario is that there is a new stricture or blockage that will have to be removed. It would be removed the same way as the 2nd option, but the issue here is that they still would not have answers to why strictures are forming. My last surgeon did take a biopsy to be tested, but they basically said it was genetics and just got worse over time, which my new doctor 100% fully does not believe this is the case. She said if I were born with a stricture I would have noticed by age 5 so to be almost 30 and this just happened last year, there usually is some medical cause. They will biopsy again in October procedure.
So for now, I am hanging in there. 🙂 It has been hard and I am tired. My family and my dogs and my husband are tired. Tired of hearing about it, tired of not getting the full me, tired of seeing my suffer.
In most things in life, I am a glass half full kind of girl so I am just moving along with my daily life as best as I can. We have done a lot of fun things lately and I want to keep living that way.
I promise to update you all more soon. Thanks for sticking by me during this difficult time. Your support, messages, thoughts, and love do not go unnoticed.
Have a very wonderful Wednesday, friends!!!
XOXOXO
