On Saturday night @ work, everyone kept asking me what was wrong. I was just not feeling good at all. Considering that I am now used to always feeling sick, I just dealt with it.
On Sunday night at work, around 8:30 I got back from break and had a sharp, shooting pain in my left side abdominal around my rib cage. It took my breath away. I told my bartender and he said that was my pancreas area. It began to wrap around my back and made it nearly impossible for me to move. My job is all physical labor so I pushed myself to the limits and finished my shift. As soon as I punched out, I took a pain pill and went home. When I got home, I put the heating pad on my back, took another pain pill in an attempt to dull the pain (it did NOT work) and I went to sleep. I was hoping that when I woke up in the morning it would be gone.
Monday AM, I had all the same pains :(
I called my GI. Dr. Burnett. He was out of town for the week so I spoke to Michelle his assistant. After explaining my symptoms and knowing that my lipase has been high since June, she said to get to the ER "immediately."
I had a friend over that said to me "Come on Jen, you look perfect. Give me a break, is this just for attention or what?"
I do look perfect. And I was built super tough. I'm single and alone. Therefore, I have ONE option to be tough as nails. Giving up and giving in to this disease is NOT on my radar. Therefore, I will fight till the end.
I drove myself to the ER on Monday. They did blood work and found my lipase over 1000!!!!! I was shocked!! Because of that they did an ultra-sound & found my pancreas to be "severely" inflamed.
With that said, I was immediately admitted to the hospital, rm#334. I was NOT allowed to eat or drink for those 3 days I was in the hospital and I pretty much slept the entire time.
While there, we did an EDG, EKG, blood work every 3 hours, my blood pressure dropped to 85/47, so they had to place me on a special IV drip, that was dripping at a fast rate to raise up my BP.
What made matters worse was being alone. Not having any family there to comfort me. It was a scary, sad and lonely feeling. BUT I survived it all. Proved to me once again, how strong and how resilient I am.
These images are taken 4 days after being in the hospital with no food. Just a clear liquid diet. Which is what is done to heal the swelling of pancreatitis. YAY, These imgaes show that I can go home :-)
In Holding .. Waiting for Surgery................. Waking up from Surgery.......
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