Abdominal pain - again

Hello IV fluids!

Hello yucky contrast!

I've been seeing a GI specialist about my recurrent, intermittently severe abdominal pain. Another ER visit, where nothing was found on CT or in my lab work. I had some abnormal liver testing in January, which has now resolved. No clue as to what caused it to be abnormal (not once, but twice). Possibly a virus that hit my liver, and has now been cleared from my system.

I had an MRI of my liver/biliary tract. Normal. (Suspected some stones, but none to be found.)

The GI specialist sent me for labs to rule out Celiac Disease. No results back yet. I'm also having another EGD next week, and he will be taking biopsies to see what could be going on.

I'm really, really, really tired and sick of the abdominal pain. This has been going on to some degree for 3 1/2 years, starting just a few months after gastric bypass was done. Yeah, I've had my gallbladder out - got rid of the pain for a few months. Then I had hernias and adhesions fixed. Not once, but twice. (God, or what it three times now???) A small bowel obstruction fixed. STILL HAVING PAIN.

Would all of this have happened if I hadn't had my guts surgically rearranged? I don't know. Knowing me, probably. In the years before gastric bypass, I had odds and ends of abdominal pain. Sometimes so severe I'd be curled up in a ball. I've been on meds for IBS off and on through the years. Most of them do not help.

I'm on a new IBS medication to take when I have the pain. It's a sublingual med, so it is supposed to work within a few minutes. Took one yesterday. Seemed to help, but the pain was only mild when I took it. We'll see how it holds up to the severe pain, whenever that should hit me next.

Oh yeah, and diarrhea. Lovely diarrhea. I'm having to adjust how much and how often I take Miralax to ebb and flow with the diarrhea. (Pun intended...hardy har har.) Nausea hits often as well. Usually when I'm in severe pain, or when I eat.

I've lost 5 pounds in the past week. Go me. Unintentional, of course. I can't afford to lose weight. I look sickly when I drop below 145 lbs (which is where I am now).

And I quote from my latest CT scan: "little to no endogenous fat tissue seen, so cannot rule out inflammatory process."

That's right folks. Little to no endogenous fat inside my body. I cannot afford to lose more weight, or else it's muscle loss. Ain't got no fat to lose. You can see it (or lack of it) in my arms and legs. It's all loose skin, barely any muscle.

Would I do gastric bypass surgery again? Yes. Being 310+ pounds, not able to walk up or down steps without being severely winded, pain and pressure on all of my joints, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, high blood glucose levels from time to time ("pre-diabetic"), severe reflux. I certainly would not wish all of that on my worst enemy.

I just wish there was a happy medium between obesity and bordering on malnutrition.

Yo - I don't exercise on a regular basis or go to the gym anymore. BECAUSE I WOULD DROP EVEN MORE WEIGHT WHEN I DID!!! Don't get me wrong. I love being outdoors, walking, hiking, and swimming. I do that stuff from spring to fall, weather permitting. But I don't exercise on a "regular" or "daily" basis. Because I drop too much in the weight and look like a stick.

From the patient's perspective

I had the pleasure (gack!) of being a patient recently. Well, I can actually tell you quite a few stories of being 'the patient' -vs- being 'the nurse' -vs- being 'the patient that's a nurse'.

Often times, I have been very tired, sore, aching, and ready to leave when it's the end of my shift as the nurse. I hope I don't come across as super eager to go home at that time to my patients.

Note: I'm not one to go to the ER. Seriously. But when I recently had a severe incidence of abdominal pain that didn't abate, and I had other alarming symptoms going on, I hated to do it........but I ended up needing EMS. Unfortunately, I was also physically unable to walk, much less get to my car to have someone drive me to the ER.

I had the unfortunate pleasure of being a patient during change of shift in the ER. My first nurse was obviously ready to go home. She had that haggard look of having come to the end of a very long day. I don't know if it was an 8, 12 or 16 hour shift for her. Her shoes made fairly loud clomping noises when she would come into my cubicle. (Then again, that could just be her shoes!) She was on her cell phone (work cell phone) when she started coming into my cubicle area, but was still talking on it. I heard a snippet of "are you relieving me?" before she glanced at me and turned back out of the room to finish her short chat on the phone. She came back in, wrapped up the end of her shift duties with me, then left the room. All interactions between her and I were very no-nonsense. No warm and fuzzy connections either.

Oh, did I mention, I did NOT say to anyone that I was a registered nurse. Except to the ER MD when he was discharging me. (He offered to keep me overnight for observation, but I said I was ok to go. The only reason why my being a nurse came into discussion was when he asked why I decided to come to his ER that evening, when I had all of my surgeries and hospitalizations at another hospital. I explained that I work for that hospital group as an RN, but this ER was closer to where I was that evening.)

Anyhow......back to my point of view as the patient. This first nurse - was either tired and ready to go home, or didn't like her job. That's just how she came across to me. I wonder if I come across that way to patients at times? I just know that it annoyed me that she seemed distanced from her role as the nurse.

The next nurse (night shift): she was better. Then again, she was at the start of her shift. She actually hung around in my cubicle to listen to me explain a little bit more of what was going on, and how I was doing. She was cool.

The x-ray transport dude: either hated his job (it sure seemed that way), or he was also at the end of a very long shift and ready to go home. I was not impressed.

The x-ray tech: nice girl. Professional. No -nonsense.

The ER doc: I was impressed. He did a quick assessment immediately upon my arrival via EMS. Even though he didn't know what was going on by my test results, he offered to keep me overnight. I declined. My symptoms by this point were much improved, and I was able to go home. He even gave me a copy of my lab/x-ray results for my surgeon to have a copy, since this hospital wasn't associated with the hospital I normally go to. (Thank you, kind ER doctor!)

Oh, and you want to talk about feeling like you wasted everyone's time? That would be me. The pain and symptoms I had were all pointing at a serious GI complication, but yielded no firm diagnosis and eventual abatement of symptoms. Although I was 1000x grateful for the pain to be tremendously decreased, I felt like I came across as someone who abuses the EMS system.

By the way: the pain? Still there. Very dull.