2 days later

Ok, so I'm 2 days past the emergency room and I'm mostly feeling better.  Here's what happened.

 

I wake up Monday feeling a little ill.  The ankle hurts, but that's nothing major.  My stomach hurts, and that's unusual, but not major...  yet.

Tuesday, as I mentioned in this forum, I was having "wicked bad" stomach cramps.  The ankle felt fine, but the cramps sucked.  Bloating, cramps, nausea, I thought "maybe it's menstrual", but then remembered I'm a guy.  Throw in the fact that I was simultaneously ravenous AND nauseous and I was all mixed up.  I behaved, had 2 eggs instead of 1 for breakfast, toast, peanut butter (normal breakfast except for the double dose of eggs) and I was off to work.  Off and on the cramps continue pretty much all day.  They settle down right after lunch, but come back a few hours later.

 

Tuesday night I take some generic gas-x and get all of 2 or 3 hours of sleep thanks to the cramps and general discomfort.  The gas-x didn't really work.

 

Wednesday morning I oversleep, head to the office, soldier through for awhile.  The cramps settle after lunch again, but come back in force around 3.  I call the 24 hour nurse at the insurance company and she asks a ton of questions, then says "You might want to go to the emergency room".  I say "Might?"  She says "Go.  Now."  Apparently she was worried about some kind of blockage or rupture or the early stages of appendicitis.  The diagnosis of "this guy's just a big sissy" didn't come across the screen.  I said "maybe a laxative and call the doc in the morning?"  She said "absolutely not" and implied that the next words out of her mouth were going to be "Quit arguing, you stupid boy!"

 

Of course, the primary doctor doesn't have hours on Wednesday (golf, you know) so I couldn't call the Doc and ask what she thinks.  No, I have to go to the ER.

 

So, I shut down and head out.  On the way to the ER I call the nurse line again for a second opinion--I hate ERs.  Similar run of questions and this guy says "get to an urgent care facility in the next 2 to 8 hours."  No "might", no "if you can"s...  just simply, "get there".  Ok, so I'm already at the ER, that'll do just fine.

 

4:20 I arrive.  Around 5:30 with the bloating and cramping and general symptoms of "this sucks" I see the intake nurse, describe what's up, and pay the fundage.  Then I sit back down...  slowly.

 

Pee in a cup...  sit some more.  Take some blood...  sit some more.

 

6:45 the lovely wife calls and says her car broke down.  I say "deal with it, I'm in the ER".  7:30 she shows up at the ER.  8:30...  9:30... 10:30...  now I'm getting hungry and tired... but at least the cramps have dissipated and the bloating is going away.  Brilliant treatment...  let him sit until he dies or it goes away.

 

11:30...   and now I go to the back.  Doc asks a bunch of questions.  I give graphic examples of what it feels like and what's been going on.  He says the labs look pretty normal except for a slightly increased level of pancreatic something-or-other.  He pokes around, then pokes some more, then asks some more questions, then I go off for x-rays.  Picture, picture, picture...  then back to the room.

 

Around 12:30 doc comes back and says the x-rays are negative.  I think he meant he didn't find anything unusual...  the x-rays should have at least shown bones.

 

Doc said he thinks I was suffering from "gastrointeritis"...  basically diarrhea...  combined with constipation, since I wasn't...  well, you know...  which makes for a very, very, very uncomfortable 3 days.  Probably not ER worthy, but if 2 nurses say "git goin'", I'm not one to argue. 

Really unusual since I've been eating a lot more fiber lately with my new found appreciation for broccoli and other goodies.  Regardless, I'm mostly "normal" again. 

 

Thank you all for your concern. 

 

I still haven't gotten a normal night's sleep this week.  Still don't quite feel "right", but we'll see.

 

Stupid stomach.  I will punish it with beer and pizza this weekend.

 

I'm calling the 20 mile week a pipe dream at this point...  but I may do something very foolish tomorrow.  We'll see.

 

 

UH plays UTEP tonight..  UH by 4.  80 points scored.  Close to 1000 yards passing combined.  Should be a humdinger!  Guess where my butt will be.