I'm Home, But Don't Know What's Wrong

Hi, All! I came home last night after spending a week at Middlesex Hospital. Thank you for all of your good wishes, thoughts and prayers. And thank you to those of you who visited me and sent me e-mails thru the hospital website...it sure cheered me up when they delivered mail! So here's what happened and what I've been told: First of all, Dr. Aranow said that this has nothing to do with having had RNY. It started on Sun., 10/1, with what felt like the pressure of gas and it advanced to severe abdominal pain and fever, along with bloating and the inability to drink more than about 4 oz. at a time. I put myself on a clear liquid diet Sun. evening and called Dr. A's office the next morning. I was told to call my internist, who was off that day. The doctor covering for him suspected a urinary tract infection and prescribed an antibiotic. The next day I called my doctor, who had me come see him that afternoon. He put me on an additional antibiotic and Tylenol and sent me for a CAT scan. Although I had pain across my abdominal area, as well as on both sides (just above my waist), since the worst pain was in the lower left abdominal area, my doctor suspected that I had diverticulitis. If you're not a patient in the hospital, it takes 2-3 days to schedule a CAT scan. In the meantime, the antibiotics and Tylenol didn't seem to help and I continued to be in pain and run a fever. By the time I had the CAT scan on Fri., 10/6, the worst pain had migrated from left to right, which, along with the results of the CAT scan, led my internist to think that it wasn't diverticulitis. (I've since been told that although it's more rare, diverticulitis can present on the right side also.) So he sent me to Dr. A. Per Lois's instructions, I went to the Middlesex Hospital emergency room that night, expecting to be admitted, which they did. I was given IV fluids (thanks to which I continue to feel bloated and have gained over 10 lbs. in the last week), the same 2 antibiotics that I'd been on, except via IV, and IV Dilauded (which works much better than Tylenol!). They also kept me on a clear liquid diet. Over the next few days they did another CAT scan and a colonoscopy. Because I'd had 2 CAT scans within just a few days of the colonoscopy, they made me drink a lot more of the bowel prep liquid to be sure that all of the contrast medium for the CAT scans was out of my system. In order to get that done, I ended up not sleeping the night before the colonoscopy. I had a colonoscopy last year and remembered being knocked out and feeling nothing. That wasn't the case this time. No one told me that there was a choice between being knocked out or being less sedated, and they just chose to give me less sedation. It was the coloscopy from hell! I was screaming from the pain during the procedure and was gripping the railing of the bed/gurney I was on so hard that I blew out my IV! After all those tests, along with assorted bloodwork, they ruled out diverticulitis, appendicitis and all sorts of other things, but, unless they cut me open to look more closely at my insides, they won't really know what's wrong with me. As of Wed., I finally stopped running a fever and I was put on a full-liquid diet. Yesterday for the 1st time I felt a little less pain. So now I'm home, on the same 2 oral antibiotics that I was on before I entered the hospital, on Dilauded instead of Tylenol, and on a full-liquid diet instead of a clear-liquid diet. And I have no fever. Those are the only differences since almost 2 wks. ago. Dr. A. wants to see me in 2 wks. and told me to call him if the pain gets worse in that time. But he's hoping that it will continue to lessen and that this will just gradually go away. He said that if the pain does stop, I can start eating solid food. In response, I asked, "Purees?" That put a big grin on his face and he said that I could eat anything if I wasn't in pain. Which brings up another point. I certainly am not hungry; in fact it feels like my pouch has shrunken. It took me an hour of sipping to get down an 8-oz. protein shake. So maybe when this is over I'll be able to lose some more weight. But the head hunger never goes away. Boy did my roommate's meals smell good when they arrived! I obviously won't be at the support group meeting Mon. night, but it would be nice if I felt up to attending the one on 10/23. Maybe I'll see some of you then. Debby

Hi Deb! So glad you're home and hopefully on the road to recovery! That is just such a horrific story and it's very disconcerting to me when I hear these stories of people in such dire pain and yet no one can seem to diagnose them with anything! Hang in there!!! Hugs, Carla

Hi Deb, Thank you for sharing your exeperiece story and I felt bad you went through HE_ _ from this. Next time You will make sure to tell them to knock you out so you dont have to go through for feeling painful again! Let's hope it will getting better and less pain in few weeks ahead. Staying home is more healing than staying hospital . Tell your roommate to treat you like queen while you are recovering Take care, Kathy K

Oh man Debby you sure have been through the ringer the last couple of weeks - it totally sucks that they hospital knows that people can be completely oblivious to the colonoscopy if they're put out and yet choose to have people suffer - that was total BS for you have to deal with that when you were already in pain........Sometimes I just don't understand the medical community - God Bless them for being there - but man the decisions that are made sometimes are just not right - I'm so sorry for you. I will pray that your problem either goes away on it's own or they can figure it out and fix it. I hope it's the latter of the two because experiencing pain and having a fever should have a cause.........Years ago when I was about 20 I had severe pain and a really high fever and they admitted me to the hospital did a couple of tests - the next day the pain and fever went away and never returned - it has always bugged me to not know what the cause of that was - Glad to hear you're home and hopefully on the mend for good - my thoughts and prayers are with you! Tammy

Debby, Glad to hear things are getting better for you. It must be frustrating to not know what caused this to begin with, though. Hoping things continue to improve.... terri

Hi Debby, I am sorry to hear of your illness and hope you are feeling much better soon. Get plenty of rest, take it easy and be well again very soon! Mary M

Deb- glad to hear that you seem to be on the mend, even if they didn;t figure out what was actually wrong. Take good care of yourself, OK? Rest & Relax. Best Lisa

I CANNOT believe they didn't offer you full sedation!!!! WHO did the colonoscopy? If you tell me Intravia I will have a fit.....I was out like a light for mine- I opted fo full anesthesia- they couldn't guarantee it becasue it requires an anesthesiologist to be available and not busy in OR, but it worked out. It was the saving grace or I just would NOT have been able to do it. Poor thing- I am glad you are home. I KNOW what a week in the hospital is like......not fun.