So today at 3pm, 23 days (almost down to the last minute) after I arrived in the ER, I finally, finally left the hospital. Woohoo! :) Recap: I had a fever and severe lower right abdominal pain, so I was convinced I had appendicitis. Marty wanted to take the afternoon off to take me to the ER, but I didnt want him to have to do that (hes already done it SO often.) I called an ambulance then sent Morgan to the next door neighbors house. I usually go to the Edmond Integris ER because it is about 15 miles away but is all highway, so it is quick and is so new that it is rarely very busy. Southwest Integris is only about 7-8 miles away but mostly surface streets. The EMTs made it clear it was my choice; but suggested Southwest since it was closer. Southwest is an Integris affiliate, giving them access to all my records from other Integris hospitals, so I went with Southwest. Turned out to be a great choice, as it got me a brand new set of doctors. They thought of testing for things that the docs Ive had the last few years had missed. They had tested for so much that they couldnt think of any other possibilities. I had severe lower right pain including rebound tenderness, and high fever (got to 105° in the ER.) It looked like a textbook case of appendicitis to everyone involved, but the CT showed a healthy appendix but an ulcer and inflammation in the part of the colon near the appendix, plus urinalysis revealed a urinary tract infection. I have a recent history of infections turning septic so they admitted me and scheduled a bunch of tests well as started me on IV antibiotics. Tests showed a kidney infection and that my bladder is barely working, causing me to retain fluid in the bladder, which created a nice little resort area for bacteria. It is most likely the reason I keep getting so many infections. They treated the infection and the ulcer/colitis and I improved but it became apparent my recently placed port was infected. They attempted to clear up the infection in the port so I could keep it, but it didnt work. After two weeks of treatment, they removed the port and kept me on IV antibiotics for a full week after its removal. In the meantime, I took two meds to hopefully get my bladder working again. Not long after I started those meds, I started having constant, debilitating queasiness and couldnt keep anything down for two days. They finally figured out it was one of the new meds causing the problem, so I had to stop taking it. That was a disappointment, because it was working on my bladder. I still had the second med, though. It took 4 days, but my stomach returned to normal. I had to start catheterization twice a day to be sure the bladder is completely empty at least part of the time, and will have to do so probably every day until/unless I have surgery. I get infections so easily that getting the surgery or not is a major decision. The bacteria failing to disappear after two weeks of IV antibiotics was a sure sign that the port itself was colonized and impossible to cure, so it came out. They couldnt see it with any test, but the end of the tube leading into my vein was kinked. It wasnt kinked enough to stop the flow, but enough to give bacteria a hidey-hole, so it was doomed from the moment it was inserted. The Infectious Disease doc wanted me to have a full week of IV antibiotics after the port was removed, so they were considering sending me home to have home health administer the IV, but i still had severe pain in my lower right abdomen and low blood pressure (a strong indicator of infection for my body) so they had to keep me in the hospital to do more tests. Tests didnt turn up a concrete reason for the pain. I still have an ulcer and colitis in the lower right, but it is slowly improving and should be causing pain but not increasing pain, as it was doing. They wound up keeping me for the full course of antibiotics plus one more day to give them a chance for observation after my body no longer had meds to help fight any infection. Total was 23 days, starting in ER, going to Intermediate Care (one step down from ICU) for a few days, then the rest of the stay in a regular room. My doctors, nurses, and I all came to the conclusion that I had severely strained or very possibly ripped an adhesion between my intestines in that area, probably bleeding a little bit (a couple teaspoons or maybe tablespoons), as part of the pain was an intense bruise kind of feeling. I didnt suddenly get worse when they stopped antibiotics, so I finally got to go home. Im far from 100% and it is likely I will sleep constantly the next few days. Now that the recurrent bladder infections should stop and I am bacteria-free (at least at the moment), I should get a reprieve and NOT be sick for a few weeks at least. Fingers crossed! Thank you so much to everyone who have me so much support. You would be surprised how much it means just to hear from you :)
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 04:34:10 +0000
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