Alas, I spoke too soon. I am just home from another stay in the hospital. Same condition as before--blockage in the lower intestine. I had another NG tube stuffed up my nose and down into stomach. They pumped my tummy again for a few days. Medical people out there--you know how invasive that is. Plus--ouchy. And miserable. All of that.
My last CT scan showed no blockages, no tumors, no nothing, so they released me from the umbilical cord. Then the surgeon told me that it will probably happen again, maybe next week or next month. Whenever. And that I can't do anything to prevent it.
I cried so hard I had to be sedated. My family Doctor came in and when I told him the conversation with the surgeon he said that we are not going to lay down for that, and he is sending me to a GI Doctor. I have an appt. tomorrow. I don't know that anyone can help me, but I'm going to try every avenue I can.
My sewing has been nill this entire year. There are so many things I want to do. I just haven't been able to get on my feet. But I will. My husband took me for a little walk outside--it's so pretty today. I'm a bit wobbly yet, but making an effort to move around and get my strength back.
Meanwhile, I have a week's worth of your blogs to catch up on. I know you are all making fabulous spring clothes. I'm so glad to have them to read while I recuperate.
Be well.
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4 days ago
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I am sending good, positive and happy thoughts your way! Hope you are feeling better soon.
What a tough time you've been having. :( I hope the GI doctor can help you!
Goodness - I hope you resolve this soon and that you feel better!
Soft hugs, Gwen ;D
Rhonda
It hurts just to read that. Please, please get well soon. I'm so glad you have your husband and your physician rooting for you!
Oh Gwen! I'm so sorry you are having to go through this! Prayers and best wishes from me!
Feel better soon!
So sorry to hear about your health issues. I will say a prayer for your speedy recovery.
Oh Gwen, I am so upset to hear about your set back. I am sending you big, squishy hugs this very minute.
So sorry to hear about your health setbacks...I'm wishing you a COMPLETE recovery...soon!
So sorry to hear about your setbacks. Wishing you a speedy recovery and that the GI finds out what is causing the problem and recifies it.
Hugs sent to you.
I'm sending my hopes that this will not happen again.
A similar thing happened to Andy Borowitz, and he did a standup routine about it. I hope it will make you laugh and you don't think it's in terrible taste. Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mvhjZ-ClLw
Claudine
Couturearts.wordpress.com
It will get better.
Oh, Gwen, I'm so sorry to hear about your illness. I'm sending you lots of good thoughts. I hope you will be back to your old self soon.
I am so sorry this is happening to you. I am glad to hear that your family doctor will fight for you and it sounds like you have an attentive caring husband. I hope you are better soon.
Gwen so sorry to hear about your illness. Please be better soon. My prayers are you that they will find an answer and soon.
How awful! So sorry you are having these problems. Hope the new GI dr can eliminate this pesky problem FOR GOOD!
I can't belive you were told that, I would have been up for gross bodily harm if my Dr had told me that. Glad you GP is listening to you and hope the new GI dr can sort this out for you. Take care and hope good news is soon.
Oh, Gwen, I am so sorry to hear this is happening again. It must be tremendously painful. Prayers for you. I sure hope the GI gets to the bottom and is able to help you. We've missed you and your always lovely projects.
Oh so sorry to hear this is still going on, I hope the GI sorts it out. Take care.
So sorry you have to go through this. I have put you on my prayer list. You sound like you have a good attitude and a strong will. I am sure I will be reading about your new sewing projects before long. Take care.
What a sucky surgeon. Gawd he angered me! Lately I am a full-on believer in FEELING your emotions, whatever they are. If you are hysterically crying, then hysterically cry. Let it all out. Feel it. They sedated you because either they didn't want to deal with your emotions, or THEY felt it was best for you to stop feeling your emotions. Whatever. Shoving your emotions under the carpet is not going to help you get better. You know what is best for you and your body. Sucky surgeon may be an expert in his field, but you are the number one expert on you. You have been through a lot--of course you are upset--anyone would be after going through all that. There is nothing wrong with crying. Even hysterical crying. Let it out. However long it takes.
This is going to sound weird, but I have read this in a few of my pain books, and have tried it myself for my back pain. Sit down and have a conversation with your lower GI tract. Ask your GI tract what it wants, what it needs from you, what you can do to help it. Your body will tell you what it needs. Even if your lower GI tract doesn't tell you with the first conversation, ask and ask again. It will tell you.
I also love meditation, and visual imagery. Highly recommend "Are You My Guru?: How Medicine, Meditation & Madonna Saved My Life" by Wendy Shanker (where I learned about docs being experts in their field but you being the expert on you) and "Staying Well With Guided Imagery" by Belleruth Naparstek and pretty much any of Belleruth's visual imagery CDs. Also love Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) classes by Jon Kabat-Zinn, now taught around the world which I took last summer and still practice. Google it for a class near you. Or read his book, Full Catastrophe Living. I am also a believer in acupuncture. Ask around your friends and sewing circles--you'll find someone who has taken acu in your area and who can recommend a good practitioner.
Sucky surgeon says there is nothing you can do to prevent another occurrence and that it will happen again. I say, you can help yourself prevent another occurrence. I say, there is no proof it will happen again.
You are great Gwen, a fantastic prolific sewist and a wonderful person, and have been a cheerleader throughout my chronic pain and all my weirdy bodily issues. I'm sending you tons of healing energy. You will get through this.
Ok, I thought of a few more things to add to what I wrote above. I'm a believer in "no self fulfilling prophecies". If you believe sucky surgeon's idea that it will happen again, then I think you're setting yourself up for it to happen again. but if you believe it will not happen again, and listen to your body and do what it asks you to do, it won't happen again. Send your intestines love. Comfort your intestines. and your heart too.
Honor your body and your feelings. Belleruth's book will help. She has a great passage about how her 12 year old daughter broke her arm and the doc said it would take 6 weeks to heal. Her daughter felt awkward with her cast and asked her mom about her "weird methods" to see if it would heal faster. So they sat together every night and visualized the bones stitching themselves back together and visualizing herself all mended. Her arm healed in 3 weeks.
Again, I'm sending you healing energy!!!
Oh, Gwen, I am so sorry to hear about your medical issues. Thank goodness for your doctor, helping you get answers. Take care of yourself, prayers are with you
Oh Gwen I am so sorry this is happening to you. While I do truly believe in the powers of positive thinking, I am absolutely certain that appropriate medical intervention is important. Here is hoping that relief comes your way soon. Just remember that those of us out here in the blogosphere have you in our thoughts and prayers. Take care.
Hope your illness ends soon. Don't lose hope and take care.
Ugh I'm so sorry! I've had the tubes down the throat before and it was truly, truly horrible. I'm so sorry you have to face this again. I'm sending out a big virtual hug to you.
Your in my thoughts Gwen! Think positive and hopefully you'll ride ride right through it.
Oh dear, the hits keep on coming. I am glad you have a good family doctor. Be aggressive with your doctors--make them work to find out what is going on! Surgeons have notoriously poor bedside manner (they prefer patients who are asleep). Find a GI doc you can connect with. Best wishes.
I hope you are feeling better really soon Gwen x
I feel your pain. I know what its like not to get a real diagnosis for a chronic condition. I hope that a new doctor will be able to get it sorted out for you.
I am so sorry to read how poorly you have been Gwen and hope that the blockage doesn't happen again, despite what the doctor says. Get well soon.
Ruth
Oh Gwen, I am so sorry. Be good to yourself.
Linda T.
Hugs to you (I hear they help!) and hugs to your family doctor.
I cannot begin to imagine the hell you are going through, but would like you to know you are in my prayers for a solution followed by a prompt recovery. Looking forward to a time when sewing again becomes a comfort and a pleasure, mental hugs over the interweb. LauraUK
Awwwww, Gwen! Sorry to hear of your hospitalization. *hugs* I pray for your swift recovery. You'll be back to sewing in no time:)
I am very sorry to hear what you have been going through. I agree that you need to get other opinions.
Hope you are feeling better soon!
You've certainly been having a rough ride Gwen! I hope you're feeling better and that your family is looking after you while the cause of those issues gets hunted down. It's great that you have a family doctor on side - and I hope that you're starting to get some answers. BTW that surgeon of yours needs a bedside translator - imagine the number of people he would go around upsetting!
Thank you for your kind wishes regarding my mum's illness. She seems to have landed in good hands finally, and the hospital staff are trying their best to find out what's wrong with her. So far it's looking like some kind of complicated auto-immune disease; but hopefully something that can be managed.
Gwen, My heart goes out to you. Invasive hospital tests and treatments can be painfully, exhausting. I, too, have been under doctors care for thyroid disease. I think the test sometimes can be more of a struggle than the actual treatment.
I pray that you are healed and feeling better. Take care.
Cennetta
Catching up on blogs.... OMG.... how scary and painful. Take care of yourself by doing the things you enjoy, like sewing. :-)
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