Weak 3

Like my little play on words?  Week/Weak 3.  Yesterday was 3 weeks post op and I spent the evening as a guest at the Hotel Dominican Hospital Emergency Room.  Not exactly my idea of a 5 star resort and it certainly was not an enjoyable experience.  The past week or so I have really been struggling with food.  The Doctor cleared me to eat more solid food but for some reason everything I eat makes me nauseous after about 3 bites.  It's definitely been a difficult to get enough nutrition, let alone knowing I must get enough protein (first and foremost) and fiber (a must!) and now it looks like I am very low in potassium.  Ugh.  On top of feeling nauseous every time I eat, I am also disinterested because everything tastes gray to me.  Nothing has flavor.  No matter what I do.  I am sad that I get no enjoyment from food anymore.  It would be great if I actually enjoyed the 2-3 bites of food I do eat, but I don't.  The Doctor says this will pass and I suppose it will, but it currently feels like this has been going on for years instead of weeks.  If you saw how much food I have been able to consume per day you would wonder how I am able to even stand up.  I do feel weak and I don't have a lot of energy at all.  That is super disappointing because I want to be able to go to the gym and so far I've only gone once.  I just am physically depleted.

So on Monday evening my Daughter came down with the stomach flu.  She was violently throwing up (and throwing DOWN at the same time, if you know-what-I-mean) for hours.  I was in the thick of it, all hands on deck because I had no choice.  She needed my help.  Needless to say, I did NOT need the stomach flu on top of what I am already dealing with, on top of the fact that my pouch is still healing.  Tuesday, I felt like crap.  Partially exhausted, partially terrified that my stomach was in for it.  I was mentally trying to psych myself up that I was NOT going to get sick.  I called my surgeon to ask what I should do and they advised me to go to the Hospital if it started to get on an IV right away of fluid and anti-nausea meds, plus vitamin B12 if necessary.

By 7pm, I had eaten no more than 2 bites of cream of wheat, and a piece of cheese all day.  I was extremely nauseous, like head-in-a-bucket, nauseous.  Tim had to pick our son up from wrestling practice and our daughter still wasn't feeling 100% .  I called the hospital and they said to come right down as there wasn't a full waiting room and they would be able to get me right in.  Terry came to take me and I swear, the mind is a powerful thing because although I could feel the hounds of hell threatening in the back of my throat the whole ride there, I was able to keep it at bay out of sheer will.  We arrived in the ER about 7:30 and I FINALLY got into a room by 10pm.  So much for no waiting.

They stuck me in a tiny back corner on a gurney and drew the curtain.  Next to me they put a guy who is evidently a dope fiend who is a regular in the ER and was causing quite a commotion.  Meanwhile, the nurse was trying to start my IV and blew out my vein.  Great.  I just finished healing from all the bruising I sustained 3 weeks ago after getting poked constantly.  She tried the other arm and finally got a viable vein.  They started the saline and the Zophram (anti nausea) and brought me some warm blankets.  Tim arrived and relieved Terry and then we waited for the Doctor.  We waited....and waited.....and waited.  Luckily, my roommate Raul, was not successful in getting his drugs and was kicked out for making a disturbance.  The Doc came in around Midnight to review my bloodwork and said I was very low on potassium so he wanted to start an IV drip of that.  We thought the nurse would come in to get it started right away but that took another 40minutes or so and when she started the IV she said that potassium tends to burn in an IV so they put it in very slow and it was going to take at least 2 hours.  Poor Tim!  We were both so exhausted from being up all night the previous night with our Daughter and he had been up since 4:45am.  Last night he was already working on 19 hours.  I told him to just go home and set his alarm to come back around 2am.  He did but he wasn't able to sleep.  I tried to sleep a little bit but the ER isn't the quietest place and the gurney isn't exactly a Sleep Number bed.  The potassium did indeed burn going in but I tried not to think about it and handled it the best I could.  At one point I started feeling nauseous again and they gave me another dose of Zophram.  Finally got to go home around 2:30am and immediately crashed in my nice warm, comfortable bed.

Today, I haven't felt nauseous.  Just exhausted and trying to get some food in.  Ate a few bites of egg for breakfast.  A banana, raspberry, non fat milk smoothie (maybe 2 oz) for lunch.  My surgeon asked me to not drink water for now, but to make sure all my liquids have calories.  (Gatorade, milk, broth, etc)  They called in a prescription for something that I should take 20 minutes prior to eating that makes my pouch relax and take in a little more food.  Right now the goal is just to get some nutrition in me.  Stay tuned...