Sunday, October 5, 2014

The Longest Summer

      


    Before I begin my tale, let me say I did have one extraordinary sun drenched day on our local beach where I was able to glimpse the rarest of things .... a giraffe. Granted, it was just a toy giraffe, but it lead to the fabulous photo above that always makes me smile when I look at it. 
  .......

     School is back in session for a few weeks now and that beautiful cool fall season is finally upon us. Usually around this time of year people discuss amongst themselves how they spent their summer. I'm a little late but fighting my pesky alien has been a bit overwhelming & exhausting lately. 
      
     So unlike most, who spent their summer experiencing sun drenched activities, I was entrenched in  a battle. A fiery battle against one of the worst flares my alien has thrown at me in all the years we have been established against each other.

     This battle was different then others we've had in our checkered past together. 
Obstructions, when you have one in my experience, feel like the alien has a sharp pointy knife tucked up into your gut. A sharp pointy knife that they are twisting and turning while you are violently retching. 
    The few times I've had this scenario, I know to rush to the Emergency Room ASAP. It is a very dangerous situation and not to be taken lightly. I barely escaped having emergency surgery both times I was admitted for obstructions. 

     This flare however felt completely different. 
It felt as if, somehow, over night, my gut had swollen to comically watermelon size proportions. 
It was hot and tender to the touch. Every vibration felt as if someone was shaking me painfully up and down. The act of someone sitting next to me on the couch or bed, was enough to bring me to tears just by the sheer vibration. 

    Walking had become painful. More than a few steps and I was gasping in pain, holding my gut. I found that to walk comfortably, I was holding my stomach, like a pregnant woman. This holding of my gut, seemed to minimize the pain slightly as I walked. I guess it steadied my swollen insides from the motions of movement. 

     If I was on my feet for more than ten minutes, I found that the pain was not just in my abdomen anymore but now reaching around my back as well. My abdomen was so swollen from my intestines that I wasn't able to rely on my core muscles. It's amazing how much you need core muscles. They are needed for walking, stabilizing yourself and of course picking things up. Since I wasn't really able to use them, I think my back muscles were doing lots of extra work. That overwork was causing my back pain and strain. But that's just a guess on my part. 

     Somehow, I managed to stay out of being admitted to the hospital out of stubbornness and sheer will. Luckily my longtime GI doctor was in agreement that I would get better rest and care at home as long as I was not vomiting or obstructed. If any of those two things occurred I was to call him ASAP and hightail it to the ER most likely. 

     He was concerned though that I might have a few issues going on like an abscess or perforation of my gut of even fistulas. These are all serious side effects that can occurs when dealing with Crohn's especially during a bad flare up. So he sent me for my normal blood tests but a CT Scan as well. At the same time he prescribed me a strong course of steroids and two sets of antibiotics to take at the same time. 

   The medications got the swelling down and lowered my pain a bit. Unfortunately, I was still experiencing the same side pain that I've dealt with constantly for the past few years. The CT Scan revealed the reason why.

     I have strictures, which are a thickening of the bowel walls as well as scar tissue. At the same time, the scar tissue has formed a permanent partial blockage in my intestine. Due to this partial blockage, my gut is dilating before the blockage, letting all my food accumulate until it can pass. A pretty painful scenario to deal with each and every time you eat. 

     With all this information in hand, my long time GI Doctor said one of the most dreaded words among those suffering with Crohns ….. Surgery.

Come back tomorrow as I continue my tale on the path to surgery and what it is like to prepare physically and mentally for one.

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