I had an eye opening experience this week. I was reminded the hard way that after having this surgery, we will always be different. ER Physicians, friends, coworkers, employers, relatives, even some other post ops, might not realize this but it is true. Certain things will always affect us differently and there are certain foods that might agree with us one minute and make us horribly ill the next.
I hate to vomit, as a child I would say, "ooh how gross" or as I got older, "this is disgusting", when I would find myself being sick. I have found that since my surgery, if I eat something that my pouch doesn't like, I will most prob. vomit. I have a small but ever present (cue the jaws music) fear of this happening so I eat very clean when I am at work, out with friends, and at any celebration or event. I guess this is kind of a good thing. I also had a penchant for projectile vomiting before the surgery and lets just say, it hasn't lessened any post operatively.
Usually however, once I vomit, I feel much better. Kinda disgusting but true.
Not so this week however.
I had purchased a grill for my husband for our 5th anniversary present. He decided to treat me to some grilled fish. He over cooked it. In his defense, he hasn't grilled in forever and really tried to cook it nicely, he just suffers from the cook any animal protein to death syndrome.
In my desperate attempt to make my husband feel appreciated for trying to cook me a nice dinner on his new toy, I ate the fish even though it was almost rubbery in places.
I felt sick, then I felt I was going to vomit. I did and thought I felt better and it was all over with. I went to bed only to wake up chocking on my own saliva. I had to run to the sink to vomit more. The next morning, I couldn't even keep water down. I called into work and stayed home vomiting all day while Lilith was at school and Will was at work. By the time they got home, I must have looked pretty bad because Will insisted that we go to the ER. We went. We sat in the lobby for 2 hours before being taken into the back. I vomited into the public bathroom trash a few times during that 2 hours of waiting. I am sure this looked very charming to the other patients. When we got back to an exam closet (they really are too small to be considered rooms), they started an IV and kept pushing the pain meds. I had to admit that I was still breast feeding. The male nurse asks how old my infant was, and I pointed to Lilith who said, "Hi, I'm Lilith", and who was standing there, (all 36 inches of her) almost three years old but looking like she is almost five years old! Even in as much pain as I was in, I felt embarrassed.
They dope me up, Dr. Sndyer (my surgeon from Colorado), talks with the ER Doctor and tells them to give me a cat scan. They tell me that I have a bezoar (fish that had formed an obstruction) and give me more pain meds. After 6 hours, they sent me home with instructions to call the gastroenterologist that morning (they discharged me at 5 am doped out of my ever loving mind). I went home and slept till past noon. When I called the gastroenterologist that they recommended, I was told that they were closed and that no one would be available till MONDAY(this was Friday). I tried to convince myself that I was okay, even though I remembered through a drug filled haze, throwing up the liquid pain medicine that the RN from the next shift was trying to give me as they were discharging me. Needless to say, I wasn't better, in fact I had a lovely constant burning sensation in my belly in addition to the inability to keep even a few sips of anything down. My husband looks scared at this point (he and Lilith had both had to stay home because neither of them had any sleep after being in the ER all night with me).
After much debate, a call to my gastric bypass surgeon in Colorado (Dr. Snyder)during which my husband had to tell him twice that, "Yes, they really sent her home after the cat scan showed an obstruction!" "No, I don't know what kind of medicine they are practicing here" "Yes, we wish we were there in Colorado right now also!", back to the ER we went. This time the male nurse from the night before escorted me right back. I vomited a few times and they started another IV. The ER doctor, a different one from the night before thank goodness, calls in the endo team and they scope me and break up the blockage (the male RN feels the need to tell me that it looked like a macaroon, when I get the discharge paperwork complete with photos, I have to admit, he was right. I will never look at macaroons the same way again!)and I instantly feel much better, just very weak.
We went home at 2 am and I drank a decaff chai and passed out. The next day I felt like I had been hit by a truck but I could drink and eat soft foods. I was still very weak however. When I weighed that morning, I discovered that I had lost almost 10 pounds. Nice but not much compensation for all of the pain, missed work, and co pays however!
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