Where I Have Been?

Soooo.... last October 22nd I went to TJ, Mexico, and had a gastric sleeve procedure done. I'm not ashamed of it, I know why I chose to do what I did... but I did want to keep it more or less private. Some of my immediate family knew about it before hand, but that's about it.

I did my homework and had it done at Pompeii Surgical and I had an amazing experience! The staff, the doctors and the other patients were so fabulous. I felt great, I felt strong and when I came home on the 25th, I was tired but happy. That lasted till around Halloween.

I started running fevers with crazy-bad sweating, and had massive chills where I couldn't get warm and was literally shaking violently. I noticed on my apple watch that my heart rate was sky-high (tachycardia) but my fevers never got any higher than 101.

Finally on November 5th, after consulting with Pompeii, they told me that even though my fevers weren't high, that I should go in to the doctors. I got a doctors appointment at my PCP office and they tested me for influenza and a UTI. After both tests came back negative they sent me to the local hospital to get a CT scan... and there they found a huge abscess in my chest.

Privacy was now over.

I had a leak. It happens. Not often, but it happens and it sucks.

Spent the next 5 days in the hospital sick out of my mind having horrible things happen to me. I promise you, you do NOT want to know... just be aware that after one of the procedures I came back to my room and told poor Dadguy that I would rather die than ever have to undergo that procedure again.

Finally, weak and sick with a feeding tube down my nose, a stent in my stomach, and a drain coming out of my left side I was sent home to try and heal. Less than a week later the drain that was supposed to be draining the abscess failed, so they pulled it out hoping that it would be okay. It wasn't. A few days after the drain came out, the course of antibiotics was done. Less than a week later I was back in the hospital with an abscess possibly even a little larger than the first.

That procedure? The most horrible one I'd rather die than endure again? Yup. I had to do it again.

I spent all of November sick, either in the hospital or sleeping on the couch set-up in the family room,  that Dadguy had arranged for my convalescence.  I spent all of December sick, though a week or so into the month, after a CT scan, and an x-ray as well as the material they pulled out of my abscess showed that nothing was getting from my stomach to the abscess (though whether that was because the leak was healed or just that the Stent was doing it's job was unknown) the doctor started me on a liquid diet. He had to pull the nasojejunal tube (feeding tube down my nose) because I couldn't drink with it in; too nauseating. That was the first relief I had. I could all of a sudden talk, and read, and drink!

The next relief I had was December 20th they pulled the stent out via endoscopy. Oh! Sweet relief! That thing freaking HURT! Imagine a steel cage stapled into the lining of your stomach constantly holding the upper part of your stomach open, constantly pressing and burning inside your chest.

On December 26th, after nearly a week of eating and drinking (still mostly liquid diet) and no change in the material from the drain in my side, they pulled the drain. All of a sudden I could shower without a huge plastic sheet covering the drain site, I could sleep on my side (sort of) and the agony of the drain was over. If you think I'm being over dramatic, perhaps I should explain that I developed an allergy to medical adhesive a week after the second drain was places, and I had open sores all along where the drain was taped down. They had to remove the adhesive, meaning the drain was being primarily held in my body by a suture where the drain went into my side, along with the interior suture. That last week it was constantly shifting and pulling at the suture in my skin.

Also, it ought to be said that outside of the hospital there was no relief other than Tylenol, as the bariatric surgery meant no ibuprofen or NSAIDs, and I cannot handle most of the opiates that they are willing to prescribe (they make me sick), and the stronger stuff I wouldn't take even if they would prescribe it to me!

That Friday morning, two days later, I woke up pissing blood. Not a happy day, but I called my PCP and crossed my fingers that the simplest explanation was the most reasonable explanation. Both Dr. Google and I assumed I had a UTI. LOL! Nope... apparently I had one bugger of a yeast infection. Shocker, what with the two months plus of antibiotics I'd subjected my body to.

The next weekend, January 5th, I finished the last of my antibiotics and I settled in to wait. I've frankly, been half convinced that I would be back in the hospital with yet another abscess and yet another chance to experience the fun of being stabbed in the guts while still conscious. 

Today I finally dare to think that I really am done. Please, oh please let me be done. I mean... other than healing and recovering from two months of illness and loss of muscle tone. I guess there is all of that!

List of things I missed while in the hospital both times.... Pearls 13th Birthday, Henry's 10th Birthday, T'Amy's wedding. Blah!

*Up next... pictures of "Before, During and After"... "The Crazy Business That Went On During The Dark Nights".... also the continuing saga of "How The Flying Crap Are We Gonna Pay For This?!"