Some Boring Updates...

The last month or so has been very low key and quiet.  Work is only now starting to pick up with the anticipation of spring.  I work in construction so the ebb and flow of work follows the change in seasons.  There is a new energy in the air with the first taste of spring.  People are happier and it feels good to go home and eat dinner while it's still light out.  Before you know it, we will all be complaining about the heat again.

About a month ago I contracted a mystery illness that landed me in the hospital for several days.  Although I should have gone way before I actually submitted myself to the fact that I was fucking sick.  I'm so familiar with the hospital routine, with waiting in ERs for hours, with feeling like all you want to do is lay down but instead you have to talk to what seems like a million people before anything finally feels better again.  I resisted and resisted throughout my work week and by day five the boyfriend peeled me off the bed with puke bucket in hand and drove me to the ER.

Doctors never really gave me a definitive diagnosis.  It wasn't Crohn's but there were some Crohn's-like symptoms.  Essentially nothing stayed in my body for more than ten minutes.  So after days of that, I was in bad shape.  What made me feel like I could push through it was that I had no fever and no abdominal pain.  NONE.  Tests at the hospital confirmed that I had neither a virus or bacterial infection, however, those same tests were also showing that I was extremely sick because my white counts were elevated as though I did have an infection.  After one day in the hospital on fluids and antibiotics, I was already itching to get out of there but they kept me a couple of days until all of my levels stabilized.

The worst part of the whole experience was the fact that nurses, doctors, and IV techs had an extremely difficult time administering IV fluids and extracting blood.  Apparently I have a lot of scar tissue in the bend of my arms and other areas where I was frequently prodded in my symptomatic days.  I was going through three or four IVs every night.  They were trying to avoid putting a port in my neck or leg but if they had known how much trouble it would be to administer medicine to me they probably would have done it right away.  Anyway, I left the hospital with a lot of bruises but I felt like a million bucks.  The best part? Knowing that I have amazing health insurance and I don't have to stress about hospital bills and ER copays.

In Crohnsy news (that's what the boyfriend calls it) I am going to have an IBD diagnostic blood test done as soon as I get the clearance from my insurance.  Doctors in the past never really felt like it was necessary because symptoms are ultimately how they base their treatment decisions.  My diagnosis was never really solid and it was always uncertain which type of IBD I had.  However, I am seriously considering some options in the future to determine if I am a candidate for continent ileostomy surgery, which hopefully this test will support.  More to come on that.