So on June 26, 2012 I was scheduled for my resection surgery. We called the night before and were told to arrive at 7:30 am. We'd be the 1st surgery of the day, which I thought would be best. My mom, boyfriend, and step-dad went to the hospital with me, and we waited in a waiting room for what seemed like forever. This absolutely did not help my nerves. I was a 23 year old who had never had a hospital stay before or any type of surgery. I'd only ever broken my pinkie toe and cracked a rib before; both of which can not be fixed by visiting a doctor so I had let them heal on there own. Finally they take you into a bed and waiting chair room area that is separated by shower curtains. I changed into the dress that doesn't have a back, and man did I wear that gown well :) I was the best dressed patient there! I make jokes when I'm uncomfortable, similar to Chandler from Friends, and that's all I could do until they wheeled towards surgery. My surgeon came in to make sure I was holding up well, and I responded with "Well how did you sleep?, Are you well rested?, Did you eat so you're not hungry?, & Are you in a good mood?" Once he responded with appropriate answers I told him OK I'm ready. Then I don't remember anything.
After surgery, I was drugged pretty good, but some family stopped by to make sure I was holding up. I was advised to not do much moving as my abdominal muscles had been torn and needed to heal. I was informed that I had 2 other areas that were infected, but not as badly as the portion that had been removed. So I spent 3 days in the hospital and then I released. The worse car ride I ever had was on the way home from the hospital. It was awful, I was still drugged, dazed, and every bump made me sick. I returned home, and my boyfriend and friend Tori were there waiting for me. She had driven from Oneonta to spend my 1st week home with me. She was the best nurse....she helped tremendously, and always made sure I took my medicine. I had some abdominal pain, but I assumed it was just from me pulling myself up on the couch. When your abdominal muscles are torn you learn real quick that every movement requires abdominal muscles, and it takes a few minutes to move at all. So I was slow at getting up, and spent the week pretty much confined to the couch, and watched a lot of Netflix. Other down side is when everyone tries to make you smile, and you end up laughing...it hurt to laugh. My abdominal pain seem to be getting worse not better, but I didn't think much of it, and Tori returned back home. My boyfriend would spend every day with me until he had to go to work (at the time he worked 2nd & 3rd shift), and by time he left usually my mom was home.
So about 2 1/2 weeks after surgery I awoke one morning in the most excruciating pain. I was unable to lift myself from my bed. So I laid there screaming for my mom, but the fans were on since it was summer so I was drowned out. I had tried calling her from my cell phone, but that didn't work either. So I had no other choice but to try and get myself out of bed. It took me 45 minutes to get out of bed. I can not explain how bad I hurt, I was crying because every move, turn, motion, even breathing hurt, and I've always thought myself to have a pretty high tolerance for pain. I woke my mom, and she preceded to call my surgeon's office for the on call doctor. He called back right away and instructed us to go directly to E.R., which we were planning on anyway but he had notified them of my arrival. Once we arrived in E.R. they have to ask all the typical questions, and in between my sobbing I did my best to answer. I described my pain, told them my height, weight, that I just had surgery, and when they asked me to rate my pain I just looked at the nurse as tears rolled down my face, and she goes I'm guessing a 10 and I nodded. To this day (although it's only been approx. a year later) I have never felt such a pain. I was given a bed and room in E.R., and at this time my boyfriend was training in Ohio so he couldn't be with me. I'm sure he felt terrible about not being there.
A nurse came in and asked if I'd like some Dilaudid, and I declined.... I'm not big on drugs, but he wrote the order in so it could be filled if I wanted. The gastro dr. that was on call came in, and started pushing on my stomach, and I winced and nearly jumped out of my own skin. He suggested I take the dilaudid because he would be doing more poking and prodding of my stomach. I accepted, and then he poked some more before I even had the medicine and I just cried and screamed in pain. It took the nurse an additional 45 minutes before I received my dilaudid, which helped tremendously and I was able to nap. Mostly because dilaudid kicked my butt.
They had scheduled to send me for a CT to find out what exactly was going on, but I will write about what sent me to the hospital next time. If you have Crohn's or a relative who does please feel free to share your story. Any questions, insight, tid-bits please leave me a comment. Thanks for reading, and have a happy weekend :)
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