Long time, no posts & Final to my surgery

     Sorry about not posting for quite some time, but I have been rather busy.  So I want to start with saying that I am doing and feeling great!  This is a drastic change from 10 days before my last post.  Before surgery for approx. 2 months I had been feeling awful, and then my surgery nightmare, and post recovery were not too well for me on the health field.  Well that all has changed...Pentasa + Remicade = My great feeling/mood.  My body is finally starting to repair itself, and the major sign of that was my period came back.  I'm sure plenty of women would love for their period to disappear for a month or 2, but I know that I'm really not doing well health wise when it does.  So for now I am grateful for its return.  Before my doctor and I had this figured out this combination I was finding it rather difficult to be up beat about life in general.  I've always tried to maintain a positive attitude, and think I put on a good front for those people who I wouldn't consider extremely close (mom & boyfriend).  Extremely close people get to listen to me gripe, cry, whine, complain about crohn's and how I feel that day.  I've missed about 50 days of work in the past 7 months because of my illness...fortunately I co-own a housekeeping business and my partners have been very understanding and picked up my slack.  So quick recap, I'm feeling great and everyone is noticing, which must mean I'm a grump butt when I don't feel well.
    Rowan Atkinson is hilarious.  Whenever I write a new blog I start up Netflix and choose a movie at random from the different categories.  Today I chose Mr. Bean's Holiday, and I'm enjoying it and becoming distracted by it.

     Now I'm going to finish telling everyone about my terrible surgery experience.  I had told you about my drainage bags, and how my intestines didn't heal to one another for a few months after surgery, and my surgeon discussed possibly going back in for a colostomy.
Well I was in my hospital bed and my surgeon came in and said my drainage levels were finally stabling, and if all went well I could go home on Monday, which was 1 day away.  So I was feeling great even with my lack of sleep, and my boyfriend was there.  We were watching Food Network because I'm a glutton for punishment, and it was 9:30am from what I remember.  My mom had just texted me saying she would be in to see me later that day because she hadn't had much rest either.  I never even had a chance to respond because the next thing I remember my heart felt like it was racing, and my breathing became abnormal.  I told my boyfriend that I didn't feel good & thought I may puke; he handed me my bucket that was at my bedside table and I grabbed on to it just waiting.  The next thing I knew my vision started to go in and out, and I told Seth, my boyfriend, that I couldn't see and then my muscle control went.  My head dropped down, the bucket fell from my arms and my vision was gone entirely.  After that I only remember that I was trying to tell Seth to call my mom, but I couldn't say anything.  At this point in my mind I started freaking out, I couldn't see, move, or speak.  Then I sort of blacked out, and the next thing I remember is a nurse asking me how many fingers she was holding up.  I was panicked because I still couldn't see, but my speech had returned.  She proceeded to ask me about my sight, and I told her that it looked like an old television screen all black and white little squares.  She then asked me to squeeze her fingers with each hand, make a fist and push against her hands.  My vision restored itself.  She moved to my legs, and asked me to do the same but with my feet.  I tried with all my might to move my left leg, but couldn't.  My leg was numb from the knee down.  I was stable though, and my heart and breathing had returned to normal.  After 3 hours my left leg returned with full capabilities. My boyfriend told me that 5 nurses had rushed in after he had left the room to grab someone when I slumped over in the chair.  They hoisted me up on the bed, and when they had done so they opened one of my Hickman ports, and I began to bleed out as well.  I was then informed that it was suspected that I had a TIA /Mini-Stroke and Pulmonary Embolism.  I had to stay in the hospital for an additional 6 days after my stroke to make sure that it didn't happen again, and I had to be cleared from neurology, cardiology, and gastroenterology.  This sucked!  My brain scan came back clean, but my heart scan showed I had a tiny hole in my heart.  My cardiologist would not fix the hole unless I have or had another stroke or another heart complication.  So this means that I will be on a low-dose aspirin regiment the rest of my life.  I am so very grateful that I had no residual damage from my stroke, but it makes it hard explaining to new doctors what happened because they expect something to be wrong with me.  I do believe that from my stroke my depth perception is off because I have noticed that I seem to bump my head a lot more than I use to.  It's almost like I lose sight of things and a concept of how far away they are like when I lean over or into things.  I understand that sounds so weird, but has anyone else experienced anything like this?      
     But there you have it, My whole hospital surgery story, and let's hope when I have to have gastro surgery again that it goes better than my first.  The reason I say when is because my surgeon already said I will need to come back in 5 years time for my other infected portions, but I currently feel great.  My current medicine list is as follows;
*Remicade every 6 weeks
* Pentasa 8 pills every day
* Iron supplement 1 every other day
* 81mg Aspirin 1 every day
* Multivitamin 1 every day
* Metamucil as needed
Total count of pills in a day = 12

    Well I hope to get into some structured schedule for writing this blog, but with this nice weather I don't know how likely that is to happen.  Please stay tuned for more on my life of being a crohn's casualty.

Being my doctor's first ;)

     Sorry I haven't written in a few days.  I meant to write every other day, but work has been crazy busy and by time I get home I just want to make dinner and then relax on the couch with my boyfriend until bedtime.  Plus these last 3 days my neck has been so stiff and tight I can't even turn my head, and I've called 3 license massage therapists and none of them can help me...TALK ABOUT FRUSTRATING!! 
     So now...back to my trip to the ER.  I had been sent down for a CT scan, and the techs started the scan and immediately found 2 pockets of fluid in my abdominal area.  The fluid had been coming out of my surgery site.  I had an adhesion leak after surgery.
     Side note about this.  At my pre-op my surgeon had been very confident in his ability to resection my intestine and not have any issues.  He also had never had an adhesion leak in any of his previous surgeries.  WELL, dun dun dun surprise Annika's body has to be difficult.  I was his very first adhesion leak.  See my surgery went as planned, and I seemed to be healing properly when they released me from the hospital.  But like I just said, my body had to be difficult, so my intestines although stitched together decided that they wouldn't grow back together which left an opening that allowed fluids & digested food to leak into my body.  That became infected because it's waste that is inside your body pushing against organs, and the pain was immense.
     The doctors had to relieve the pressure that was on my organs caused by the pooling fluids, and also remove the fluids from my body since they are toxic to my system.  So 2 tubes would have to inserted and the pool would have to be puncture and most sucked out, and then the tubes would remain until the pooling level was less than 10cc.  So I was given another diluadid and sent to a CT operating room area where they could use the scan to see the needle placement, and make sure they were puncturing the fluids.  The doctors decided they would try for the one in my back first, and I thought they were crazy.  Here I am a girl in terrible stomach pain and they need me to lay on my stomach, but I should of known how well the diluadid worked...I rolled over slowly still hesitant, but felt no pain at all until they got the needle close to the fluid sac.  The needle and tubing didn't hurt at all, until they were unable to penetrate (Hate that word) the pooling.  I remember screaming out in pain, crying, and pleading with the technician there to stop.  After 3-4 times of them trying to poke through they finally were able to, and what came out was the most disgusting fluid that was brown and had small floaty things in it, and yeah it was just nasty.  I couldn't keep my eyes off of the cylinder they were filling though, and the doctors removed 600cc from my back, and with that tubing in place were now ready to start on the front pouch.  I don't remember the needle placement in my stomach because the drugs make you loopy, and they had no issue with poking the front fluid pouch so I can recall any pain.  The doctors had extracted 600cc from my front pouch as well, and with all tubes in place each tube was then attached to their own bag.
     I was instructed that I would remain in the hospital until my fluid leakage levels were under 100cc, and I would not be allowed to eat because I needed to be on COMPLETE bowel rest so I had a Hickman placed.  A Hickman is a port that goes in just below the collar bone, and the line runs right into the artery that enters the right atrium.  Outside the port are 2 lines, 1 is used for feeding (TPN) and 2 is used for administering medicine.  The lines have to be cleaned out every morning and every night with saline.
      There I was stuck in the same hospital room where I was right after surgery....I was even in the same bed, the nurses thought they were doing me a favor.  I was not allowed to eat or drink anything.  I was given a swab and a cup of ice water to keep my mouth from drying out.  I would be "fed" TPN, which is a large bag of your body's daily nutrient requirement, and calories to maintain weight.  Since the liquid is going straight to your heart then there is no need for any digestion, and the heart mixes the liquid with blood then sends it to its appropriate places. 
    So I was unable to eat, and now had 3 tubes just hanging out around me on my bed.  I spent my days watching Food Network because I'm a glutton for punishment, and my boyfriend was there every day before he had to work and would allow me to smell his food.  What a loving man :) I know it sounds weird to say I smelled food, but not allowed to eat it. I missed it so I just sniffed it and thought about how good it would taste if I could eat, and imagined I was full.  I was never full, and always felt hungry even with my TPN.  Finally after 5 days my leakage had decreased to about 110cc a day in each bag, and my surgeon felt that I may be able to go home in the next day.  Best news ever for anyone whose ever been stuck in a hospital bed.  Needless to say I was ecstatic to bust out of that Popsicle stand, but once again my body had to be difficult.
     I'm going to end here for the day sorry for the cliffhanger again, but not really sorry because it means you have to return to find out what happened.  Take care of yourself!