It's been so long since I've posted anything on here, for that I am sorry.
I'm currently in the hospital. One week ago today I started having the all too familiar stomach pain that I used to get years and years ago when I would have pancreatitis. For those who have never had pancreatitis, they say it's one of the most painful things to have to go through and I can honestly say it is. I tried drinking some milk and went to lay down in bed hoping it would go away on it's own. Within four hours I was hurting so bad I couldn't find a comfortable position to sit, lay or stand. I ended up calling the hospital and asked to speak to the doctor on-call for the weekend. He called me back and said I needed to be seen in the ER as soon as possible. So, Benito packed me a bag and we hit the road to Sacramento (an hour drive from where we live). Since our puppy destroys things when left at home, we had to bring her with us, which meant we had to take Benito's truck so she could lay down in his back seat. My car has leather seats and she's already made a rip in one spot, so I don't trust her alone in my car. That hour drive to Sacramento in his bumpy truck was Awful. The pain increased with every bump on the road. I felt so bad for Benito... Every time he would turn to look at me he looked so helpless and in pain himself seeing me that way.
So we got to the ER and luckily we didn't have to wait to be seen. I was hardly able to explain what was going on because the pain kept taking my breath away, but once my vitals were taken and iv started they were able to give me a dose of pain medication. Such a relief! It brought my pain down from a 10 out of 10 to a 7 out of 10... I was able to at least talk again and the nausea from being in such pain was lifting. The lab tests had shown that my lipase (pancreatic enzyme count) levels were 1,900 when the normal is 80. I definitely had pancreatitis. I was admitted that night. There really isn't much treatment for pancreatitis. Basically you need to stop taking anything by mouth (no eating, drinking, or even chewing gum) so that the pancrease doesn't have to work to release enzymes into the stomach to digest the incoming food. So they put me NPO (nothing by mouth) and started me on iv fluids and pain medication around the clock.
Yesterday was the first day I felt a great deal better. My pain was down to 5 out of 10 without any iv pain meds. I was able to eat and not hurt afterward. It was looking like I would be going home the next morning. Unfortunately I woke up this morning at 7am with 10 out of 10 pain again and nausea. After two doses of iv morphine my doctor came in and said she was putting me back on a clear liquid diet and won't be going home after all.
Needless to say this has been a very long week and I'm getting pretty bummed out. I miss being home, but mostly I miss Benito. He's been coming to visit for a few hours after work each day, but it's just not the same. At the moment I'm in 8 out of 10 pain and haven't eaten anything since last night. I was hoping this bout of pancreatitis would be a quick one, versus my previous times with it when I was younger that lasted up to 6 weeks.
Luckily my boss has been very understanding of the time I need to take off. I'm in the process of changing major's in school, so I'm not missing school because of being here, so I do have that to be thankful for. I found out a few nights ago that the hospital just started offering free wifi for their patients, which really has helped me from getting too bored.
I should stop for now. This has become quite a long post. I'll be updating again soon.
By the way, I've started my very first team for this year's Great Strides walk. Please visit my Great Strides homepage to make a donation or sign up to be part of my team! Thank you :)
http://www.cff.org/Great_Strides/LeahBailey6380