Well

I finally missed a day of blogging.  Good reason, though.  I wound up at the hospital again.  Let me back things up so everyone understands what is going on.

On Friday, I left for Michigan.  I had had a nagging little pain in my side and lower back, but it wasn't extreme.  I just took some Doan's and went on my merry way.  Everything was good.  Got to Michigan, partied a little bit, drank a lot.  Fell asleep in the wee hours of the morning.

Saturday.  Same nagging pain, making me feel really uncomfortable.  My heart was racing as well.  I felt like I was having an anxiety attack.  That finally calmed down, but I was still left with the pain.  It was getting worse.

Sunday.  Same pain, same uncomfortable feeling, same racing heart.  I also felt bloated and gross.  I had some issues with my intestinal tract all day.  I was starting to get really worried, and, like a dumbshit, started looking up symptoms online.  According to WebMD, I have cancer.

Monday.  After falling asleep on my stomach, I woke up and rolled over, and was hit with the biggest bout of nausea ever.  The pain was worse.  The bloating felt worse.  I tried shifting positions, standing up, walking, sitting down, draping myself over the couch.  Nothing really helped.  My friend was up for work and I told her what was happening and that I think I needed to go to the hospital.  She went and poked my other friend awake to tell him what was going on while I called my husband and told him he needed to drive out to Michigan and fetch me, because there was no way I was going to make it back on a train.

After my other friend got up, we sort of sat there for a while to see if it was going to subside.  It didn't, and I just kept feeling worse and worse.  So off to the local hospital we went.

Once there and triaged, I felt a bit calmer.  Everyone thought for sure that I had kidney stones.  I did the usual tests and was sent for a CT scan to check my innards.  My husband and son arrived while I was still waiting for the results.  They finally called me back to a room to talk about what was found.  NOTHING.

Not a damned thing.  Wut.

Their diagnosis was muscle strain, so they sent me off with some muscle relaxers and Norco (a fun little painkiller).  We went back to my friends' house so I could collect my stuff and my son, and left after everyone had eaten.  Except me.  I could not eat because I still felt bloated as hell.

The four hour trip back consisted of me whining and trying to figure out what the fuck was going on.  We did stop for dinner and I did eat, but I still felt bloated and gassy.  I figured I should eat though, because I hadn't really eaten all day and I had popped a Norco before we left Ann Arbor and was feeling mildly loopy.

About halfway home, my stomach started cramping up like I had to go.  We stopped and I tried, but nothing.  It did it again, then off and on until we reached Chicago.  I finally went, but it still seemed wrong.

I woke up yesterday morning feeling less than stellar.  I still felt bloated, still gassy, still gross.  I didn't want to eat at all, but finally forced myself to chew on half a bagel.  The bloated feeling persisted all day long.  Dinner consisted of a cup of beef broth.  I finally gave in and went to my home away from home, Mercy Hospital.  It wasn't overly crowded, and the triage nurse and her supervisor were as nice as could be.  More blood, more urine, a bit of waiting, and then I was called back.

The first person to see me was the nurse.  I explained to him what was going on and he wrote down some stuff, then went and brought me some medicine to see if that would help with the bloated feeling.  The doctor came in and listened to the story, read the notes from the other ER, and started pondering what could be wrong.  The first thing he mentioned was bowel obstruction, and my anxiety shot through the roof.  He said that it was unlikely, but it was something to check.  A few other things were thrown out there for consideration, and then he said he was going to give me some simethicone to help with the gas and send me off for xrays.  And so he did.

While waiting for the xrays to come back, I felt the gas or whatever moving around.  I kept burping as well.  The nurse and the doctor were both happy with that, because that would hopefully make me feel less bloated.  About midnight, the doctor came back and said that the xrays had shown.....NOTHING.  No obstructions, no anomalies, nada.  Everything looked good.  While that made me happy, it also made me sad because I still didn't have a concrete answer as to why my stomach felt so gross.

I woke up today feeling mildly bloated.  I figured it would be in my best interest to eat something and try to get things moving.  It took a while, but it did.  I do feel less bloated and gassy now, but I'm still worried about what caused this.  I'm thinking it has something to do with my Lap Band.  Maybe it's a slip, maybe it's erosion.  I don't know.  I'm waiting for the people to come back from lunch so I can call and make an appointment and demand an endoscopy to make sure it's okay.  If it has failed again, it is coming out.  No more.  And I'll lose the weight on my own.  Somehow.

So that was my weekend.  I can't ever thank my friends enough for their love and care during this bullshit.  From taking me to the hospital to sitting with me to taking my son back to their place while I continued to wait.....all fucking awesome.  Those are the kind of friends everyone should have, and I'm grateful that they're in my life.

I also want to thank my husband for driving four hours to fetch me on his day off.  He doesn't get much time to relax, and a four hour drive is bloody stressful.  MWAH!

Now to just figure out what the hell is going on and I'll be stellar, because honestly?  This infection/illness/bloat bullshit over the past three months is getting fucking OLD.