4-12-2010 - My ER Visit

Apr 12, 2010

I guess it was bound to happen...Things were just going to smoothly. It's been over a month. No pain, No Complications and good weight loss.

I woke up yesterday and felt great. I drank about 16 ounces of water over an hour period. This is my norm ritual. This is when I take my Meds and vitamins.

I decided to go to the gym. Normally, I do 20 minutes on the treadmil and 20 minutes on the elliptical. I saw my doctor last Thursday. He said I should increase my workouts and increase the intensity. So I did 30 minutes on the Recumbent bike and 30 minutes on the Elliptical.

I felt good after my hour workout. I got home 20 minutes latter.

As soon as I got home (around 10:00am) I started to feel gas pain. I thought this was strange since I didn't eat anything that morning. The last time I had something to eat was last night. I had 1/2 chicken thigh and I took my kids to a local Ice store. I had a sugar free cherry Icie (this was around 9:00pm).

I took some Gas-X strips and took a long walk around the block. About 3/4 of the way I got real tired and had to sit down. When I made it home I was completely wiped out. I then remembered that I had purchased some Papaya Enzyme from GNC. I remember reading on the RNY forum that it helps with blockages. I took some and immediately I started to feel better. Some but not all the gas moved. But I was still in some discomfort.

All of a sudden I started to feel faint and Light headed. I didn't pass out but I laid down on my bed. I started to belch. I started to feel much better. I feel asleep.

When I awoke (around 3:00pm). I was feeling good again. I had another 16oz of Water (over an hour period). I waited a 1/2 hour to make sure it stayed down. After that I had  1pc of Swiss Knight Cheese (1 oz) and a Diet Jello Pudding cup. I felt that I needed to eat something and get my protein. I thought that I would start small. Shortly after that I experienced the most intense pain that I have ever experienced in my life. 

I called the Doctor's office. His service put me through to the PA that was on call. I explained every thing to him. He asked me on a scale of 1 to 10 how bad the pain was. I told him an 8. I had tears in my eyes when I was talking to him. He told me to go to the Emergency Room. They will take Blood and X-Rays and he will meet me there to review them.

By the time I got to the Emergency room (around 6:00pm) the pain started to subside. I would say on the scale it went down to a 4. I decided that I would still proceed even though the pain was decreasing. I wasn't sure if I ate something the pain would reoccur. It's best to get it checked out.

By the time I got through all the red tape and saw the ER Dr. My pain was down to a 1. I just felt some discomfort at this point.

The ER took my Blood work and X-Ray's. They gave me an IV and added some meds to reduce my gastric acid level and something for the Nausea. The ER called the PA and said that the test revealed nothing. The PA asked the ER to do a Cat Scan.

I had to drink a contrast solution and wait two hours before they could do the test (around 10:00pm). The PA arrived just as they were doing the test and told me that everything looked normal. The Cat Scan and the X-Ray showed that the Sleeve was in place, there were no leaks,  the staple line looked good and they couldn't detect any issues. The PA spoke to my Dr.

My Dr. recommended that I stay in the hospital overnight for observation and have a endoscopy in the morning. My Dr. wanted to rule out any Ulcers. I wasn't allowed to Eat or Drink anything. They gave me a new IV with Vitamins.

So I was admitted into the hospital.

Now it's Monday and I was feeling like my old self...no discomfort.

Unfortunately the GI Dr. was backed up and had no openings. Since I was in no pain they scheduled me for Tuesday afternoon at 12:30pm.

They wanted me to stay in the hospital another night. I refused. I told them I wanted to go home. I could come back tomorrow as an outpatient. The GI Dr. wasn't happy but he said it was my choice as long as my Dr. was OK with it. Not only didn't I want to incur the cost of another day in the hospital (my insurance split is 80/20). I would be more comfortable at home. I live 5 minutes from the hospital.

So tomorrow I have my Endoscopy. I don't think that they are going to find anything.

I would really like to know what I did wrong that caused this. Typically I have a high pain threshold. I didn't need any pain meds after my surgery. I never experienced the pain that I did yesterday and I never want to again. I wish I could determine what the cause was so that I can try to avoid it in the future.

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