Hello everyone!

How are ya’ll?  I hope this post is finding everyone in a good place today.  Me, I’m doing well.  In this post I’m going to tell you what happened after the doctors told me I couldn’t eat any food by mouth and what I did about it, what my surgeon was going to do for me, along with a lot of things in between.  Here we go!

While I was in the hospital for the week, they were tweaking my TPN bags to up the nutrients and vitamins so that I could totally rely on the bags for food and not any real food.  I begged the doctors and surgeon to at least let me eat a small snack here and there.  They finally agreed.  Later on, they would let me eat 1 small meal a day, then 2 small meals a day til I’m back to fully eating all meals.  The reason they didn’t want me to eat in the first place was because the food was going through my fistula in my colon and into my bladder then my bladder had a hole in it so it ended up everything that went through the fistula would be going out through my bladder and into my abdominal cavity, therefore causing an abscess.  I have to really watch my eating now and not get too full or else the food will go through the fistula (and it hurts).  I have a drain in my bladder, so it catches some of it before going into the abdominal cavity but I try not to get stuffed.

When I was discharged, the surgeon told me that he was going to refer me to the Mayo Clinic.  Supposedly he knew some people up there that he could refer me to.  That gave me some hope at least.  I came home with 7 TPN bags (one for each night).  I was home for 2 days when I wasn’t feeling very well.  I could not catch my breath and my breathing was erratic.  At the same time all this was happening, my husband Mark had just accepted a promotion.  He was honestly thinking about not taking it because it meant he would have to travel some and he wasn’t sure about it because of my health.  I assured him that when he had to travel, I would have a few people lined up in case something was to happen.

When he was scheduled to travel to Mesa Arizona for a week is the day I had a follow-up doctor’s appointment.  I couldn’t drive because I wasn’t feeling well and I was short of breath so my daughter, Isabella drove me.  When we got into a room at the doctor’s office, the doctor took one look at me and told me to go straight to the ER and don’t pass go!  Bella took me to the ER and she had to wait in her car because the hospital still had Covid rules – patients only in the ER except for minors of course.  When I checked in, I told the nurses my symptoms and they told me to have a seat.  I sent Bella home after an hour and I sat there for 3 hours in the ER and couldn’t hardly breath.  I’m not lying, I honestly thought I was going to pass out!  Finally, they called me in for an EKG and blood work.  My heart rate on the EKG was everywhere on the charts and my potassium was a 6.6 (normal rate is 3.5-5.0).  A 6.6 can cause a heart attack and/or sudden death.  They immediately brought me back to a room and gave me a huge syringe full of dextrose to bring my potassium down.  During all this, Mark’s plane was about to take off and I was constantly giving him updates.  My mother was supposed to come up for the week and spend it with Bella and me.  I had to call her and let her know the situation, but she still came up.  I spent 4 days in the ICU after just spending a week in the hospital a week earlier.  The diagnoses was too much potassium was added to the TPN bags causing me to receive too much potassium.  During my stay, they tweaked my TPN again and sent me on my way home.  I felt like a guinea pig waiting for something else to be too high or low sending me back to the hospital.  Sure enough, when Mark leaves, all hell breaks loose but we muffled through it!

I do have to tell you something that happened in the hospital.  When I got wheeled up to the ICU, I had a guy nurse.  He told me his name and I about flipped out!  He was one of the nurses that took care of me 2 years ago when I had surgery!  He remembered me too and we talked about him and my husband talking about hunting and everything that had happened since.  At least I had a friend to talk to in the hospital.

That sure was a hectic time in our lives but we seemed to make it through okay.  Bella ended up  having to take care of the house and dog for a week while I was laid up in the hospital.  I felt so guilty about that.  Bella, mom and I was supposed to spend the week together and do girl’s things, I felt responsible for that not happening also.  I told Mark not to worry about me and go ahead and take that promotion and I’m sure he was worrying about me all week while he was in Arizona, I felt bad about that too.  Sometimes with this disease, I feel as if I let a lot of people down and I get a little depressed about it.  I know they are used to it by now, but they shouldn’t have to be.  I thank God that I have such a great family and support system, I hate to think what I would do without them.  I just have to remember to take this disease day by day.  If you have any questions or comments, please ask!

Chow for now,

Kelly