mrsbrown | Entries tagged with stomach

Um, so I went to emergency after my ultrasound on Tuesday.

They didn't find anything in the ultrasound, but they admitted me so I could have an MRI, my jaundice symptoms (from having having a liver that couldn't work properly) started getting better after I had the most amazing fluorescent yellow diarrhea.

I waited around all day Tuesday, got a bed at 8pm, a real ward to be in at 2am (Mum confirmed that I almost certainly got a bed at 2am 'cos someone died) and then spent wednesday waiting for the MRI appointment to be decided. It never happened, but I continued to get better and my blood test confirmed that the abnormal liver function was gettting better. I went home. I haven't had a pain attack since Sunday, despite eating fatty cheesy food.

I will now have another blood test next week, the MRI the week after and then I'll see the gastroenterologist after that.

The theory is that I had a gallstone blocking my bile duct, which isn't there anymore. Maybe I dislodged it by vomiting on Sunday, or the the poking of the ultrasound, or something.

I didn't get much sleep in hospital, I slept all day yesterday and now I'm all enthused about the baronial sunshade project.

Current Mood: enthused

Had pain on Friday, Sat and Sunday - needed panadeine forte to deal with it.

Sunday I spent several hours in the sun, followed by several hours of nausea and a few vomits. It could have been sunstroke, but I usually get a headache when I have sunstroke, so I'm not sure why.

Today I had another blood test and the GP rang me this arvo, " I think you should get yourself into emergency - today." So I packed everyone up and we went to emergency, ironically, feeling better than I have for a week.

They've sent me home until tomorrow morning, when I'll have another ultrasound and report to emergency again. We'll see what happens after that, but I'm expecting to have an operation sometime this week.

As well as the abnormal liver function blood results, I'm also anaemic - I guess that'll explain my tiredness.

Current Mood: tired.
Current Music: casanova doco

Here's a bit of a record of my stomach for the week:

Saturday - ate steak, salads, lasagne, pavlova, chocolate - severe pain and visit to ER for narcotic pain relief.
Sunday - normal breakfast, can't remember lunch, homemade pizza for dinner - no pain
Monday - normal breakfast, cheese sandwich, steak and 3 veg for dinner - mild pain started in arvo,peaked in evening, gone by 10pm
Tuesday - normal breakfast, Dan Hung dinner (satay beef, fried rice, roast duck, blue cheese for supper - severe pain started immediately after cheese supper, visit to ER for narcotic pain relief.
Wednesday - normal breakfast, baked beans, steamed vegetables for dinnner - no pain (GP appointment)
Thursday - normal breakfast (at 4am!), avocado with fetta on toast- mild pain started after lunch, peaked about 4pm, took panadeine forte and just felt tender during dinner of vietnamese food. I avoided the fattier stuff. (Ultrasound day)
Friday - normal breakfast, mild pain peaked at 11ish, took pain relief, ate baked beans for lunch. Arvo tea of meat pizza and 1 piece of small sausage pizza (piece of salami and some cheese on pizza base), mild pain, vegemite sandwich for dinner, pain peaked about 8ish, took pain relief.

I'm a bit worried that I'm going to be living on panadeine forte until we can work out what's wrong. Unfortunately, the ultrasound didn't find any gallstones, despite the fact that my symptoms all pooint in that direction. I've had two lots of blood tests that suggest wonky liver function, and my urine is intermittantly darker than it should be (this means my kidneys are taking over some of the work of my liver). I now have a referral to a gastroenterologist, but I will be lucky to see him in the next week and, if I'm unlucky, won't get an appointment until the new year. Of course, if that happens, I will just head to the emergergency department instead of taking the panadeine and tell them that I have to wait until the new year to see a specialist and I will have to keep going to them for pain relief. They will quickly arrange to move me higher up the queue.

I think I may have made an error in playing the public health system on Tuesday night. We saw the same doctor on Tuesday night as we had seen on Saturday. He wanted to admit me to the hospital overnight and organise an ultrasound for wednesday morning but I wasn't keen to do a hospital stay when I have a 4 week old baby, so I talked the him out of it. If I had been admitted I would then have been an inpatient, with much better access to a specialist, oh well.

Current Mood: sleep avoidance

I've been planning this post for a while, and then I had a trigger last night.

I can drink normal milk again
I have stopped taking the drug that cuts down acid production
I have had no symptoms (pain, discomfort, heartburn) in the two weeks since I made these changes.

BUT:

I went to a family party yesterday. I may not have drunk enough water. I had a similar lunch and dinner at the party - meat, salads, a bit of lasagne and for dinner - a larger piece of lasagne and some salad.

On the way home I felt a bit bloated, so I undid the top button of my jeans. Then it started hurting so I took some antacid tablets at my Dad's house. They didn't work, so we stopped at a chemist on the way home and bought my usual antacid tablets and I took one. When we got close to home, I was feeling worse, so I took another. I groaned for an hour or so and then took one of the tablets that stop acid production. An hour later, at midnight, I was in bed and rocking with the pain. I couldn't lie down and I couldn't stay still. We went to the emergency department.

While there, they gave me two litres of fluid into my arm (glasses of water at home had made the pain worse), they took blood, they gave me more antacid which reduced the pain for about half an hour, then the pain got worse again. Finally, they gave me panadol and endone and then some more liquid antacid. Having read a bit today, I'm a bit annoyed they didn't warn me about the possible breathing problems for Rose. I still would have taken it (I think), but we could have kept a closer eye on her. Should you have to take your own MIMS to casualty at a major hospital?

The pain disappeared at about 3.30am, when the beautiful fuzzy feeling from the endone kicked in, and we got home at 4.30am.

Lessons;

When the antacid tablets aren't working, try the liquid stuff and maybe some panadol.
We need an emergency plan for Rose - I needed

mr_bassman to be with me, but he had to look after Rose and we couldn't think who to call at 2am to look after her. If the situation had been worse, we would have had to bite the bullet and call someone. Last night I really wanted my mother in the same city as me. This will get easier with time and as my kids get more experienced with her. It's just dodgy with a 4 week old baby.
We need to get clear on how to use the frozen breastmilk I have in the freezer. Last night

mr_bassman didn't know what to do with it and I was in too much pain to give good instructions.

Notes;

mr_bassman is fantastic. He looked after Rose AND supported me last night. He spent the morning taxi-ing Z and G betwen Elwood, Hawthorn and Glen Waverley because I was too tired, and now he's sorting out T's christmas present and his own birthday present (and enjoying himself here) My only concern is his lack of sleep.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: T being a human dynamo of cleaning and domesticity - having a party will do that

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Entries tagged with stomach

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This ain't no stomach thing - it's gallbladder/liver

So I guess I owe you a stomach update

Stomach update- mostly so I remember

stomach update