Back from the Hospital again...

As I last wrote, I was in the middle of what I thought was another bout with the dreaded C.diff. From the time that I wrote the previous entry, I kept getting worse and the new antibiotics were not working at all. On Saturday night, I was very sick – probably as sick as I have ever been, but I always say that as I cannot remember the previous times. Anyway, I was going to the bathroom very frequently and throwing up. I was feeling both hot and cold and feverish. I ended up waking up on the bathroom floor with the cat licking my nose.

I then went back to bed and woke up Pam and shortly thereafter I was taking another ride in an ambulance to the ER. It was two female EMTs that had a difficult time getting me down the outside stairs to the ambulance. It was raining and blowing and quite a rush in my condition.

After all the usual ER stuff, it was decided that I would be admitted and we ended up spending from Sunday morning until yesterday in the hospital.

Some of the time I was not capable of dealing with, or comprehending, the events that were happening. We had this ‘crazy’ gastroenterologist assigned to us that wouldn’t even speak to me – only to Pam. He wore camouflage long underwear and hunting boots, and is known by the nursing staff for never keeping a schedule, or having any bedside manners. He is also suppose to be the best around or we would have probably selected another option, if any. It was all very weird…

There were days of 'feverish' activity, having all sorts of tests, and then he came in, said what I had and I was released.

All this time, we thought the problem was the common and pervasive hospital bacteria C.diff, but that is not the case. After extensive testing, it now appears to be an Ischemic Bowel that was basically caused by a blood clot from the first surgery, back in December. One of the arteries that feed the colon ended up getting clotted up and has been causing all these problems.

We are now trying to ‘de-clot’ the artery with blood thinning medications, to solve the problem, without having to do another surgery. It is going to take a couple of weeks for this new therapy to work. We are planning on having a service come in, as needed, to deal with my needs during this time.

I must go lay down now – more later…