New discoveries sometimes suck...

Well, my abdominal adhesion surgery is tomorrow.  I survived the pre-surg CATscan, barely... I never had IV dye before for one of these... always just had to drink the lovely barium liquid.  This time both kinds of contrast were ordered.  I had to stop by the office and pick up the barium before my appointment.  This office gave me a powder that i had to mix with 2 cups of water with instruction to drink 2 1/2 hours before my scheduled scan.  Eeeew.  Okay, so 3 hours before my appointment, I mixed up the barium and stuck it in the fridge hoping the cold would make it easier to deal with.  It actually wasn't too bad.  It had a faint vanilla taste to it.  Of course, I couldn't drink 2 cups worth, but i managed to get almost half of it down...

At my appointment, I let them know that i have a teeny tiny tummy and couldn't drink all of the barium... The tech said that was no problem and gave me anther cup full... ugh!  Thankfully, the tech told me "Just take a sip or two since you don't have much capacity."  Whew!  I love her!

I pointed out that the hole in the machine looked a tad small.  Ummm... the last time I had a scan, I was in a big open kinda thing.  Is this going to work?  The tech giggled and said "Hon, you don't need an open machine, you'll fit in this now."  Heh.  Duh.  I sometimes forget that I'm quite a bit smaller than I was...

Got up on the table all bariumed up and ready to go... got one scan, then she said it was time for the IV.  She asked if i had IV contrast before, and i said nope.  Then the quote was "In about 50 seconds, you might feel a little warmth."

Ok.  warmth might be nice, it's like 20 degrees outside.  Warmth is a good thing....  Wrong! Understatement!  In 50 seconds my veins were ON FIRE.  Everything felt like it was on fire.  WTH?  So, being the trooper that I am, I held still for the scan...  when the tech came back in the room so asked if I was alright...

Thanks to the incredible discomfort along with some slight tongue swelling and blotchy patches ll over, I had discovered that I am indeed allergic to IV contrast.  Luckily, it's a slight allergy and didn't cause anything other than "mild" side effects.

Damn, can I get off of this ride now.  I don't like this, and I wanna go home...

Gearing up for the last surgery... until the next surgery...

Surgery number five... January 24th.  Nine days away.  As of now, I can still eat purees, and liquids are no problem.  Sometimes I can eat a little soft-solids, but sometimes they HURT.  I'm still rather gun-shy about food.  I guess that's normal after what i've been through...

I'm still in a good amount of pain... yesterday I even discovered a new one!!  Now, when I bend forward at the waist, something in my left side feels like a rubberband snapping.  The first time this happened I actually heard an internal "POP" when I felt it... now, as it happens more and more, it's kind of just like I've been twanged on the inside with a rubberband.  I'm not sure what is causing this, but the pain fades after an hour...

*shrug*

I suppose I'll have to call the doc after the holiday on Monday.  I'm not too concerned, it only happens when I bend, so I'm just not bending.  I hope this isn't another complication...  I also hope this isn't permanent!

That's about all I've got for an update.  Still hoping to get back to work soon.  Still waiting on Social Security to say if I'm disabled or not (my disability arrangement from work made me apply after 6 months of being out of work).  SS generally takes "up to 120 days" to review your application, so I just might be back to work before then!

*crossing fingers*

Number five? ...Did I hear number five? *bangs head on wall*

On Tuesday, January 4th, I went to the surgeon for a routine follow up appointment.... well, as "routine" as my appointments get, i suppose...  I'm eating purees still, but doing pretty well with them.  No feeding the birds or anything...  I just had a little complaint.  The main incision from my 4th surgery was weird looking.  It had healed kind of dented in... when i was lying down, you couldn't tell, but when I stood up you could see that it really rather resembled another "fatgirl bellybutton" right above my existing navel.  It's indented in at least two inches, and it pulls if I lean to one side or the other.  One more like that and I could be a bowling ball... Hahahaha.  No big deal, right?  Something about a stitch needs to dissolve and it'll pop right back out, huh?  ...No?  ...Crap...

Soooo, yeah, too much scar tissue.  I need to have an outpatient surgical procedure to get under my skin and scrape the excess scar tissue away to let that point loosen up enough that it doesn't cause me any pain.  The surgeon said it would be a "cosmetic" procedure, except that at the moment it HURTS, so that makes it a "medically necessary" procedure and my insurance company shouldn't have a problem with it.

I'm going on Friday the 13th (lucky me) for a CAT scan of my abdomen to make sure that there isn't any other problems hiding in there...  I hate the CAT scan.  They expect me to go pick up barium to drink and ingest 2 full bottles before the 10am procedure.  I warned them that I have a limited capacity for liquids and I'll be lucky to choke down 2 ounces, but I doubt they'll listen again.  I hate having to be bitchy and stubborn at people, but they seem to make me...  *shrugs*

Anywho, Walgreen's Infusion Services finally came out yesterday and picked up the IV pump, charger, and the fashionable little black backpacks from my PICC line adventure.  They told me to dispose of the rest of the stuff.  Now i feel bad about all the syringes of saline, nursing supplies, alcohol pads, etc, that I'm stuck with... I hate wasting stuff.  I'm going to see if I can find someone that needs it or something... I really feel horrible about throwing all that medical stuff away...

So, the adventure continues.  I'm not allowed back to work until this pain thing is straightened out and I can get off of the dreaded liquid pain meds.  According to the nutritionist (January 3rd), I'm supposed to start on solids by now and I should be consuming 1200 calories a day.  I have to admit, I actually laughed in her face.  I kinda feel bad about it, in retrospect... But I did.  I think my history allows me to be rather gun shy about eating.  Solids scare the hell out of me right now.  Yeah, no.  Not happening.  And I'm struggling every day for 500-800 calories.  I can't imagine how to eat 1200.  I'm not eating "light" food or "fat free" stuff, I figure my body cant process enough food to be worried about eating "light."  Getting in 800 calories a day is HUGE for me... but now I'm supposed to eat, what, all the time?!?!  I already have food scheduled every 3 hours or so!  WTF PEOPLE?!?!?!?!

*breathe... remember to breathe*

Okay, but at least I can eat and drink a little bit.  I am thankful for that.  My other incisions are healing well.  My PICC line hole is almost healed.  My stomach PEJ tube incision is nicely pink and flat.  I do have things I'm greatful for...  but damn, can this be over now??