Thursday 10 March 2011

A brief moment in time. A setback.

It was later that first night that my problems first manifest themselves. I tried desperately to make it to the toilet, honest I did, but…..and things were to get decidedly worse. Some of my Grape juice I had drunk promptly came back up, and I ended up spending about three hours or so glued to the toilet. Now our toilet is not meant or designed to be sat on for prolonged hours at a time. My legs ended up white, swelled and completely numb. K bless her heart helped to clean me up, fetched the sicky bowl, changed my pajamas and was to take on the role for the next few days of my 24/7 personal nurse.

I have always said that if she hadn’t been born Down’s Syndrome she would definitely have gone into the caring profession, either as a nurse or even a doctor. It all comes so naturally to her to be caring, though she has always said that she wouldn’t be able to cope with the sickness and toileting, she ended up coping far better than even I thought she would. There was no hesitation, she was an absolute star, and had she not been there I would have had to dial 999 and readmit myself into hospital. As it was, we coped together. I rang the ward sister for advice.

“You’ll have to ring your GP” she told me, “sounds like you have some ‘overflow’ so ring your GP tomorrow.”  Hmm. If there was anything left of me tomorrow! I did just that. Spoke to a doctor who said that the District nurse would call. She called in the afternoon with one of the practice doctors. She gave me an enema promising that it would solve all the problems as I had some ‘stoma’ stuck which was causing the ‘overflow’ and once I had' been’ all would be well.

Later that evening, the enema worked and I went. However, rather than solving everything, all that happened was it was like opening up the floodgates! I was still also being sick as well. Where was it all coming from? After all, I hadn’t been eating since my operation! If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought that whilst on the operating table, someone had filled my entire digestive system with water. Tons of it. I was slowly getting weaker and weaker. I felt drained. I looked terrible.

On the Wednesday we had an appointment to see Mr N at the McMillian unit at Halifax Royal. We had transport booked but I honestly was dreading it. Would I get there without having some kind of accident? When Mr N and the other staff saw me, you could see the shock on their faces. I was a mess! Mr N examined me and I told him everything that had taken place since arriving home. He concluded that somehow I had picked up an infection and I was placed straight away on two antibiotics to be taken over the next eight days. A sample was also taken to be sent for testing. I felt terrible and the whole hospital visit was a trial to endure.

I began taking the antibiotics as soon as I arrived home. It took a few days for them to begin to work, but slowly but surely I began to pick up. The ‘runs’ slowed down and then stopped. The sickness stopped. I began to feel better. My appetite returned. I began to feel better as each day passed. At last it was over and my digestive system began to return to normal. I did come out in an Eczema ‘flare-up’ everywhere, my body reacting as it usually does to anything it doesn’t like but that was no problem to cope with.

Trouble was, this set back ended up setting me back in my recovery, some two weeks or so as my planned ‘walks around the block’ etc had to be postponed whilst I was in that state. I’m thankfully on the mend now but the whole incident was like being in some form of endless nightmare. I asked Mr N had he had patients go though the same thing or was it just me and my ‘oversensitive’ digestive system? He assured me that yes, it did sometimes happen to others, I had been unlucky unfortunately. I think my digestive system just simply shut down. It stopped working. It went on strike. I’m just glad its all over!

TG

14 comments:

  1. Oh what an awful thing to have gone through and thank heaven your daughter was there to help..just as you said in your post. God bless her.

    I have had such an affliction as that which you described or perhaps to say I have had a few days of it but it didn't last as long and just needed to work itself out.

    I so hope all is well now literally and figuratively and walks will begin with a smile on your faces.

    HUGS

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  2. Yes I seem to now be back to normal thank goodness!

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  3. I'm so very sorry for this set back. I know that such things can be very discouraging but I hope you take courage in the fact that you have made it through another hurdle. Grace, peace and health to you my friend, keep getting better.

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  5. Im glad your now feeling better , also im glad your had your daughter there with you,
    Take care of yourself and get lots of rest
    Sue

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  6. Thanks for your comment I am now on the mend and feeling better every day.

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  7. What a marvel K has turned out to be. Thank goodness you are on the road to recovery, at last.

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  8. Yes Pen, I wouldn't swop her for the world! She's a daughter in a million.

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  9. Oh how miserable for you - I'm glad things are on the up and up. I am reminded of a horrible dose of diarrhoea and vomiting I had while we were in the caravan in Spain. Believe me the details are too horrid to mention.

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  10. I know Diane. Normally I am very reluctant to even blog about my health (or lack of it!) but as it has occupied my existence these last few weeks, I felt that I owed you all some sort of explanation as to why and what had happened to me and why I wasn't blogging (or even on the computer!) I shall no doubt be back to my jovial self in a few weeks time as I progress.

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  11. Goodness what a nightmare TG so glad to hear you are on the road to revovery. Many best wishes take care and thanks for the update, K is sure a blessing.

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  12. Technogran, while the details were difficult to read because of the suffering and discomfort involved, the end was heartening and it's good to know that you are on the mend. Infections can be nasty things for certain. You daughter K was certainly an angel through it all.

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  13. Yes Beatrice she has been a tower of strength and I certainly couldn't have got through it without her.

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  14. I had no idea you have been so ill . Im so sorry I have missed all of this.
    Brings me back to how my brother was but he was worse .
    Maybe I read something at one point and just couldnt after my brother passed I dont know. Seems I have forgotten some things between then and christmas I think.

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