It has been a long time since I have had the energy to stay at my computer long enough to write anything of worth on my blog. I trust those who suffer from any sort of chronic illness understand. I have been in the longest flare-up of my life. It has been complicated by week-long migraines that completely paralyze me in pain; pain that makes my ever so constant nausea progress to vomiting. The only thing I could do to make it bearable was to head to the ER for IV pain medication, fluids, anti-nausea medication and at times, oxygen. Four hours later, I would be sent home, only to return the next night, requiring the same treatment.
They’d preform more tests, only to come up empty handed. I had CT scans, X-rays, lumbar punctures, and blood tests. I would continually ask what to do when another attack came, looking for confirmation and assurance that what I was doing was right, and they would say just to come back. So that is what I did, many, many times; thanks to my husband who drove me to and from the hospital day after day.
Along with the migraines I was fighting, I had GP flare-ups. I am not eating anything, save for sherbet ice cream at night. TPN is pretty much my sole source of nutrition. I run 2000ml over 20 hours. I find that being on more of a continuous cycle helps a bit with the migraines. Not a whole lot, but some. It does not, however, help with flare-ups. On the scale of uselessness, I live in a continual state of 8. I manage that fairly well. When it bumps up into 9, that is when I have problems and start breaking out medicine and patches to try to control it in order to avoid a trip to the ER. I have lidocaine patches and oxycodone for such cases. I’m also taking ultram 3x daily and use fentenyl patches for pain. I have liquid phenergan and IV zofran. IV zofran is daily and the liquid phenergan is when the IV stuff isn’t working. That is sort of how I play things, always having a back up. I want to know I did all I could at home before I rush myself to the ER.
Anyway, that is, in a nutshell, why I haven’t been updating my blog. I feel I have things more under control for now, and will be on more often to write more about my battles with GP and overall life. I will be making my first trip outside the state on TPN next week, so that will be quite the adventure. I’ll be sure to write about it, in case others are planning something similar and are curious as to the process. I’m nervous about making it through security at the airport. I haven’t traveled since the new rules went into place. I have a gastric neurostimulator on top of a port, so I imagine, getting through security won’t be much fun (on top of the syringes and other TPN materials I need to bring with me for the day). That’s for another entry. Hope you all are having a great Father’s Day and a good tummy day as well! Take it easy!
