What a Weekend

This weekend kicked my ass. I was going to say butt, but then that wouldn't emphasize how much this weekend sucked. This kind of weekend calls for strong words. Let me just get into it.

Friday night I was skyping with my husband when I got this horrible stomach ache. I mean bad. I even had to leave our conversation for a few minutes because I thought I was going to vomit. I never did, but I was so nauseous it was hard to get comfortable. I have all sorts of GI problems, and I thought that it was just some really bad heartburn. I took all of the meds I have for this sort of thing, and decided to sleep it off.

The next morning, I realized that my plan of action didn't help much so I took all my meds again and headed off for my Saturday morning class. The pain changed from achy and burning to intense cramps that came in waves. Normally my GI issues cause me to have lower abdomen pain, but this was different. The pain was focused under my ribcage and in my upper stomach area. Nothing was bringing me relief.

I like to think that I have a pretty high pain tolerance, and I can normally tough things out but by the time this thing had lasted for 24 hours, I was crying. Literally bawling my eyes out. Part of it was frustration, some of it was due to feeling helpless, but most of it was because I was in so much pain and I just wanted it to end. So I decided to head to the ER.

There is nothing more scary than heading to the ER by yourself. I'm sure I could have called a few women who would have came with me if I needed it, but I really didn't want to bother them. They all have kids and there was no reason they should be out all night with me. All I wanted was my husband home...home to take care of me and sit in the waiting room with me while I waited. Thanks to deployments, there was only 2 doctors working that night and some stupid life-or-death emergency came in making my wait 3.5 hours long! I sat there in serious pain, ready to cry again, and all I wanted to do was go home.

The doctor finally came in to see me around 11:30 pm, and they started an IV filling me with all sorts of good drugs that were supposed to help. I laid there...by myself...exhausted and hurting and not getting any relief from that damn IV. Finally they came in and gave me a GI cocktail. If you don't know what that is, let me tell you it became my new best friend that night. It is a drink full of about three drugs and lidocaine. It numbs your entire GI tract bringing instant relief. After about 27+ hours of pain, I was finally feeling better. And so I slept until the doctor came back in to release me.

Turns out all of my enzymes came back normal so thats a good thing, but it means that I was suffering from gastritis or an ulcer. Unfortunately, I think it is the latter. My stomach is feeling very tender and I'm terrified to eat anything! Bland food is all I can eat without my stomach trying to murder me. I'm headed to my regular doctor in an hour to see what they can do for me.

Too bad my weekend didn't end there though. I was released from the hospital around 1 am, and my phone was completely dead. I plugged it into my charger as I headed home and it was broke. It would not move past the initial screen. I knew my parents were probably freaking out because they couldn't get ahold of me and I half expected to wake up Sunday morning with them standing on my front porch (I live close to 300 miles away from them).

By the time Verizon fixed my phone and I got in touch with my Mom, I found out that I was close to right. That morning she was asking my Dad if they needed to head down to check on me. She was afraid they had admitted me and I would need someone to come take care of me. I am so lucky to have a Mom who cares enough to jump in the car and drive 300 miles just to check on me.

But anyways, that was my weekend. Last night it snowed here in Tennessee, and these people act like they have no clue what to do when that happens so school is cancelled for the day. That has to be my favorite thing about working in the school system. Hope all of you had a better weekend than I did!