My Belly The Prickly Pear Patch

Ouch!
Not writing much this week. Went to the emergency room Wednesday in bad belly pain. Wasn't bad enough to keep, they just dosed me with pain pills, antibiotics for a kidney infection, and threw me back home. The next two days were even worse, but I didn't want to go through the ordeal of another ER visit.

Every old person in creation had gotten out on the first nice day since we had subzero temps, and then broke something, busted something, tore something, or pierced something. Belly pain doesn't rank high when trauma cases keep rolling in. I guess it's like journalism, if it bleeds it leads.

I had not had a drastic injury so I did not mind waiting my turn, but when you are in extreme discomfort and can't hold down anything in your stomach, public waiting rooms are not the best. I have this aversion to vomiting in public toilets, and hospital waiting room toilets even more. I don't want my face anywhere near that thing! Ewwwwww!

I increased my pain medication to the maximum I have prescribed to take, but it was woefully inadequate. I'm afraid it was the type of pain that needed to be relieved by something really heavy duty, which I don't have in my arsenal of medications. I went to the ER at 10 am and didn't get out of the ER until mid evening.

I have a doctor's appointment with my regular PCP this morning (as it is already 2 AM) to discuss the ER visit and to review my pain levels and pain management strategy. Not sure what I will do, I felt I had the kidney infection because I dehydrate myself when The Belly pain gets too high and I can't keep anything down. I don't know if covering up The Belly pain will help with the nausea. I already take anti-nausea medication to both cope with the nausea from The Belly and to help with The Headache, not sure how much more anti-nausea medication I can take. Maybe I need to change brands of enzymes...there is one called Ultrace (I think) that people swear by.

The pancreatitis attack gave me a godawful headache. Not a migraine, not The Headache getting worse, just an all over the head noggin knocking headache. I think it must be because your body chemisty gets out of whack when your digestion acts up. Since this is the third attack (although the mildest) in six months, I am starting to recognize the headache pain that goes with it.

My belly is painful, I feel like I have eaten a bunch of prickly pear cacti and they are trying to burrow their way out. I did have a cup of tomato noodle goodness tonight, as my dear Mom sacrificed her last quart of home canned tomatoes for me. I'm paying for it - trying to distract myself from the ouchiness by doing stuff - I've mopped the floor (middle of the night but hey it needed to be done), folded clothes, scrubbed some countertops, and tried to blog. I've not been the greatest at any of it, but it is occupying my time until The Belly decides it's time to sleep.

I didn't get to work the last part of last week. I was so proud Tuesday because I had a full day at work! Then BOOM sick as a dog, like the Titanic sinking fast in unfriendly waters. I am determined to reclaim my life from this iceberg field of illness. I think if I didn't love my work so much I would just give up. It was very tempting to think about it Thursday and Friday, which were just lost days. But I'm getting myself together and tomorrow, I'm going full tilt hitting it again. One of these days I am going to win.