Not So Fast

On Sunday, the day after my initial discharge from the hospital, I started feeling like my pain meds weren’t helping. Theresa, bless her heart, drove all the way out to SF Kaiser to pick up a prescription for oral dilaudid, but just before she left the drama started. Having finally pushed past the pain and weakness I’d been feeling, I got out of bed, put on some pants, and went into the living room to try to be social. I’d been feeling vaguely nauseous already, so when one of the cats used the litterbox without kicking litter over their business, the smell sent me over the edge and I ran to the kitchen sink to vomit.

That was the beginning. By the time Theresa returned from SF with the new meds, I’d thrown up twice more. By the fourth time, Lily was starting to freak out and it was clear that it was Emergency Department time. (Why do these things always land on weekends?!)

In the ED, my body decided it was sick of being well hydrated and started emptying out liquid into my ostomy bag at a prodigious rate. And for some reason, I started getting hiccuping fits which by night time became uncontrollable. I tried anti-nausea drugs for the hiccups, but in the end it was Dilaudid that saved me. When I couldn’t get an injection of that opiate right away, the fits would go on endlessly…20-30 minutes in some cases.

I’m much better today, though my chest is sore from the fits. Being back on Dilaudid and clear liquids has gotten me back to a state where passing material through the stoma no longer causes sharp pains. And it’s my birthday, so I guess I’ll take this improvement as a gift.