By day 5, my abdomen was so distended that I looked like I was in my third trimester. The nausea could no longer be contained and a nasogastric intubation (NG) tube had to be inserted to remove pressure and bile from my stomach. The doctor’s orders were to wait and hope that the bowel obstruction would resolve on its own.Īs I sat in my hospital bed those next few days, my belly began to swell. A PICC line was inserted into my arm and total parenteral nutrition (TPN) began. The doctor on call raised the concern that I was malnourished and needed to have supplemental nutrition immediately. I was admitted to the hospital and placed on NPO – nothing by food or mouth. This revealed what they diagnosed as a small bowel obstruction, likely caused by the surgery. I was too sick to ingest the barium required for a CAT scan, so the attending physician ordered an abdominal x-ray. This time I knew I was not going home with antibiotics. No food or liquid would stay down and I found myself back in the ER. Three days later my body could take no more. I missed my daughter’s birthday party after spending the night before in the ER when the pain was so intense only to be sent home with a strong course of antibiotics and told I must have some colitis as a result of the surgery. I knew in my gut – literally and physically – that something was very wrong. My doctor dismissed my complaints and told me it would take more time for my intestines to heal. I had chills and extreme pain after I ate and often ran a low grade fever. The pain after this surgery grew worse instead of better. In hindsight, what happened over the next several weeks should have been our alert.
I was discharged from the hospital 10 days later when my bowels ‘woke up’ from surgery and all systems seemed to be functioning. When I awoke from surgery, the report was that all went well. No real explanation was given, but the solution was emergency surgery to cut out the blocked part of the intestines and put me back together. My husband rushed me to the ER where a cat-scan revealed a kink in my intestines. I made my way to the bathroom floor with intense abdominal pain that took my breath away. One week later I woke up in the middle of the night in excruciating pain. At 38, I was in the best shape of my life.
January 12, 2013, I ran the Disney half marathon. March 13, 2013, my body went into septic shock.
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