Complications

I deal with pain every off week from chemo. I met with a pain doctor last week who is starting me on some new meds to hopefully fix all of that.

This Friday after chemo, I had substantial pain again which really hurt. My prescribed pain meds weren’t working on the pain. I also felt really nauseous all day. On Saturday, the same situation occurred but was getting worse. I felt really super nauseous all day with abdomen pain that kept getting worse. I was able to go to Kyley’s parent’s cabin and have a relaxing day there with everyone. While I was relaxing, I noticed that my pain and nausea was still overly prevalent. Different positions made it better though. When I drove home from her cabin that night, the pain kept getting worse and worse…to the point where I couldn’t get out of the truck when I got home. I took all of my pain meds (as directed for pain) and it offered ZERO relief. I slept on the couch Saturday night because there was no way I was going to be able to get upstairs to my bed.

Then came Sunday. I woke up Sunday in excruciating pain still but, moreover, the nausea was really bad. I took my Zofran for nausea but couldn’t take any pain meds at this point, because they make me nauseated and I didn’t want to add to it. I took a little nap on the couch and around noon, I woke up and started vomiting excessively. Every time I vomited, it hurt my abdomen worse. I was stuck in a bad cycle so I called my Mom to bring me to Spooner ER. I hate the ER. It costs me so much money but I couldn’t wait until Monday for a normal visit at this point.

Upon arrival at the ER, they gave me IV meds for both pain and nausea. The nausea went away but the pain really kept ramping up and nothing pain med wise really worked on it. They did an emergency CT scan and found I had a bowel obstruction. They placed an NG tube up my nose…running down to my stomach to try and suck everything out but then they hit me with the bad news: you’ll probably need emergency surgery and we can’t do it here.

I was transferred, non emergent, by North Ambulance to St. Mary’s Essential Hospital in Duluth. Kinda weird being on the other end of the cot after years of loading people in the back of the truck. Luckily, there was one EMT I knew from the crew which made things better. We left Spooner around 1900 and arrived at the new St. Mary’s around 2030. It was the worst, most painful trip I’ve ever been on. Every single bump or pothole caused me more and more pain. The hospital gave me a fentanyl patch for the ride and honestly, it did nothing. I ended up having to basically scream the entire time. Once we got to the hospital, it took several hours to get checked in and settled. Between vitals, meeting with all of the various nurses, questions, IVs, and what not, a plan has been established.

Tonight, we’ll try to keep the pain under control along with continued stomach suction before reassessing in the morning. One of the pain meds they give me is basically IV Motrin and it took my pain away. It’s actually working because it’s knocking down the swelling so I’m feeling so much better right now. Along with that, they’re also suctioning my stomach constantly through my NG tube so it’s releasing pressure in the intestines. The nurse practitioner told me they want to do everything they can to AVOID surgery on me so tomorrow will likely start out with a CT scan to see if the blockage has gotten better or not with the NG tube suctioning and we’ll go from there.

Let’s really hope I don’t need any surgery and things will just start clearing out on its own. I’ll post another update tomorrow night with what happened during Monday. As always, thank you everyone for your support.