RWJ 5

Okay it's really like RWJ 4 Cont...I was out of the hospital for about a day and a half before ending up back in this lovely place.  Those two days consisted of nothing more than me really going to a dog park, going out to eat with friends, and eating a little bit the next day.  After lunch the next day with my dad I noticed that there was no more ostomy output into the bag again and of course this made me a little bummed.  So I put on some gym shorts, got my fanny pack a pair of headphones and bottle of water and began running outside.   Hard.  I knew that would help break it up and as I was running I even started burping a little and tasting the food I ate in my mouth, but it didn't seem to help really.  

After about an hour to no avail I headed home and jumped in the shower.  I talked to my parents and we decided that the earlier I go in the better, and that we could probably go in before the puking starts and it won't be as hard.  I take a long shower to try and cool off and dreading the next few days of my life, not really because I was bummed about going to the hospital.  I mean obviously I was a little, but I can deal with hanging out in a bed with family, wireless internet, video games, friends, and tv.  It's actually sometimes more convenient than having to do that at home since I've been bumming off our neighbors' wireless internet for like a few months haha.  The reason I was really bummed was because I didn't want people to know I was back in here again only like 2 days later, I feel like I'm like letting down my family by making them worry about how I'm doing.

Keep in mind that once I was discharged from the hospital last week, I solely thought the problem was just a mechanical regular obstruction, like me not chewing my food enough.  So once I was out I kinda just assumed a normal eating diet because that's what they told me I could do.  Of course after eating a chicken parm sandwich without any output I started to think maybe something was up.  

As I'm walking out of the bathroom to get ready to head to the hospital, I hear a loud fart/pop come out of my stoma and poop starts oozing out.  This is the most relieving thing ever but I know I'm still not out of the clear really, so that night I eat half of a pbnj sandwich and a little tuna for dinner.  The next morning there is some ostomy output but not as much as I would have expected, so I take it easy and eat some applesauce for breakfast.  The day carries on and still no output, so I try the running/bike riding thing for a long time.  Then that night around 6 and still no output we decide we should  just go in to the hospital before it gets bad, I'm barely in pain so we figure we should go just to get the situation under control.  

I opt out of taking a catscan, basically because I got one the last week and the only thing it can really determine is if the problem is an obstruction again or something serious, and it was pretty obvious that it was the same thing that happened the week before.  What was a bummer that even though we came in early, I still needed the NG tube again.  Me trying to be a big guy and thinking I can handle anything, I ask the nurse how big the tube was and she tells me it's only 12mm in diameter.  The week before they gave me a 14mm and my visiting surgeon was complaining that it was too small for me and I should have like an 18mm in.  So I ask for one, and we find out it doesn't fit.  The hard way.  Ow ow.  They tried raping both of my nostrils and couldn't get it in, so we go with a 16mm tube, which actually felt way way worse than a 14mm which you wouldn't really expect.

So I'm hanging out in the hospital not in much pain and the obstruction breaks in about a day and half which was great.  The doctors decide they want to do a special kind of test on me called an enterography, which is like a combination of a cat scan and an upper bowel series but shows more detail or something. They had to put orders in to get special stuff to do the test and the supplies wouldn't arrive for like a day or more so I hang out for another day.  Even though the obstruction broke I'm not on any kind of diet yet, still no liquids or solids. But they did give me some dinner every night, here's what it looked like for me 

eventually once they stopped giving it to me through the IV:

Mmmm gotta love it.

The next day they decide that they don't really need to do this test, they can get just as much information from doing a small bowel series.  So we totally just wasted a day for no reason haha.  That's the test that requires you to drink a shitload of barium, but since there was still a huge tube that ran down my nose and into my stomach, I ask if they can just pump it through there because one of the nurses mentioned it to me.  They say yes, and I am stoked because that stuff tastes like milky-chalky-cheap orange juice.  They get a big plastic syringe and start pumping two big bottles of barium into me and I am just loling and glad I don't have to drink that awful stuff.  Then we wait about an hour for the barium to go all the way through my intestines.  After checking with an x-ray to see if the barium has traveled far enough a few times, they decide I'm ready to go and take me into a room where a nice man pokes me with a rubber ball on a stick while x-raying me.  Here's a video of part of my upper bowel series, the guy doing it was nice enough to do it for a little longer after we found out my mom accidentally forgot to hit the record button haha:

Towards the end of the video I'm not sure if you can tell but you can see some strip-like rubbery (?) looking things near the end of the intestines.  Those are adhesions from surgery, which is what has been causing the blockage.  To me this was actually good news, because I was afraid that somehow the blockage was being caused by the Chrons acting up already again.  Adhesions are like fibrous tissue bands that grow in your intestine because your body has no idea what the fuck just happened so it tries to heal itself, having part of your intestines cut out will do that.

I'm actually really glad, (and still am!) that it's adhesions because the doctors said 75 percent of the time they do not require surgery, just bowel rest.  This upper bowel series did conclude that there could also be some leftover Crohn's from the surgery, but they can't tell if that is really causing any more problems.  I'm pretty sure I'd be in a little more pain if the Crohn's was causing a problem but I guess you never know...an ileoscopy will hopefully help reveal that.

I pass all of the barium and dump it out into a urinal with some poop in it and it forms a nice smoothie.  Notice how the brown poop was in there first but the still floated to the top since the barium is so thick.  Cool Science!

Eventually my diet gets advanced to liquids, and the next day (which I think was today?) My surgeon comes in and tells me that since I'm here already we can do my ostomy reversal surgery soon that way these adhesions don't become as much of a problem with the ostomy.  While this is good news, it's very all of a sudden, and he says he wants to do the surgery tomorrow.  I agree after realizing I'm pretty much giving up a month of my summer, it's been kinda shitty out anyways!

We were originally planning to do the surgery at the middle of August but my surgeon felt I would be fine if we did it now.  So I guess this is farewell to my shitbag, to tell the truth I am a little sad...there was so much more I had in mind to do!  So many more inappropriate things to say, so many more people to offend.  

My surgeon also said there would be a slight chance we would cut some more bowel out depending on if the Crohn's seems like it may cause future problems.  He was just gonna kinda wing it and see what was up once they cut me open, which I was actually fine with because I'm lucky enough to have a pretty great surgeon.  Not like I really know from experience, but I saw this plaque on his wall from like an "America's Top Surgeon's" magazine and it really put me at ease.  

A little later, the other doctors come in and opt against the surgery, this was after I signed away on the papers so we had to cancel everything and make sure it goes through.  The reason being was that although my surgeon might rule, they wanna know exactly what they're dealing with when they connect my intestines back to my colon.  So they want to do an illeoscopy and colonoscopy before the surgery.   Unfortunately, they can't do it until next week, so I'd have to be sent home for a few days.  This was the ga

me plan until like about ten hours ago.  They advanced me to a soft-food diet and I order some dinner.  Stir Fry with tofu, some pasta with tomato sauce, and mashed potatoes.  

This looks like a lot, but i probably ate about only like 40 percent of this food, over the span of like twenty-five minutes.  My dad ate most of the remains hahaha.  While I am eating, I am super careful, chew everything 30+ times, and exclude all the vegetables that came with the stir fry.  I even ordered the sauce and gravy on the side, but they just put it on the food and also on the side so it was like having double sauce so I just didn't use the extra obviously.   

(side note: MAYBE THAT MEAL GOT STUCK BECAUSE THAT MEAL WAS LIKE 80000 FUCKING STARCHY CARBS YOU DICKHEAD).

I guess I should mention I'm taking all meat besides fish out of my diet.  I'm stoked on eventually trying tofurkey tofu hotdogs tofu burger and all those cool things and hopefully I'll be able to stick with it for a while.  Plus fish is fucking awesome.  I was talking to a really nice student nurse here and she was saying how taking out meat really challenges you to try new kinds of food, especially if you're just used to eating the same stuff all the time.  I mean it's only been like six days of having this diet, and within those 6 days I really only got to eat like 3 actual meals, but so far I've been holding strong!  Time will determine whether or not I actually have any kind of will power.  But sushi is so awesome shit!  I think I'll be okay for a while. 

So anyway back to eating this meat-free meal...I def took some precautionary steps to help prevent any irriation, but it didn't really seem to matter and I am obstructed again!  Whatever, I guess I just won't go home until my scope and reconnective surgery.  Better safe than sorry and I really don't mind being here.  The doctor is going probably order an NG tube to be put in again tomorrow I'm thinking.  I don't care, fucking bring it!  That's the best way I've learned to deal with everything I have to go through here.  It's really the best way for me at least.  Tackling shit head on maybe with a laugh on the way.  

My spirits are pretty high still, I hope this blog doesn't sound like I'm wah wah-ing too much, I'm just really tired...it's 4:45 A.M and I still haven't slept.  I did walk around my floor and run in place in my room for five minutes but it didn't really help.  I feel okay though, I def feel some pressure but it's not painful.  I'm back on a clear liquid diet but I haven't really drank anything since that last meal I had...it's kind of hard to judge because while liquids could help flush the food out, they also might just cause more pressure if nothing is going through so I'm not really sure what to do. 

I've been living vicariously through playing Rollercoaster Tycoon and writing music on the computer.  My sister bought me a fucking MacBook Pro and I am typing on it right now.  It's like so easy that it's hard to use almost, I'm way to accustomed to windows. 

Anyway, I'm doing fine, here's a picture I took from my charts that can summarize about 80 percent of this blog:

I'll probably post again within a few days once I know what's going on really.  In the meantime I just saw a weather forecast today and it looks like it's gonna be a shitty day!  Glad I'm gonna be nice and cozy in this hospital.

So I'm on the road to feeling better, it just is long process but I can handle it.  The only thing I'm really afraid of is running out of things to blog about haha.  Okay it's like 5:30 ttysoon.