Hi everyone,
I know I haven't been around much lately. It's a combination of the usual excuses, flare, fatigue, too many balls in the air at once. However, something happened to me this week that I thought I should share with you all.
I've been flaring since the beginning of July. Have been experiencing a lot of costochondritis / rib cage pain, and thoracic spine pain. I've also been exhausted, beyond belief. Falling asleep at 8, 9, 10 in the evening. Never waking up refreshed. Not able to do the things around the flat. So tired by lunch time at work. Of course, I attributed all of this to trying to do too much, and my flare.
On Tuesday morning my pain woke me up at 5:30 am. It was a band around my lower rib cage, not much unlike pain I've had in the past. But it was bad, really bad. I took a percocet (5 mg of oxycodone, equivalent to 10 mg of oral morphine), and when Loz and I realised that it wasn't going to touch this pain, I took a second. We put on a TENS, tried a topical gel called biofreeze, anything we could think of to help. I couldn't sit still for long, couldn't find any position which was comfortable. I went to the lounge to attempt distraction with the television, but it wasn't working either. The pain was so bad I was calling out, and I was having trouble taking a sufficient breath because it hurt to move my ribcage. With shallow breaths, intermittent yelps and tears, only 1.5 hours into this, we realised I needed to go to the hospital. The car ride was torturous. At some point during this I realised that my upper abdomen was also tender, but assumed it was just referred pain from my chest/rib cage.
At the A&E (ER) they took us straight in. Moaning and constant motion and complaining of chest pain and upper abdominal pain will do that for you. My ECG showed that my heart rate was 120. My oxygen saturation bounced around in the low to mid 90s even with oxygen on. I told them through the yelps that I was medically trained and asked them to keep me informed with what they thought was going on, and they were absolutely wonderful about it - even showing me my ECG/results as we went along which really helped with my anxiety.
It wasn't until much later in the day, after being admitted, given lots of morphine and having an ultrasound that the cause of all this pain was found. Apparently, I have a 'large' gall stone, which was trying to get out of my gall bladder, and made itself known to me in a very significant way. Ultimately, we hope to have the whole gosh darn thing removed, but in the meantime, I had two days of IV antibiotics, and have been given 5 days of ciprofloxacin to take care of any possible infection (cholecystitis) that may have resulted as well.
I've been out since yesterday, and still feel quite crummy. A visit to my GP was helpful, he reminded me that I WILL feel crummy for a good 4 or 5 days yet, and that I should be doing what I was doing in the hospital for the intervening time: resting and drinking lots of fluids. Also - I need 3-6 weeks of watching my diet - no fatty foods, no alcohol, no tea or coffee.
Loz as you proabably guessed has been wonderful and supportive during this whole thing, taking time off of work, and bringing my things to the hospital for me and staying by my side during the scariest of moments.
I'm glad to know what it is I'm dealing with (devil I know vs. devil I don't), but I'm a bit of an emotional wreak after the whole ordeal - which I appreciate isn't very logical. I know that the scariest bits are over, but I don't ever want to go through that again, and am somewhat afraid of eating now. I also feel a bit embarassed of having a gall bladder stone at 31 years of age, and feel like it's some sort of judgement on my life style - another less than rational thought, bc my GP told me today that he has patients 15 years of age with gall stones, and that if we knew precisely what caused them he'd be a very rich man. But I'm mostly just really angry that I have to deal with yet another thing. I'm sick of being tired, and not pulling my weight around the house. I'm frustrated about having more dietary restrictions.
Anyhow, I'm sorry to go on there with feeling sorry for myself. I mostly wanted to post about this so people don't fall into the trap that did. I have been experiencing pain that is less than typical for AS, but had attributed it to AS because it wasn't too dissimilar, and because, let's face it, it's my (and likely our) default. Obviously, when the pain got REALLY bad, I knew I needed medical attention, but even at that, I thought that I just needed better pain meds for the AS.
So, that's it my friends. Any related gall bladders stories, and personal experience of what worked and what didn't to keep the attacks at bay please let me know. I never want pain like that again.
Hugs,
Jeanna
Last edited by Strutsy; 08/17/06 05:26 PM.
