There's been a lot going on since my last update. After my Oncologist visit last week I got a call the following morning with my C/T appointment, which was Monday afternoon, and not a moment too soon. The pain in my abdomen and lower back became all most unbearable! It really kicked up a notch on Friday and continued to get worse throughout the weekend. Monday could not come fast enough.
I was pretty much in agony on Monday and was glad to get the scan over and done with. Maybe this would shed some light on what was causing all this pain and being uncomfortable. By Tuesday the pain had again doubled, abdomen, lower back, right hip. By Tuesday afternoon enough was enough. Off we went to the Emergency Dept.
After about an hours wait, I was finally called in. I informed them of the level of my pain and where it was and told the nurse I really needed something for the pain. What I had been taking (Hydromorphone) was not enough, it was not even touching the pain at this point. She then proceeded to insert a shunt for blood work and any possible IV's. Good luck! the day before when the tried to put in a shunt for the contrast for the C/T scan, it took them five trys before finding a vein the could get flow in and out of!
This day was going to be no different, four trys before they found one, I say "they" because a couple different nurses tried, as was the case the day before as well. After finally getting a good vein that worked the took the blood samples, and the nurse said the Dr. would be in soon. After some time the Dr. finally came in, poked and prodded and asked questions. After informing her of what has been going on and how this has progressively gotten worse of the past couple months she left the room to go order an ultrasound. I also informed her before she left the room that I had gotten nothing for pain yet and to please get me something for pain.
A few minutes passed then a porter came in to say he was taking me to ultrasound, after wheeling me down to ultrasound, I was parked in the hallway outside in the waiting line, thank goodness only one other gurney ahead of me! It was about fifteen minutes before the technician finally came out and wheeled me in, she did the ultrasound, took many stills, then wheeled me back into the hallway in the lineup to got back to E.R. It was about five minutes when the porter returned and brought me back to E.R.
After getting back the nurse came in again shortly after returning and I again informed her I really needed something for pain, please! She replied, "no one gave you anything yet", no they haven't. She went off and came back with a syringe of pain relief, finally! It was about five minutes later after getting the shot that I started to feel some relief.
It was probably another twenty minutes or so that the Dr. came back in and said she was going to send me down for x-ray's now. The same porter was there within minutes and took me down the hall for x-rays. The nurse asked if I was able to get off the gurney on my own and make it over to the x-ray table, to which I replied sure! After sitting up to get off the gurney I thought it best I take a second or two to gain my bearings before walking the few short steps to the table, the pain drugs were kicking in full now.
Shortly after getting back from x-ray the nurse came in and asked "if the pain was gone or if I needed more medication for pain". Since the pain was not completely gone, I replied, "no the pain was not totally gone" and asked for more, after all I still did not know how much longer I was going to be there. I am sure most of you know just how comfortable those emergency room gurneys are right? NOT!
It was when the nurse came back in with my pain medication that she informed me they would have to take more blood for blood work, when I asked why, as this had already been done, she informed me that I came out so slowly the first time as they did not have a good enough line in, that it had clotted and they needed more to redo it. The nurse from the lab had followed her into the room so she took blood, then I got my pain shot.
So that means that I will be there at least another hour to get the blood work results. As we had been there about three hours now and it was around six thirty, Brenda was getting hungry, and it was decided she would go home for a bowl of soup, as the hospital cafeteria was most likely closed now. So Brenda left to go home to get a bite to eat. Not a minute after she leaves the room the Dr. finally comes back in and says after looking everything over, they noticed my bowel, and intestine were "full", and she was going to give me a prescription for CitriMag, make a referral to see and endocrinologist for consultation for a colonoscopy and send me home, when I asked if that was going to be right now she said yes.
I immediately called Brenda hoping to get her before she left the parking lot. She was in the car but had not left yet, so I told her to hang on a few minutes and wait, I would be out shortly as I was done. After getting dressed the Dr. and nurse came in with my prescription and referral paper, unhooked me from the B.P. cuff and took out my shunt, and I was on my way, hopefully this is the answer and end to the pain.
After getting in the car, I informed Brenda that they had finally after looking at everything came up with the diagnosis that I was "full of shit" literally! She chuckled and said I could have told the Dr. that, all they had to do was ask! lol. Anyway, I told her they said everything was full, backed up and we needed to stop at the drugstore on the way home to get my prescription.
So, after taking a full bottle of CitriMag, doing it in thirds four hours apart, you'd have thought that would have worked. Nope, a got out very little with that and mostly gas! Unreal. So I called the hospital back the next day to tell them it did not work, and should I try another bottle, all I got from them was if I feel it did not work I should come back in. Since I did not want to do all the waiting again I called my home nurse and asked, he told me it could not hurt so go ahead. I did. I went and got another bottle and this time took it half and half. Half right away and the other half four hours later. I again had "minimal" success with the second bottle!! WTF! After my nurse left we did the enema, again, got very little out from that!! What the heck. Later in the afternoon I finally had a movement that was "something" more that what I had been getting. Still nothing big enough to think I've emptied the top half out. I called my oncologists office to see if they could call in a prescription for Lactulose which my home nurse had suggested might work on the top end stuff if the enema did not work. Later in the early evening I called the pharmacy to see if the prescription was ready, I found that they had never called it in!
This morning after having a very uncomfortable evening, I called the pharmacy that is located in with my GP's office and asked them to have him fill a prescription for me for the lactulose. I am currently awaiting a call to say it's ready, should I not hear from them by twelve thirty, I'll be calling back to see what's going on, before my GP closes at three o'clock.
So, again, here I sit, doing my favorite thing, waiting!
P.S. Just to add, as the ER Dr. had a chance to see my C/T results and report from Monday, and she told me that the good news was the C/T did not show any "substantial" change with regard to my cancer progression. So there was some "good" news to all of this!
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