Almost Christmas Hospital Stay

This blog will be a little different. I have been posting about my past and how I have coped with it before and after. These next couple blogs will be more on where I am at right now with my health and a little into my mental health. I do feel it is important to talk about the past because I believe it shapes your future and present self; but I want to keep a good balance so we will talk about my present self right now. Maybe that way I can hopefully keep yall coming back to read more. So here we go!

Over the week of Christmas I was admitted into the hospital because on one of my scans I had to have done, the ER doctors found a collection of something on part of my liver which wasn’t there before. Of course I was super upset to the point I was in tears because I didn’t want to spend Christmas in the hospital! I’ve already done that too many times and I felt that it was time that I get some type of break from my illness (wishful thinking right?). Plus nobody wants to spend Christmas alone let alone in the hospital.

Well of course the doctors all agreed to admit me to the hospital.. The ambulance trip to the hospital wasn’t so bad, Actually one of the paramedics asked me what my blog handle was so they could go and start reading them, which I thought was pretty awesome! Getting settled was pretty easy for me as well. Then again I also have done this a million times that I could do it all in my sleep and not miss a single thing.The night time attending I had was very nice to me and put all the orders I needed in the system to make me comfortable for the time being until the morning attending could come and assess me then tell me what the plan of action was for the day. The night that night was kind of a long one because by the time I did get settled in it was after midnight and I wasn’t allowed to take my sleeping pill which made me stay up all night. The one good thing was my pain was controlled and I was able to relax some and write more of my blogs. I did eventually crash because my body had just had enough but it was only about 2 hours of sleep. Haha insomnia isn’t fun!

Well the next day the doctor came in and decided I needed another ERCP to see if my stents in my bile duct were backed up and also try to see what these new collections are on my liver. Which I already knew they were going to want to do another ERCP because that is their “go to” procedure for literally anything that involves my liver and being in pain. That also meant I couldn’t eat or drink anything after midnight so it wouldn’t mess up my procedure and also so I wouldn’t get sick and accidentally aspirate on my food if it came up.. They take their safety precautions very seriously, which is a good thing in my book.

The next morning of the ERCP I was allowed some water so I could take my medication that morning. I was really happy about that because my throat was so dry from not being able to drink anything for hours. After the nurse came in at 6am to give me my medicine I fell back asleep due to me not being able to sleep much the night before. Well the people doing the ERCP never gave me a time of when they would do the procedure or at least a time frame it would be done between, So I had absolutely no idea when I would be taken down for it. Of course they came while I was sleeping around 8am and I wasn’t ready AT ALL to leave for my procedure so the transport lady had to wait on me to get into my hospital gown and take off all my jewelry. Luckily she was a nice transport lady and was patient with me while she waited outside my room. Finally I was ready to go and she transported me down to the procedure room. When I got down there I found out I was their first case of the day which I thought was pretty cool because usually I’m the last one of the day and have to wait hours upon hours to go down for it.

The nurses got me ready for the ERCP, hooking me up to the heart monitor, pulse ox and the small bag of fluids to keep me hydrated during the procedure. Then before I knew it all the consent paperwork was signed I talked to all the doctors and I was back in the procedure room getting prepped on the table. So for this procedure they have you lay on your stomach with your arms by your side. They put an oxygen nose cannula on you and then hook your IV or in my case Power Port up to the anesthesia machine and then the nurse gives you a purple bite block to put in your mouth to protect your tongue and teeth during the procedure. Well it was time for them to put me to sleep and I grabbed my nurse's hand as a comfort thing (I always do it when they’re putting me to sleep) and the anesthesiologist pushed the medicine in and I slowly went to sleep. When they push that medication it feels like you’re slowly falling and your hearing gets really good almost to good. I can hear my blood rushing in my body (which is a really weird sound) then my eyes get heavy and I drift slowly off to sleep. 

This time around after my ERCP was finished and they were removing the camera, tubing and weaning me off the sedation I got sick and threw up all over the right side of myself. So I woke up covered in my own sickness.. While the nurses were trying to clean me up I started crying because I was so embarrassed for getting sick and then the way they had to move me around to clean me hurt my side really bad that the doctor was just messing around with. Finally they were able to clean the majority of it up and get me off to post-op so I could start recovering from the procedure and get some good pain medication to help me be more at ease. I stayed in post-op for about 30-45 min because of how much pain I was in. I was able to go back to my room finally and wash my hair because I smelled horrible.. My day shift nurse was so nice and kept telling me she couldn’t smell anything and I was perfectly fine haha. I know though she was just being nice to try to make me feel better. Honestly though I needed it. 

Once I was able to get my hair all washed and my clothes changed I was able to lay down and rest for a little while. I decided though I was ready to go home so I asked my nurse if she could talk to all my doctors about letting me go home. After all it was Christmas Eve and I wanted to be with my family and my Gypsy Danger. My nurse was finally able to speak to the doctors and they all agreed it was okay for me to go home. They did give me rules I had to follow in order to let me go home, where I had to make a follow up appointment after the holidays and take my pain medication as needed, also not pick anything heavy up or go rock climbing for 2 weeks. I wasn’t very happy about not being able to rock climb for that long because I really love rock climbing especially with my Gypsy Danger, But I was happy to be going home. 

My mom and dad came to get me later that night and took me home. I was able to have an actual shower when I got home and then my parents took my family to a Christmas Eve dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse. I was in some pain after leaving the hospital, which I wasn’t too surprised about but I didn’t want to show how much I was hurting so I went on about my night. Dinner was amazing! I was so glad I got a real meal finally haha. The hospital food isn’t the best and is definitely not what you want to eat as your meal on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. In the end the doctors really didn’t tell me much of what was wrong or why the spots are my liver scans but I trust them enough to where I knew I was safe enough to go home.

So now y’all kind of got a little glimpse into one of my last hospital stays. I will be writing about my most recent hospital stay that was a week long this last week. It wasn’t the best stay but I will talk about it more during my next blog. I hope to see y’all there!!

My goal is still to post once a week lol!

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Love, Kayla