Getting back to normal

So I kind of don't know where to begin. My last post was about 5 months ago....

I'm just gonna start from the beginning, which was May 25. Two things were going on that day: 1) My friend's birthday and 2) A baby shower for another friend. Oh also, I had planned to visit a friend that had just found out she was pregnant. All in all it should have a fun day. I remember the day started out fine, but about mid afternoon I started having some abdominal pain and it gradually got worse and worse. I went to the shower, then the birthday girl and I went to visit preggers. At this point I felt terrible. I had a burning in my chest that was just excruciating. I thought I just had a really bad case of heart burn. Now someone, I won't say who, but they told me to drink milk if you ever have really bad heart burn. So while I am at my friend's house I asked for a glass of milk. UGH. I gagged for probably about an hour. Then I went to drop the birthday girl off at her house and just puked my guts out right in front of her house. Once the puking started, I was super worried about getting home. (i lived 30 minutes away by freeway). I make it home ok, but continue to throw up. So I ended up in the emergency room. After some tests, they decided to admit me.
           Now let me tell you being admitted sucks.
I had several tests, was put on a liquid diet and got to stay there for 4 days. I was told I had a blockage in my intestine, but didn't really think to ask too many questions. By day 3, I wasn't hungry but I wanted to go home. So day 4 I was released and I actually felt really good. About 2 weeks later, I followed up with my family doctor just for fun I guess, cause she had no answers and really I wasn't feeling great, but not bad so I thought all was well.

About a month later, I was on vacation and started with symptoms all over again. Throwing up, pain. So I went on a liquid diet. Problem solved. Not really. As the weeks moved along, I found that I was throwing up and having extreme pain pretty much every weekend. I just could not figure out why it would usually come on Friday night and last through the whole weekend. And after about a 2 months of that, I went back to my doctor, who ordered several tests and referred me to a gastro doctor.

During this time my kids started back at school and I remember one day in particular. I had had a really bad night and I remember when my alarm went off to get my kids up for school, I just immediately started throwing. So my daughter who was 11 at the time, put me to bed and got one child off to school. Then later that day walked my other child to school. I remember waking up and just crying the rest of the day. I seriously felt like the biggest failure. I'm not really sure why I shared that cause, to this day it still makes me feel like crap. But I am so grateful for my daughter and for the help that she was to me.

Months go by, I probably had at least 8 different types of tests. From a colonoscopy to ultrasounds. Two more hospital stays.

I will tell you that when you are sick and need help you find out what your friends and neighbors are made of. For the longest time I just relied on my husband and kids to pick up the slack. Until I finally got to the point that I needed help. I remember another day, again puking while getting my kids off to school and I just could not stop. I texted my friend and said I needed help and in 10 minutes she was at my house picking up my son and taking him for the day. When she arrived at my house I'm sure I smelled like puke. I was getting ready to get in the shower to clean myself up (and was in a towel). When I saw her I immediately started crying hysterically and all she did was walk up to me and give me a hug and just that small gesture was just the thing I needed. It also made me realize that it is ok to ask for help.

As the months went by I continued to get worse and worse. But every test came back negative. And I started to feel like people didn't believe, which was so frustrating. There is nothing worse than being in so much pain and having people not believe you.

I remember towards the end of Oct, I was starting to feel like I was at the end of my rope, but there was still no diagnosis and nothing I could do but try to stay ahead of the pain.

After another hospital stay, they were for sure that I had celiac disease, which is an allergy to gluten. So for the whole month of November I was on a gluten free/dairy free diet. Thanksgiving sucked!

I followed back of with my dr in Dec. He said I could go off the gluten free diet and he was going to order more tests, but he was out of town almost the whole month. It was seriously the most frustrating weeks ever. Which brings us to Christmas week......up to this point I was throwing almost everyday, I had lost almost 30 pounds. I couldn't keep anything done.

So the Monday before Christmas was a really bad day, I called my gastro dr, who told me that since my pain was so high to go to the emergency room. Not what I wanted to hear, but I did. They put on Morphine for 5 hours (and in a room next to a person from the prison, who would not shut up, for awhile I thought he was talking to himself until he decided to inform everyone within earshot that he had not been intimate with a girl since July. and let me tell you he used some stronger words) They checked on me, asked if I was feeling better and then sent me home. I made it through the next week throwing up everyday, but I made it through. My kids enjoyed their Christmas.

On Christmas night, I wound up back at the emergency room with the belly of a pregnant women. (it is super fun being asked if you are pregnant, when you aren't) This time they did an ultrasound of my gallbladder. At this point they told me I needed to meet with a surgeon, but the hospital I went to did not have a surgeon on staff. So they gave me 2 options: 1) they could transport me to another hospital and meet with the surgeon or 2) they could give me the names of some dr's, some heavy antibiotics and I could go home. Well I decided to go home. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Two days later Dec 29th, I wound up back at the hospital but this time I was transported to one with a surgeon. I arrived there met with the surgeon  who said he had looked and my file and that he was gonna take me gallbladder out because I had large stones and "sludge", but that he thought there might be something else going on so he was gonna look around, then an hour later I was in surgery. He told me if it was just my gallbladder I would be out of the hospital the next day. As I was waking up from surgery, my husband, parents and sister were waiting for me. I remember my Mom saying that they found something else. Shear panic came over me. It turned out that my simple surgery turned into a bowel resection. Basically I had a 5 inch section of my small intestine cut out and sown back together. Lets just say it was the most painful recovery I have ever had. And since it wasn't a simple surgery, I got to stay another 4 days. I was released on New Years Day. 

The help that I received again from family, friends and neighbors was absolutely wonderful and since then, I have gained back the weight I lost and I HAVEN'T THROWN UP SINCE!!! So after 9 months of hell, I found out I have chrohns disease, which is a chronic thing. I could have another "flare-up", but I pray every night that the problem has been solved.

And that is why I haven't posted in 5 months. Just trying to get my life back together.