Wednesday 2 January 2008

What a way to start the new year!

So we had friends over on New Years eve to play cards and eat junk food and have a generally good time - which we did.

I was determined to rid the house of all junk type food so I cooked up chicken nuggets, chicken wings, sausage rolls, made plates of cheese & crackers, had lots of bowls of chips and brought out every single chocolate or cookie I could find in the house (and there were plenty!). I also put out baby carrots and dip to make it seem like we had veggies too but I don't think anyone even ate them.

Well....the next day when I dragged my butt out of bed around 10am - I didn't much feel like eating (since I had only stopped eating a few hours before!).

Around noon, my stomach started hurting so I figured maybe I was hungry - I grabbed a piece of deli ham from the fridge. It didn't sit well with me - I didn't feel hungry but I was still getting cramps. This went on for several hours - I would get intermittent cramps high in my stomach, some quite bad, most lasting a couple seconds to a minute or two then they would go away. I also had diarrhea. I had a bit of yogurt later in the day and 2 soda biscuits.

We had had plans to go to friends for dinner - I called them and let them know that only K & J would be coming. I sent them off at around 4pm.

At about 5:30pm the cramps got so bad and started to creep up my chest that I called K to take me to the hospital (luckily he was just down the street). He came and drove me there.

Once there the Dr said it sounded like gallbladder problems and ordered blood-work to be done. Once it was done, I sent K home as they told me it would be about an hour until results would be back and I was feeling better.

That didn't last - about 15 mins after K left I suddenly felt very dizzy and nauseous, I grabbed the bedpan thingie and then as I began to feel like I may pass out, I asked a man there with his wife to get me a nurse. I vomited a couple times and clung to the bed rail, sure I was going to faint.

The nurse came in, I told her my hands were starting to go numb, she told me it was because I was hyperventilating and I had to calm my breathing down.

My hands began to spasm and twist into unnatural shapes - I couldn't move them, unclench them at all. They hurt like H$ll! I told her this and she kept telling me to slow my breathing down - they way my hands were killing me it was difficult to do. This pain was worst then anything I had experienced that day. After about 5 minutes (that felt like hours) I managed to get my breathing under control and the vice -like grip on my hands released.

Around that time the Dr came back to say the blood-work all came back normal - but that it was still probably my gallbladder and he would order an ultrasound (update: scheduled for Jan 12th) and an abdominal CT scan (no appt yet) for me. The nurse gave me a shot of Gravol for the nausea they said I could call K to come get me. I didn't have many more cramps after that but was so tired and weak from not eating all day.

K drove me to our friend's to pick up J and then we came home - I came home and went to bed.

I haven't had any cramps since - I have been being careful about what I do eat - I researched gallbladder diets online and got conflicting info - but all say lowfat - so I will be avoiding fat as much as possible, some say high-fibre, others say low-fibre. I will play around and see what happens - hopefully without triggering another attack.

The only good thing to come out of all that was I lost 5 lbs! Way to start a diet!

So how did you spend New Years day?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good heavens Kim! When do something, you go to the extreme! I'm glad this is all being looked at further. Take care of yourself. If it makes you feel any better, we had colds and flus over Christmas and New Year's...

Jean

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