Friday, March 26, 2010

Can you feel it?

The stomach situation has escalated.  I'm in a routine now where I wake up in the morning feeling fine, and avoid eating until 10am or so when I absolutely have to because at 10am I take stomach-annihilating meds.  After I eat -- no matter what I eat or in what amount -- I am fine until an hour or so later, by which time I have developed a crippling bloating nauseating pain in my stomach (literally, it makes me have to transition into work where I'm sitting down and not using my brain).

The bloating nauseating pain in my stomach slowly amplifies until 7pm (two hours past when I usually have to eat in order to avoid intestinal pain) at which point I determine whether it will be more beneficial to pass on dinner and take my antibiotics on an empty stomach or to eat a bit.  Either one intensifies the situation more -- there's no way around it.

I started off taking ginger to help it settle which did absolutely nothing for three days, so I have stopped.

For the last four days I've been a complete baby and come home from work to hot tea, a percocet, my boiling hot water bladder and the couch.  H.K. is worried that I'm going to give myself skin cancer from eleven years of hot pad/water bladder burns.  The only way I can lessen the pain in any significant way is to burn it away.  One percocet does very little to relieve pain and taking two knocks me out cold until 11am the next day.  Which I absolutely not afford right now since my coworkers are all out of town or otherwise not in for the next few days and not only to I have to make sure I hit all my time-sensitive deadlines, I have to take care of one or two little things of theirs... so I kind of have to be at work.  Screw percocet.

This has been the pattern for six days.

The other pattern has been an odd heavy nausea/vertigo/hot flash situation whenever I exert energy:  running, crying, losing a little blood.  Apparently my body goes into minor shock at every minuscule effort?

Dr GI says all of this can be caused by prednisone (which I haven't taken for three weeks).  He is contemplating a more comprehensive working theory...

On the bright side, I think we figured out a way to plan this wedding that makes everyone at least happy enough to pretend they're not pissed off.

4 comments:

  1. Ragamuffin, this cannot stand. To this situation, I give a hearty no. Some ideas: What about 1.5 percocet? Call me nuts, but it just might be the perfect number. Also, this is seriously abominable snowman, but: Have you tried wrapping your stomach during the day? Stay with me here. You know how it feels better when it's warm? Sometimes I wrap my stomach in many layers, fashion be damned, so that it stays warmer during the day, and I look like an ass but it helps. I wish I could come assist you! Rats.

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  2. Brilliant! This will be implemented immediately. The wrapping, that is; the percocet ratio will wait until later. Will update with any success. Your assistance from afar is much appreciated :)

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  3. The wrapping in layers is a great idea. How about those thermacare heat wraps? I've used them when I have bad joint pain and they work well. I wonder if they would work on your stomach too?

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  4. I actually had -- once upon a time -- a Nikken magnet back belt which I turned around for my stomach. Far infrared warming was quite helpful at the time, but I don't have the money to invest in one now; they're somewhere around $150. Thermacare is probably quite similar in terms of the effect. Thanks, Sweetpea!

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