I'm retelling the story here so that you can BE YOUR OWN HEALTH ADVOCATE. Women, pay attention. This all started with an ovarian torsion (read: twisted ovary) resulting in tremendous pain and diminishing ability to deal twist the radiating pain that even lead to an inability to walk and shortness of breath.
Trust Your Gut with Your Health Decisions, because Your Life Depends on It.
I know that when it comes to healthcare and seeing doctors, it can all be intimidating when they use acronyms and a language we may not understand. But let me encourage you – nobody knows YOUR body and your health better than you.
Doctors are providers (vendors), the same as choosing to shop at a Target instead of Wal-Mart. If you don’t find what you like at one, you can always go shop at another. I tell you all this because doctors don’t always get it right. I was discharged from an emergency room in July, and if I had taken that doctor’s advice to go home and rest as all I needed to recover, I wouldn’t be here to share my story with you now because I would be dead and gone.
Trust your gut when you think something is “off” and get a second opinion. In my case, it saved my life.
Yes, doctors are highly educated, but they don’t know everything. In my house, where my son has a list of over 20 doctors, we say that’s why medicine is called a “practice.” Without having a medically complex son and all the education that has come with that journey along with the benefit of having doctors as friends, I may not have made it out of this alive.
Unbearable Pain
I had gone to the ER with unbearable pain in my abdomen. I was audibly moaning and writhing in pain, tears streaming down my face. It had gotten so bad I could barely walk. They triaged me, did an EKG, and took blood work while I was in and out of the waiting room in the ER. A few hours later once I got back in a room in the ER, they gave me an IV and finally gave me pain meds. They did a CT scan, and the doctor said he didn’t see anything except gas pockets in my intestines and decided they were going to send me home.
At this point, I still had no idea what my blood work results were, I just knew I couldn’t drive myself home until the narcotic pain meds wore off, and when I tried to walk again … severe pain. I begged the nurse to reconsider the decision to send me home. I couldn’t walk I was in so much pain; how could this be ok? They had to wheel me to my driver’s door so I could drive myself home – for the life of me I could not understand how I was being sent home.
I have dealt with a LOT of chronic pain in my life with my back issues. I had even broken my back at one point and dealt with that for three months before it was discovered I had broken it because initial ER X-rays showed nothing when they only looked at the lower back. Another time I broke a rib and it took me three days to seek treatment for that. All of this information was offered to the doctors and nurses, to demonstrate my high tolerance for pain. The fact that I was crying in pain over my current abdominal issues should be an indication to them just how serious this might be. This all fell on deaf ears, and I begrudgingly drove myself home.
Something Was Wrong
But once I got home, I decided to call my doctor friend and review my lab results. I knew my white blood cell count was high, but I needed some advice on what to do next. On the white count alone, she told me I needed to immediately go see my primary physician. So I did, and she immediately sent me over to surgery for a consult. Upon examination, they admitted me to another hospital for further tests, immediate antibiotics and and IV. No one could understand how on my white cell count alone being nearly double what it should be, the ER could have sent me home.
I KNEW IT WAS WRONG IN MY GUT. And three more doctors after that gave me affirmation that the ER doctor was WRONG.
Eight hours after being discharged from the ER, and admitted into a new hospital, my white count had crept up ANOTHER 10 points. And upon further review of my ER paperwork, there were actually four more of my blood work numbers that were also out of whack. Had I not sought out further treatment, I would have become septic and died in a matter of days. This is why it’s important to trust your gut, and seek additional advice if something doesn’t seem right to you. If I hadn’t trusted my gut about my own body, I would be dead.
My Gut Was Right
They kept me in the hospital for five days while feeding my body antibiotics and running a barrage of tests, and letting my body rest and recover from whatever sparked this little mini vacation of secret shopping the local hospitals. They believe an ovarian torsion is what started this whole thing, and what required the most immediate attention. And if the mystery continued, they would do exploratory surgery later in the week. They continued to search for answers, actually hoping to point to what they believed was inflammation and pain caused by diverticulitis.
And a week after my initial hospital stay to address the ovarian torsion and probably diverticulitis, they continued outpatient testing while they went ahead and scheduled surgery to fix what they knew for sure - I had lots of adhesions (scar tissue) in my abdomen along with pockets of mystery fluid. They found a hernia to repair, and had suspicions about my female organs having endometriosis too, confirmed my uterus had attached itself to the back abdominal wall leaving it with no movement, and potential pre-appenditicis.
The week after my initial hospital release, they discovered the fallopian tube attached to the ovary that had produced very painful cysts that had burst in the past, was swollen to five times it's normal size. So they decided to take out everything on that side. Since they were also going to take out the uterus that had attached itself to the abdominal wall, they chose to take the other fallopian tube as well. They would leave me with one ovary, in hopes I wouldn't have to do any hormone replacement therapy. I was scheduled for all initial surgical procedures with three surgeons at yet another hospital, knowing there would be some exploratory surgery done too, to take care of a few more potential issues.
When they opened me up for surgery, they gave me a definitive diagnosis of diverticulitis because my intestines were inflamed and red. They spent lots of time removing the adhesions and detaching organs that had been sticking to each other, and doing the planned procedures: removal of female organs, hernia repair, removal of fluid and adhesions. The appendix that was a potential issue, was long, red, angry and about to go - so this surgery came just in time.
Clearly, there were things wrong. My gut instincts were right on, and I’m so glad I stayed committed to standing up for myself and advocating for my own health based on what my body was telling me.
Ask questions. Be bold. Phone a friend. But don’t leave your health to chance when you suspect something is very wrong, and your gut is telling you not to let this go.
After my recovery and discussions with doctors and dieticians, one course of action was to do the blood testing to see what foods I am allergic and intolerant too. I learned that IBS is personal and individual, and the only way to forever address it is to have the LEAP MRT blood testing done, and follow up with a specialized eating plan with dietary restrictions. If I continue to eat what I want, and not understand what things are doing my body harm, there is a high chance I will end up with an intestinal cancer, which means a surgical re-sectioning after partial removal of the cancerous area of the intestines. Many times, the body never fully recovers leaving part of the intestines paralyzed, meaning an ostomy (bag) is placed. None of this was an acceptable outcome for me, so here I am trying to regain my health. And I'm sharing my journey with you. I hope you feel a little less alone, a little less desperate, and that someone else out there understands what you are going through.
This week I got to add in a few things to my diet, and so I have a little bit of light in this darkness of bland food I wouldn't normally be eating. I've even found a little joy in the most surprising ingredients. Moving beyond my initial list of 14 things I can ingest has given me something to look forward to.
Hang in there, you can do this too!
Kodi
Comments
Post a Comment