Alive But Ailing - November 9, 2010

Well, welcome to the club!

 This is one habit, I must break!  Two hospitalizations in less than six months is more
than anyone should have to endure!!  Not that Seton Medical Center isn't an

excellent facility, with superb nursing staff but everyone one knows nurses shouldn't

be patients. 

This whole mess started on Sunday, Halloween night ( clearly I was spooked by

something! ) when I began having violent chills while sitting at my computer ( what

else does my life involve these days? ) .  Plagued by Monterzuma's revenge ( and

I hadn't even been as far as San Francisco ) that night onward, I finally went to my

doctor on Wednesday, very dehydrated and very unhappy.  By Friday, with a weight

loss of seven pounds in five days ( normally, that would have merited sending out party invitations ), I went back to Dr. Yan's.  She took one look at me and found that the

antibiotics she'd started on hadn't seemed to make a difference and sent me off to

the emergency room.  Eight hours and a CAT scan later, they admitted me. 

Of course, my beloved 26-year-old, Jeremy, comes to the hospital about 11PM and

starts the lecture about, "if you just took better care of yourself"...."if you'd exercise

more"...."if you'd lose some weight"...."then you might be able to fight these things

off.  All I could mutter, was, "I know you're right, son, but could you hold this till I'm

feeling better?"

For three days, I was on only a clear liquid diet, ie, tea, jello, broth, clear juices.  They

did allow Jeremy to bring me udon broth from my favorite Japanese restaurant, with

him clearly telling them NO meat, noodles, vegetables, just broth.  When he arrived and

opened the container, they had included noodles.  It was hysterical watching this 6'4"

young man, who I will forever call "the noodle police" fish out those 12" udon noodles

with nothing more than a couple of straws.

It turns out I have a campylobacter infection of the bowel, usually caused by ingestion of

contaminated food, undercooked or poorly handled poulty ( rare poulty is not one of

my food choices ) or contaminated water.  No one else in the family got sick so I don't

know how I acquired it ( my tremendous luck ) but, let me tell you, it is one illness best

avoided.  I was discharged on a no fiber diet for two weeks, then low fiber for

two weeks, then, after a colonoscopy, I hope I'll be back to my abnormal normal.  I

met with the hospital's dietician and this two week stint is tough - vegetables cooked to

mush, no grain or fiber bread - try finding that in this day and age - so I bought sourdough

white bread, canned or cooked ( peeled fruits only ), no salads or anything raw.  Still, it

all beats clear liquids!

I want to tell you how how very much it meant to me to get the wonderful wishes from all

of you.  I didn't take my laptop to the hospital because I knew I was too sick to blog but

my birthday present Droid 2 came in handy to read comments and feel connected to

everyone.  However, I think I have permanently damaged my eyes from squinting at that

little screen.

I have to say a huge thank you to my beloved friend, Joanne Olivieri ( aka Poetic

Shutterbug ), for posting on my blog to let you know I hadn't been whisked into outer

space by Martians.  She also arrived in my hospital room, armed with cheery hot pink

Gerbera daisies and, then, she left and came back with the most beautiful purple

pashmina, found at the hospital gift shop.  While she was there, we laughed and

carried on so much, I forgot I was sick and I'm sure the nursing staff wondered just what

was going on in my room.

Slowly but surely, I'll get around to visiting all...just hope the two kidney stones the scan

showed lodged in my ureters stay put for now.  I've had enough of hospitals for the time

being!