Party Pooper

I have to say I sure do know how to live it up...(Disclaimer: This post may be TMI and/or graphic at time...don't say I didn't warn you)

It's been awhile since we had some excitement in our house (not really). It has been almost 8 weeks since my surgery. The surgery was much easier than I thought it would be and the only difficulty with recovery has been the fatigue from a combination of chemo, radiation, and surgery hitting me at once. Well, and diarrhea. I know TMI, but it's a reality from radiation. I had it all throughout radiation, it went away for a little bit, and then came back with a vengeance. As in, over the counter anti diarrhea medication no longer worked.

Not glamorous or desirable, but manageable. I stayed close to home and adjusted my diet some. Then the diarrhea went away and the nausea came back. I have plenty of nausea medication options, so again this issue was manageable.

I wrote last week about hoping I would be able to kick off the new year feeling like my old self, but I'm not quite there yet and that's ok. I really wish I could kick the fatigue, but I know it's all a part of the process and honestly, I'm pretty good at budgeting my energy most days.

About a week ago, I started having some light discharge (I'm not going to say from where...again TMI). This was not too surprising because all my surgical restrictions had recently been lifted and we had resumed life as normal...That's all I'm going to say on that. This past Friday I called my NP to talk to her about it and see if there was any reason I needed to visit the clinic. We talked and she left it up to me, but since I wasn't having any fevers or other signs of infection other than just feeling overall tired and crummy (which may have just been more of the same) I decided I didn't want to visit.

In fact I'm not scheduled to see her again for about 6 months. My last appointment was right before Christmas so the next time I have to be seen in clinic/have a pelvic exam is in March. This was monumental in my life and I'm excited to be at the point where I rotate my 3 month visits between my gyn oncologist and the radiation oncologist team. For me this was a big step...

So back to yesterday...I woke up very nauseated. I took some meds, but I felt miserable. My back hurt. My abdoment hurt. I still wasn't having fevers, but overall I was extremely tired. I took some meds and about mid day I had burst of energy and felt like I was feeling ok. Then the drainage changed...*warning: I'm about to nauseate you* it looked like pus...Those who know me know I LOVE pus, but not when it is associated with my body. G-R-O-S-S! Still I knew if I called the oncall line they would tell me to visit the emergency dept. and I figured that would be the kiss of death to my dignity, so I opted to tough it out until Monday.

Fast forward a few hours later. Hours mostly spent napping. I decided that if I declined overnight in an amount equivalent from Friday to Saturday I was going to have a VERY miserable Sunday. Worse yet, I didn't know what I would do on Monday when I have no daycare options. I caved and had the on-call for gyn oncology department called.

He was super speedy and called me right back. I told him what was going on and tried to convince him that skipping the emergency visit and calling in a prescription for a broad spectrum antibiotic would be a great option. I knew I had no chance, but hey, can't blame me for trying. Of course, it was a no go. In order to preserve my dignity and have some continuity he suggested I ask for the gyn on-call when I got to UW.

The gowns at UW aren't my color...

It took us awhile to get up to Madison to the ED and it was much later than we wanted it to be, especially since we had our munchkins with us. We put them both in pjs in advance and packed the iPad, a computer with DVDs, the stroller, snacks, coloring books, sticker books, and anything else we could think of that might keep them busy until we could get them asleep.

The waiting room was nearly empty and I was taken back to triage nearly immediately. In triage my electronic record was pulled up as I explained why I was visiting. The immediate response? "We're going to get you in a room right away. I'm going to go talk to my charge nurse."

I was excited to find my room was trauma bay 2. I LOVE the trauma bays at UW. They are new, state
of the art, and turn into ORs if needed. I was like a kid in a candy shop. I got to spend time in one when I wasn't working and I wasn't a trauma patient. I had time to read all the algorithms on the walls (nerdy right?) and look at the layout of the whole getup. I had even more fun explaining everything to Geoff.

Algorithms...who doesn't LOVE algorithms?

My nurse was amazing, as was the rest of the team. I never had to ask for the gyn resident on-call, because the intern I talked to on the phone actually paged the 3rd year gyn onc resident and she asked the ED to page her as soon as I arrived. She showed up about 15 minutes later.

This barely does any justice to how awesome she was, but her first concern was turning around the bed/cart in the room for privacy when she did her exam.This way if anyone walked in without knocking, the entire ED wouldn't get a show. She did her exam and expressed concern that my surgical sutures were dehiscing (in other words beginning to open up or come apart) or I had an abcess in my suture line (to give you an idea of where my suture line is...my uterus and my cervix were removed...google female anatomy if you need to know what comes next). She took cultures and then told me she was going to call the gyn onc fellow and have him come in too. She also ordered a CT scan.

Wild drinking on a Saturday night

I ran off to the bathroom and on my way out saw someone I know. Ironically I would always get her to tell me funny stories about ED patients so I felt it would only be appropriate to give her a hug while dressed in my gorgeous gown and all. We only talked a minute but out of the corner of my eye I saw my nurse mix up some go-lytely, a bowel prep (aka cleans out your system), with contrast. It never occurred that it might be for me, I just thought "poor schmuck." I came back to my room to find four large glasses of go-lytely and contrast poured for me with instructions of 15 minutes/cup. I asked for a dose of IV Zofran (nausea med) and I chugged the glasses as fast as I could.

Ella before falling asleep

Meanwhile the fellow came in from home. He did another exam and was relatively certain that I was not dehiscing. He wasn't as certain about an abcess and still felt a CT was justified. By this point it was around midnight. Ella was long since asleep in the stroller, but E was still going strong watching videos. He was on his best behavior, but Geoff and I were still cringing at our parenting skills at this moment.

E watching "The Gruffalo" (a kid's movie) for the 8779827397 time

It didn't take long before I had my CT and it took even less time for the go-lytely to kick in. I spent the rest of my time in ED more miserable than how I walked in. I laughed about drinking away my Saturday night and the after effects were about as much fun too.

We didn't leave until 2 am. It took awhile to get the results from CT. The final diagnosis was some inflammation and infection and the treatment was *drum roll please* a prescription for Augmentin (a broad spectrum antibiotic). I laugh, but I understand and appreciate all the care everyone took to make sure that all bases were covered.

My only complaint was rushing home so I could get to my bathroom. I spent the rest of today enjoying the newly finished (Thursday) bathroom or in bed. Since E didn't get to sleep until nearly 3 am and Ella woke up when we got home and kept Geoff up until 4 am we made it a day of staying in bed as much as possible.

E snuggling with Geoff while watching "The Gruffalo" again atop Ella's stroller

I finally got up at 7 pm for dinner (the kids napped late too). After dinner I ran the kids a bath and sat with them for all of 5 minutes before Ella ended the party by pooping in the tub. The next 30 minutes was a mad dash of getting everyone and everything out of the tub, cleaning and bleaching the tub and toys, re-bathing the kids and finally, getting them ready for bed. I really should resist, but I have to say "I'm pooped."