Hospital room 3206

There are few things worse than being in Hospital. I know, I spent last week there. It’s not really the Hospital that is so bad, it’s being sick enough to get there. I know, I spent last week there too. Another unexplained bout of nausea and vomiting started early Monday morning. I held out for a couple of hours, hoping it would pass. It did not. It was a classic CVS flare, intense nausea and vomiting every 15 minutes - endlessly.

Once I got to the ER, I gave the staff a bit of a scare - apparently my new compromised cardiac function looks like a heart attack on an EKG. Things got pretty exciting as they assumed the worst and started treatment. Luckily my Cardiologist was working the ER at the time and waved them off, explaining my condition and history.

As the vomiting continued throughout the day I was admitted late in the afternoon. It took 72 hours for the flare to finally subside and the vomiting to stop. Like last time Reglan (Metaclopromide) was the most successful treatment. I’m not sure what happened - Phenergan used to work really well for me but has basically lost it’s effectiveness in the last couple of years.

On Thursday I took a “Gastric Emptying” test. It involves eating a egg-salad sandwich laced with Barium and laying under an X-ray machine for a couple of hours while it passed through my stomach. I fell asleep after the first hour so it all passed pretty quickly.   

As is typical, this CVS flare has been followed by severe night sweats, soaking my night

clothes and bedding multiple times each night. Based on past experience it gonna last a few weeks. Speaking of experience, I realized I've been dealing with this for nearly 25 years. That is a long time.

One of the toughest parts of any Hospital stay for me is getting an IV. I’ve always been a difficult stick and this time was no different. I think I had 6 different IV locations between the back of my hand to my elbow joint on both arms. Even when they get one started, it seems to stop working within a day or two. Infiltration they call it when when the IV leaks and my arm swells like a sausage. It happened twice this time.

The other tough part of Hospital stays is the lack of sleep — Starting at about 5am the work cycle starts. First comes the 5am blood draw. 2-3 vials each time. Then the 6am blood pressure check and first medication cycle. At 7:30 it's breakfast delivery and at 9am another BP check — you get the idea. The cycle continues until the last BP check at midnight. All this activity doesn’t leave much time for solid sleep.

I left Hospital Friday night about 7 and slept most of the weekend away. I’m starting to feel stronger now — I took a walk with Kathy and Jax today and felt tired but good. So now it’s all follow-up appointments with my Gastroenterologist, GP and Cardiologist. One down and two to go...