moaning about gall bladders

[baratron]

I am not well. Still/again.

I've had an upset stomach since Wednesday - diarrhoea no matter what I eat. (You know it's pretty bad when you're eating bland white carbohydrates of the sort that would give a lot of people constipation, and yet you still have diarrhoea). It's got to the stage where it's debilitating - I can't eat very much because of the pain and diarrhoea, and what I do eat isn't getting absorbed properly, so I'm tired all the time and quite moody.

Last night was hideous - I had bad gall bladder pain; pain all round the top of my large intestine; a swollen, puffy belly like some women get near their period (except it isn't near mine); and then the diarrhoea on top. I went to bed and couldn't actually lie down because it hurt so much, and couldn't face adding painkillers into the mix. (I know that sounds stupid, but when your belly hurts so much that it hurts to drink water, the last thing you want to do is try to swallow a tablet and have that sitting there fizzing and dissolving plus the worry about trying to keep it down). Bleurgh. Finally got it to stop being evil about 3.30am, and I then slept until nearly 3pm today. My guts behaved well enough for me to go to the shops and buy some clothes, but now they are icky again. Gah.

I have, btw, lost quite a lot of volume and a significant amount of mass over the past few months, but I don't want to be congratulated on it. As ways to lose "weight" go, being so ill you can't eat properly for weeks at a time is not recommended. I definitely don't recommend the part where I couldn't eat at all for 4 days and was on a drip to keep hydrated. Anyone who sees this as a good thing needs a good slapping.

Tomorrow I have a hospital appointment to get the latex allergy test redone, as they still haven't found my results (or if they have, they haven't bothered telling me about them), then an appointment with the consultant on Thursday. After that, who knows? Presumably a date for the operation, although I think I still have an infection. Giving me the same antibiotic three times seems like a brilliant way to breed a nice colony of cefalexin-resistant bacteria. Meh.

Comments

[nitoda]

I'm sorry. Sorry that you are suffering so, and sorry that I am a crap friend who can't get off her arse to come visit you. I think of you ... but that probably doesn't do you a lot of good. I really hope your hospital appointment goes OK and you get what you want out of it and that you'll be feeling better very very soon. But please don't get me wrong ... although I find it hard to read folks' bad news sometimes, especially about physical health (I'm a wuss and illness does frighten me) I am grateful that you update your journal often enough that I know how things are going with you, even when it is bad news.
Hugs would be offered if you were able to accept them? Much sympathy otherwise ...

[baratron.livejournal.com]

sorry that I am a crap friend who can't get off her arse to come visit you.

Eh? Where did that come from?

Maybe you're feeling randomly guilty, but it's certainly not what I'm thinking. Whenever you post it's about how busy & tired you are - I do know other people have things going on in their lives apart from me!

I post a lot because it's the only way to let people know how I'm doing - I figure that at least with lj, it's fairly "opt-in". Besides, I mark all the moaning as moaning, so people can ignore it if they want. Right now, I'm more annoyed than anything else, because I feel fairly well but I'm just too tired to get things done.

Hugs are difficult when my belly is crap, but *hugs* get round that problem.

[nitoda]

Oops! My guilt, OK, I own it, I do! Maybe I should have said that I wished I had the energy and time to be a better friend instead of saying what I did. But I guess I always have struggled with that desire to do more than is actually possible to ease suffering wherever I see it. It's one reason why I tend to isolate myself a lot from painful stuff going on in the larger world, because I somehow feel I *should* be doing more. I certainly didn't mean to imply that *you* thought I should be doing more, though I don't think it would be unreasonable of you to feel isolated and neglected at the moment. I was thinking that we spent New Year with you last year, but now when you need visitors we are not coming over and it seemed very mean somehow.
I also feel bad because I borrowed a book from you last time I came over and I read it about the next day or two but I still haven't got it back to you! Aaaargh! Not much prospect of getting over any time soon, either. Maybe I should post it back? (It's The curious incident of the dog in the night time). If you would like it posted back to you, let me know, OK?
*HUGS* ... lots and lots of *HUGS*

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Ugh, you poor dear. It sounds awful. And why are they making your life more difficult by making you get a test for latex allergy when you know you have it? Your health-care people need kicking.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

The good news is the doctor today said that with my history, she doesn't care what the blood test says - I am Officially latex sensitive even if I don't have the required number of immunogoblins immunoglobins in my blood. She is apparently going to write to the consultant to tell him. Apparently it is not terribly difficult to deal with, all operating theatres have a "latex free" box and it's just a case of them remembering to use the right stuff, which if I have a nice red wristband on should happen.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

All right, she is exempt from the kicking. (Everyone else still gets it.) Thank goodness it's easy! We all knew it ought to be.

[ludy]

meep, that is very not good, i'm sorry. (i hope my vist didn't contribute in anyway to saturday night being so awful)

Sometimes people ask me how i stay skinny but i have to tell them i don't recomned IBS as a lifestyle chioce

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I don't think it did - mostly I was worried that I had been ill & grumpy at you. I hadn't really realised how crap I was feeling or to what extent I was hiding being ill until the evening, when I was too ill to hide it anymore.

I know it's stupid to try to hide being ill in front of people you care about - and even more stupid if the person concerned is ill themselves & understands - but it just seems to happen. Just like when someone asks you if you're ok, and you reply "I'm fine" even though you're not fine, because the long answer would take 10 minutes and involve far more moaning than you think they want to hear.

Meh. The good news is I seem to be better today. I mean, I woke up panicky but that passed (eventually - after I forced myself out of the house and onto two buses) and my guts have *touch wood* been behaving. I'm hoping that they got embarrassed into behaving by my ranting on lj :)

[barakta]

I wouldn't wish gallbladder pain on anyone. I hope the yoink the bugger as soon as possible.