In a wood full of princes, freedom is a kiss...
I was listening to this song on the way home about 20 minutes ago... it's very appropriate. Why, may you ask? Well, I haven' t been able to be on the computer all week. I've been in the hospital. Yup, AGAIN. And I'm grateful to be out and home again. This is the first "computer" thing I'm doing - then I'll take a bath and a nap, and check e-mail and type in a few other entries I wrote while I was in the hospital plus an e-mail to one of my brothers.
I wrote the rest of this entry "on paper" while I was in the hospital - italics refer to when I wrote it.
(Saturday, 8:45am)
I'll start with last Monday, before I went in. I had been feeling somewhat better that afternoon and tried eating again and ended up throwing up yet again that night while some family friends were over. Ended up asking for a blessing, and in that blessing I was told to call the doctor.
Tuesday I slept for a while (I was up and down, wrote about the first half of the Korea trip) and finally got up for good at about 11am. I called the doctor at noon, he told me to come in. I had to wait for my sister to get home from school, and got there at 2:30pm. I described what had been happening (I hadn't been throwing up since Monday night, but then, I didn't eat anything either) and he said he wanted me admitted for IV fluids, and some CAT scans and X-Rays taken. By 6pm, I was admitted to the ER while the hospital waited for a room to open up, and had D5LR (with water-soluble vitamins added to the D5LR bag once a day), an antibiotic [vials every 6 hours], and steroid shots [every 12 hours] on my IV. They didn't have a room open until Wednesday afternoon, right before Mom got back with more clothes and entertainment stuff (the two books I had brought for reading while I was waiting for the doctor were done twice over by then).
Had more abdominal X-Rays on Thursday and Friday. By Friday afternoon, my doctor was allowing me to drink, and that evening, I was starting to eat. Friday night wasn't the greatest of meals - a VERY pulpy orange juice, cream of celery soup, and a rice broth without the rice - didn't appreciate that last one, but the other two things were all right.
(9am by this point)
This morning (Saturday), I had scrambled eggs, some sort of vegetable (tried one bite and said naahhh...), a soup with tofu and celery in it (I can't believe I actually ate the tofu - I can't stand the texture or taste normally. Must have been because of not eating much of anything since Monday), some more broth with the rice this time, and some milk.
My hospital room is on the small side for having 6 beds in it, so I'm starting to get a bit of cabin fever (now do you get the "freedom is a kiss" reference?) but I could get out of it, so it wasn't too bad. Right now, there are 3 other people in it, but none of them speak much English, so that doesn't help. Another one - who DID speak enough for short conversations - left Friday afternoon. I'll take a little nap and come back to this in a bit.
(9:35am - OK, not much of a nap, can't sleep)
I should mention the "Friday night comedy half-hour" - otherwise known as trying to replace my IV! It took them 4 times to try and do it! By the third time, I went "Am I going to have any arms left when you're done?" and apparently one of the three nurses understood enough English - or caught the expression on my face - and broke out in to laughs - which set the other two to giggling! I don't normally have that difficult of veins to find, is what is really funny about it! (I know people that do - my mom, for one.) Last March, I got infiltrated once, and they had to put a neck one in, too, but otherwise I usually have no trouble. Maybe I got the nursing students that night, I don't know. I'm going to take a break, watch a movie, and then write a self-analysis entry while I wait for the doctors to show up - I want to know when I can go home, of course!
(7pm)
Did everything but the movie (read some books and did some sudoku puzzles instead) I won't be going home until Monday, unfortunately. One more person left today, too.
(10pm Sunday)
Well, did the movie. ("Children Of Dune" - I liked it.) And I got told Sunday morning that I can get home tomorrow. Mom visited today (she's been visiting every day) - brought me "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" as well as more food (rice gets boring after a while, you know? And some of the other stuff they feed me here just ISN'T what I'm used to, too. It's too strange, looks or smells weird, etcetera... just unappetizing! So I have Mom bring stuff that I WILL eat to add to what's on the hospital trays.) and I'll start watching that in a bit. They took me off the IV last night except for the antibiotic (which they just put in as I started writing this paragraph) and I'm on my regular anti-inflammatory (Pentasa) as well as 40mg prednisolone, starting this morning. This should keep me out of hospital and pretty healthy until we move out of Okinawa (my current return plane ticket is for the 16th of April to Seattle, my family's work contract expires in late June.
Logistics tomorrow are going to be F-U-N - my brother went into the hospital himself at 6am this morning (not for Crohn's - he's been tested for it recently - for something ELSE) and is expected to be getting out the same time I am - at the military hospital Dad works through, which is 10 kilometers away from the hospital I'm at! (He doesn't have a doctor at my hospital, nor does he have the experience dealing with the Japanese medical system like I do, but I can't use the military hospital without a military ID, so I'm stuck!)
(10:30pm - IV is finally out for good!)
And that was the LAST thing stopping me from going home tomorrow (other than the transport to get there!) unless I have massive cramps or diarrhea or vomiting tomorrow morning. (note: which I didn't, since I'm home now.) Dad, Mom, and my youngest brother and sister were planning to speak at Church today - but with everything going on, Mom was just too stressed out to do it, and my sister stayed home with her to help clean up the house (the branch president sent his wife over to help Mom de-stress while Dad was at church) - and their talk subjects were about "The Proclamation On The Family". Mom told me she would have just broke out into tears - as well as feeling hypocritical about even being there - having to speak on that subject with two sons in different hospitals at that moment! Dad and my brother did speak, however. (Dad couldn't really stay home - like me, he has his branch clerk responsibilities, as well as his talk! It IS yet another thing when YOU'RE the one sick.)
What other movies did I see while I was here? Well, I watched "Charade" and "The Truth About Charlie", (Mom got the DVD with both movies on it... "Charade" is better - I didn't like the 'gratuitous nudity' that "The Truth About Charlie" had.) as well as portions of "Sky High", "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", and "Fantastic Four". (I've watch all 3 of those before. I did read a lot (Mom brought 3-5 books most days) and you'll see how much writing I'm doing. I'm glad to be home, and Tuesday or Wednesday will be "errands day" for all the things I didn't do while I was in the hospital that need done. (11:15pm - time to go to bed)
So that's why I haven't been on this past week. I'll describe today after my bath, if I can get on the computer... (The brother who was in the hospital is now on the computer playing a game, so I'm having to wait.)
I wrote the rest of this entry "on paper" while I was in the hospital - italics refer to when I wrote it.
(Saturday, 8:45am)
I'll start with last Monday, before I went in. I had been feeling somewhat better that afternoon and tried eating again and ended up throwing up yet again that night while some family friends were over. Ended up asking for a blessing, and in that blessing I was told to call the doctor.
Tuesday I slept for a while (I was up and down, wrote about the first half of the Korea trip) and finally got up for good at about 11am. I called the doctor at noon, he told me to come in. I had to wait for my sister to get home from school, and got there at 2:30pm. I described what had been happening (I hadn't been throwing up since Monday night, but then, I didn't eat anything either) and he said he wanted me admitted for IV fluids, and some CAT scans and X-Rays taken. By 6pm, I was admitted to the ER while the hospital waited for a room to open up, and had D5LR (with water-soluble vitamins added to the D5LR bag once a day), an antibiotic [vials every 6 hours], and steroid shots [every 12 hours] on my IV. They didn't have a room open until Wednesday afternoon, right before Mom got back with more clothes and entertainment stuff (the two books I had brought for reading while I was waiting for the doctor were done twice over by then).
Had more abdominal X-Rays on Thursday and Friday. By Friday afternoon, my doctor was allowing me to drink, and that evening, I was starting to eat. Friday night wasn't the greatest of meals - a VERY pulpy orange juice, cream of celery soup, and a rice broth without the rice - didn't appreciate that last one, but the other two things were all right.
(9am by this point)
This morning (Saturday), I had scrambled eggs, some sort of vegetable (tried one bite and said naahhh...), a soup with tofu and celery in it (I can't believe I actually ate the tofu - I can't stand the texture or taste normally. Must have been because of not eating much of anything since Monday), some more broth with the rice this time, and some milk.
My hospital room is on the small side for having 6 beds in it, so I'm starting to get a bit of cabin fever (now do you get the "freedom is a kiss" reference?) but I could get out of it, so it wasn't too bad. Right now, there are 3 other people in it, but none of them speak much English, so that doesn't help. Another one - who DID speak enough for short conversations - left Friday afternoon. I'll take a little nap and come back to this in a bit.
(9:35am - OK, not much of a nap, can't sleep)
I should mention the "Friday night comedy half-hour" - otherwise known as trying to replace my IV! It took them 4 times to try and do it! By the third time, I went "Am I going to have any arms left when you're done?" and apparently one of the three nurses understood enough English - or caught the expression on my face - and broke out in to laughs - which set the other two to giggling! I don't normally have that difficult of veins to find, is what is really funny about it! (I know people that do - my mom, for one.) Last March, I got infiltrated once, and they had to put a neck one in, too, but otherwise I usually have no trouble. Maybe I got the nursing students that night, I don't know. I'm going to take a break, watch a movie, and then write a self-analysis entry while I wait for the doctors to show up - I want to know when I can go home, of course!
(7pm)
Did everything but the movie (read some books and did some sudoku puzzles instead) I won't be going home until Monday, unfortunately. One more person left today, too.
(10pm Sunday)
Well, did the movie. ("Children Of Dune" - I liked it.) And I got told Sunday morning that I can get home tomorrow. Mom visited today (she's been visiting every day) - brought me "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" as well as more food (rice gets boring after a while, you know? And some of the other stuff they feed me here just ISN'T what I'm used to, too. It's too strange, looks or smells weird, etcetera... just unappetizing! So I have Mom bring stuff that I WILL eat to add to what's on the hospital trays.) and I'll start watching that in a bit. They took me off the IV last night except for the antibiotic (which they just put in as I started writing this paragraph) and I'm on my regular anti-inflammatory (Pentasa) as well as 40mg prednisolone, starting this morning. This should keep me out of hospital and pretty healthy until we move out of Okinawa (my current return plane ticket is for the 16th of April to Seattle, my family's work contract expires in late June.
Logistics tomorrow are going to be F-U-N - my brother went into the hospital himself at 6am this morning (not for Crohn's - he's been tested for it recently - for something ELSE) and is expected to be getting out the same time I am - at the military hospital Dad works through, which is 10 kilometers away from the hospital I'm at! (He doesn't have a doctor at my hospital, nor does he have the experience dealing with the Japanese medical system like I do, but I can't use the military hospital without a military ID, so I'm stuck!)
(10:30pm - IV is finally out for good!)
And that was the LAST thing stopping me from going home tomorrow (other than the transport to get there!) unless I have massive cramps or diarrhea or vomiting tomorrow morning. (note: which I didn't, since I'm home now.) Dad, Mom, and my youngest brother and sister were planning to speak at Church today - but with everything going on, Mom was just too stressed out to do it, and my sister stayed home with her to help clean up the house (the branch president sent his wife over to help Mom de-stress while Dad was at church) - and their talk subjects were about "The Proclamation On The Family". Mom told me she would have just broke out into tears - as well as feeling hypocritical about even being there - having to speak on that subject with two sons in different hospitals at that moment! Dad and my brother did speak, however. (Dad couldn't really stay home - like me, he has his branch clerk responsibilities, as well as his talk! It IS yet another thing when YOU'RE the one sick.)
What other movies did I see while I was here? Well, I watched "Charade" and "The Truth About Charlie", (Mom got the DVD with both movies on it... "Charade" is better - I didn't like the 'gratuitous nudity' that "The Truth About Charlie" had.) as well as portions of "Sky High", "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", and "Fantastic Four". (I've watch all 3 of those before. I did read a lot (Mom brought 3-5 books most days) and you'll see how much writing I'm doing. I'm glad to be home, and Tuesday or Wednesday will be "errands day" for all the things I didn't do while I was in the hospital that need done. (11:15pm - time to go to bed)
So that's why I haven't been on this past week. I'll describe today after my bath, if I can get on the computer... (The brother who was in the hospital is now on the computer playing a game, so I'm having to wait.)