You know I said in my last post that we were going to give food a go? Well what happened after was what I like to call an epic fail.
I managed to have around three teaspoons of soup at lunchtime on Wednesday, as I just felt overwhelmingly full (bear in mind at this point I haven't eaten since Sunday) but felt more confident come dinner time and ordered red lentil soup - slightly chunkier than the soup at lunch - and a yoghurt. I finished the yoghurt and must have got around half of the soup finished. But about half hour later I started to feel really nauseous.
My stomach had literally inflated at all angles and had become very sore and very hard. I felt like if someone put a pin in me, I would whizz around the room. Except it wasn't wind. Oh no no.
Fell asleep thanks to a shit load of drugs and woke up feeling just as poorly on Thursday morning.
I had that whole 'watery mouth' thing going on, common to a pre-vom I have noticed. Yet to no avail. Just couldn't be sick. This could be down to not actually needing to be sick, just had bad nausea, or the fact my stomach muscles are still in shreds and have no strength to cough.
The doctors did their usual morning walk-round and I explained to them how I was feeling (through heavy tears) and they had a feel of my stomach. OUCH.
Turns out I may have 'ileus' which is a blockage of the intestines. It prevents movement of food, fluid and gas and is due to the lack of movement of the intestinal muscles. It is when your gut essentially shuts down due to something dramatic like trauma or major surgery.
I get booked in for an x-ray to make sure there's nothing untoward going on in my bowel, and also have an NG Tube explained to me...
Nasogastric intubation is a medical process involving the insertion of a plastic tube through the nose, past the throat and down into the stomach. I would need this for nasogastric aspiration (suction) which is the process of draining the stomach's contents via the tube, into a collector bag.
However I couldn't have anything to reduce my pain and bloat unless my body did something at either end: poo, vomit, fart. ANYTHING.
So there I was, just spitting into a cardboard bowl all day, convinced I'm going to vomit. But nothing happened. And then my nana and best friend from home come to visit. Welcome back Sod's Law.
No word of a lie, they must have been here maybe 5 mins max and I am chucking up the most disgusting tasting/looking/powerful vomit I've ever produced. I had to get my best friend to run and get a nurse because in the panic I threw my nurse button under the bed. I needed tissues. I needed help.
And then this happened:
Honestly? I cannot describe the pain and discomfort having this tube inserted. I tried every positive thinking technique whilst they were going through it all (and apparently I was doing "very well") but it was near on impossible to be ok with this new challenge.
I still managed to vomit twice with this tube inserted...which shouldn't happen, FYI. The collector bag should have collected what I was throwing up, but it wasn't. A few hours later and after shouting at the nurses (not so much at them, just kind of to them. Either way so sorry, I was very distressed) they removed the tube - all 56cm of it.
Fortunately I managed to get some more anti-sickness drugs pumped into me, got put back on sips of water and linked up to a drip again with multiple bags connected to my cannula. As well as some knock-out meds to help me sleep, because my god, I have NEVER felt so exhausted in all my life.
My mind boggles at how I am going to cope with these endless challenges my body throws at me!
X