FRIDAY

okay, so they are super seriously promising me I get to go home tomorrow, Friday April 10th.

I have been in here since March 25th. That is a 16 day grand total of eating hospital food, sleeping in a hospital bed, showering in a hospital shower that doesn't get hot, fretting and stressing over the blatant lack of even maintaining a baseline of health, 16 frustrating days of watching two teams of doctors play I know whats best for her so butt out - entertaining, but um - not very conducive to me getting the crap out of this place, and 16 days worth of tests, most of them odd, invasive, sometimes painful, but I now know my basal metabolic rate while lying in bed watching parent trap starring pre-whore lindsey lohan (?). So yeah, quick 16 day recap



March 25, went for a small bowel study, this was the last morning I left my house.

One of two blood transfusions, pre and post op.
After gratituious vomiting (guess how great if feels to vomit only days after major abdominal surgery) one unfateful evening, they shoved an NG tube down my nose and into my belly - so all my stomach/upper GI contents are promptly resucked back out and displayed in my proud see through vaccutanier. This is what a swiss roll cake looks like enroute from packaging, my mouth, my esophogeous, and back up the roller coaster ride of NG vaccusuck.


The vaccusuck --(proudly now) - I filled about one of those a day without even eating, its a little known fact my body is comprised entirely of pond sludge.


//kkuucchhhhaaaaa Luke I am your father kkkkkuuucchhaaa// or. you know. Caliormetry testing - so they can install a more or less permanent IV in my arm that travels directly to my heart feeding me TPN - i.e. liquid food, also good for narcotic drugs - tends to deliver a little more of a punch when administered through those lines I tell you what.


new portal of life.

and then last but not least, after 16 days of some really swell gumshoe efforts, it was determined the 105 fevers, massive cramping, obstructions, were all lo and behold the culprit of a large pocket of potentially infectious fluid hanging out in my abdomen. So this morning I went in to have them suck it out, leaving me with my final consolation prize of a JP tube that will continuously drain the contents of my interabdominal space a few mLs an hour. Also, I get to cleverly try and (its absolutely impossible) hide underneath my clothes.


Great. So they are letting me go home tomorrow. I have so much schoolwork to catch up on, a paper that will literally probably take me 30 hours to write, two paper presentations I have to put together, a take home test, all the class material that I have been missing must be caught up on, and oh - then of course trying to do what I'm really here for, and that's figure out my project so I can actually start working on something relative that might get me a PhD. While administering my TPN, emptying my drain, trying to figure out how to walk for longer then 5 min without needing to sit...etc..etc..

On the bright side, my older sister is flying in from San Fran to stay till Wednesday to help me out, hope she has a lot of quarters - I'll draw her a map to the laundry room.