In the hospital again!

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Up all night puking, wound up in the hospital!

May 05, 2008 06:00 PM


Saturday night we decided to go out to eat at Old Country Buffet, dad decided to feed me a little bit of steak with a lot of BBQ sauce to help lubricate it so I could swallow it. After that we came home and around 10:00 PM I started puking. I puked 7 times and then stopped around 7:00 AM sunday, every time I tried to drink something I puked it right back up. We called my doctor and he told us to go to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital's pediatric emergency room, we were at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital for my G-Tube insertion. So around noon we were all ready to head to the hospital, me with an empty stomach and not drinking anything was miserably nauseated but luckily no longer puking. We arrived at the hospital at 12:30 PM and went to the emergency admitting desk and gave my information. We then waited a few minutes and then were taken into a triage room. They took my blood pressure, blood ox and pulse along with my temperature. He then inserted a pediatric 24 Stubs Gauge needle and then threaded in an IV line. Surprisingly due to the small needle size this was no where near as painful as insertion of the IV when I was in the operating room for my G-Tube insertion, they explained that an OR line is much larger around a 16-17 in pediatric operations just in case very fast large volume of lifesaving blood or medication is needed it can be infused much quicker in a high gauge line. Once the IV line was inserted he connected a small line with a blood collection connector and inserted several blood vials one after another to collect blood for testing. After this I was taken to a private E.R room and waited for about an hour before the E.R doctor came. The doctor examined me and then asked some questions and then ordered that I have X-Rays taken. After another thirty minutes I was taken to X-Ray and they took 10 pictures from various angles, all with intent to visualize gastroenterological systems. After this I was taken back to my room and we waited a while longer. After another hour or two they came in and explained that my white blood cell count was high and that my potassium level was quite low along with the fact that from the blood tests i was obviously dehydrated. They brought in my "little friend" the IV pump and hooked my line up to it and began pumping hydration fluids along with potassium and multi-vitamins. After another half hour they talked to my surgeon and doctor again and all three agreed to admit me overnight for monitoring and more hydration. It took another two hours for them to get me a room as the hospital was already very full. We got a room on the same floor with the same nurses from the G-Tube surgery, all of the nurses already knew me and some even came to give hugs. I was set up in a room much larger than the room i had when i had the G-Tube surgery. They then had the surgical team come up and examine me and they then cleared me to drink ice water and suck on ice chips. This morning they woke me up around 7:00 AM for some more blood tests, since the IV line was already pumped into they could not use that, only a brand new IV line can be used to draw blood. Thankfully the lab tech was very good and got the blood out pretty easily without much pain, again using a 24 Stubs Gauge needle. After this we simply waited around until I finished most of my third bag of fluids and they introduced some flavored juices. They concluded that I am no longer allowed to eat any solid food unless it is very soft like veggies in chicken soup. We discharged around 3:00 PM, all E-Mail delays are already cleared as of this news posting.

(hint its clipped from my blog on http://www.alinssite.info) but i wanted all of you to know about this so you dont worry that i have not been on all last night and yesterday and day before

well that sucks that you can't eat solid foods anymore.

Hey Strapples, really glad you are OK, because we were worried

If you do decide to eat out again though, stay outta Old Country Buffet!

I doubt that i will be doing anything solid as the doctor instructed me to avoid it.

Poor Strapples . I hope everything gets better. That sounds awful to have gone through that. I don't tolerate pain very well espeacially with vomiting. You had me worried. The only words I can think of are good luck, alot of us like having you here even your annoying straps and all.

well i been in and out of the hospital twice in the last 3 weeks... one i stayed in emergency only for 6 hours for a urinary problem (wont go further than that... decided that that is a non disclosable news release not to go outside of family) and then this time for two days and one night

my condition is getting worse very rapidly and the doctors can see it... it might not be long till i am living in the hospital off of machines... hopefully that wont happen... but thats where a lot of these diseases end up..

Dang, Strapples, is there anything they can do to slow it, or even reverse it?

since it cannot be diagnosed there is nothing to slow it or reverse it... 90% of these diseases cannot be slowed or reversed.. only 10% can be slowed... and next to nil can be reversed...

these diseases are a one way ticket.

Damn, that is bad! Well, I hope you are in the 10%, Strapples - you certainly have the spirit!

I wish there were a bunch of us closer to you so we could pay you a visit, especially when you go in to the hospital.

Sorry to hear about all that.
Glad you're over that problem for now.

Have your parents already been preparing soft foods for you anyway?
It takes some planning and a food processor, but making soft foods should not be a major issue... it's eating them that might be the hardest part... depending on how they taste.

I've done that for a little while for someone else before... cooked, pureed, and frozen veggies, meats.

Hope you all can get this all worked out so it's not so bad for you or your parents.

i do not do any "real" food... i drink only... all of my food is handled by a special pump that pumps a lab created formula into my stomach at night...

i wish more people were able to visit me while in the hospital... sadly i dont get many people at all... family does not live close, nor am i "close" to them... and then theres just moms friends who really visit for her mostly...

i am able to drink soup broth tea smoothies (NO DAIRY! ICE AND FRUIT ONLY!) and soda and other thin liquids.. along with popsicles and italian ice since they liquify in your mouth.

Strapples, that’s sad to see that there’s not much that can be done.

As wsmac posted, if some of lived a bit closer we would stop by for visits. It sounds like you could use all the support you can get.

I'm glad you're feeling better now. I hope you don't have to go back to the hospital any time soon!

How did they determine that the disease can't be diagnosed? How common are undiagnosable neuromuscular disorders? It sounds scary, but I know you're an optimist.

i am feeling kinda better... still very gassy and belching a lot, its almost like a just had an endoscopy, those make you gassy since they fill your abdomen with air... but still anyways feel better than i did saturday night by a long shot

They are still working to find one, some diseases take years to diagnose... some cannot... it is common for them to not be diagnosable... especially if it is neuromuscular / multi-systemic... meaning involving other systems too, since mine involves respiratory, osteogenic (bone), heart (electrical issue, causes my heart rate to go very high if i exert myself in any way, like trying to stand and hold myself up with help, and if i am resting it can sometimes dip as low as 45 bpm)

I couldnt agree more , Godspeed you Strapples!

I wish all of you could visit too