trip to the hospital

it's been a year of firsts. took my first day off from work due to UC, which i had managed to avoid up to this april. and yesterday was my first hospital trip and stay. though it didnt start out that way. originally i had a blood test scheduled on saturday morning. like an idiot, i went out friday night, drank too much, drank a few red bulls, and ate mcnuggets at 3 am, blowing my fast. so i rescheduled for monday. saturday during the day was horribly awful, and I considered going to the ER, but figured they prob wouldn't do much for me and i should just wait for my reg appointment on thursday. we called my gi doc, and he suggested doing a stool sample alot with the blood tests monday morning, and he'd see my thurs as scheduled.

fast forward to monday morning at the lab, and i'm good and fasting. but they can't do a sample and turn around results by thursday. so they suggest i go do it at the hospital. we go to the ER and get the blood tests, stool and urine samples. surprise pancreatitis! they admit me and tell me they are keeping me overnight. sent me for a cat scan and more bloodwork, and started me on iv steroids. i was kinda bummed, but i'm not the doc. i'm giving in to the professionals. obviously, the pancreatitis has been going on for a bit, and is beyond my control with diet, so it was good to go in.

the er doc was very nice and sounded like she had some gi stuff because she ws familiar with all the tests i've had to do up to this point. the er nurse rocked too, and i was put in isolation in case i had c.diff. they're taking cultures, which was a bit embarrassing because yeah, i still have poo shame. i guess if it looked like poo instead of slime from the black lagoon, i'd be less embarrassed. i'm like, sorry for being extra disgusting, but all the nurses are so nice here.

i also got some dilaudid which is helping with that weird random hip pain. had some x-rays to check that out today. ortho thinks it might be spinal or illobital band, or bursitis, but not arthritis, so i'll prob have a followup visit with them after i get out of the hospital.

so it was my first hospital overnight, and aside from the noisy iv machine waking me up, it wasn't so bad. i got kind of annoyed when i couldn't eat due to the pancreatitis, because i had been fasting since sunday night, but i finally got to eat today, which made it much much better. i have to stay again tonight, but i think i'll be more prepared this time. definitely feeling a little better, uc is not as active as saturday, but i'm paranoid it'll start up again as soon as i leave. another annoyance was that because i wasn't eating, they put me on a dextrose drip, which raised my blood sugar, so they gave me insulin. since i had a cat scan with contrast dye, i can't take the metformin for a few days, and since they're giving me steroids for the uc, that's gonna raise my blood sugar too. but i'm done with trying to figure this stuff out -- it's up to the pros to figure out how to balance ibd vs diabetes and i'll just do as they say. take my drugs, eat right, exercise. no more DIY medical attempts. probably less drinking and no red bull for awhile.

i have to stay again tonight, but hopefully can leave tomorrow. it's not bad being in the hospital, but it's boring and i feel weird bothering people for info and stuff i need. i'm less sleepy today, i got a little teary this morning, but i think i was just tired. i should sleep better tonight i hope

so i didn't want to go to the hospital, but it was definitely the right move.