Free!!!

Good news they have released me! Let's face it I was starting to feel like a resident there and I can't afford their rent! In fact if I had to stay any longer I was going to ask for an application.... After 15 days I'm sure I would make a great nurse.

So I have been home for two days now. My stomach is great, no pain and I'm processing food almost perfectly...... On the other hand my right arm hurts and aches like crazy. Since I was in the hospital so long they inserted what's called a picc line which is 3 IV ports connected to one line that went inside my arm (between my elbow and armpit) in my vein all the way over to my heart. I thought it was the smartest thing in the world because everytime they needed to take blood work (daily) or give me pain meds (several times daily) and also my IV solution to keep me from dehydration (24/7) I already had the line and they didn't have to stick me a million and a half times. However the last two days it was in, my arm was getting sore..... And now..... It's the only reason I'm still taking any kind of pain medication. I'm watching it closely because I'm ready to go and get it checked out if I need to (I've got this fear it could be a blood clot in my arm).

So more good news........ During my hospital stay I was mostly on no food at all while my pancreas healed. I was on a liquid diet for about 4 days and I was on real food for about 4 days...... Well my stomach shrunk. You know how you hear the gurus tell you that your stomach is the size of your fist..... Well mine is!!! I am being ever so careful not to stretch it out. I don't want to sit down and eat half a pound of food.... Let's face it if I want more of something good I can always wait 3 hours and eat more. I've been doing good too for dinner I had a grilled chicken breast with mushrooms and a little cheese and a sweet potato. For breakfast I had scrambled eggs and 3 bites of pancakes and 1 bite of a sausage link (my husband went out and got Dennys). Yesterday my husband made me a chicken noodle soup Caribbean style and I couldn't even eat a half a cup!

Can you stand for anymore good news? I weighed myself yesterday morning and I weighed 205! And baby I'm going down from here...... I can taste the 100s. I'm already fitting into some shirts that I couldn't a few weeks ago. I don't wanna go back.

Well that is all for now. Thanks for all the supportive comments.
Take care and everyone have a healthy and happy one!
Love Always,
Amberly

Day 13

Well I'm still here at the hospital. They started me on a liquid diet yesterday and they may start me on food tomorrow. Once I have food they will monitor me for a few days and then send me home :o)

In the past 13 days I have had less than a cup of food. Besides getting better, the only other nice thing is that I know that I have definitely lost weight. For the next few weeks my diet needs to be liquids, soups, and very low fat foods. What a way to get me a head start lol.

Thanks for the comments
I'll keep ya posted.
Have a healthy and happy day!
Love Always
Amberly

A really sick girl.

Today marks 10 days........ Of being in the hospital. I went in to the ER for abdominal pain and I knew from past experience that I probably had pancreatitis. Sure enough, and that was the most painful night of my life. Any meds they were able to give me wasn't strong enough and didn't last long enough. I was so dehydrated that I thought I was going to die of thirst. They refused to give me anything except pain meds and an IV. They admitted me immediately and I was sent straight to the intensive care unit (ICU). I was pretty much only conscious when my pain meds wore off. They verified that it was my pancreas and that my blood work up showed that my triglycerides were over 7000. That's not a typo. according to the information I've researched these are triglycerides levels:

Normal - Less than 150 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL)

Borderline high - 150 to 199 mg/dL

High - 200 to 499 mg/dL

Very high - 500 mg/dL or above

I was extremely dangerously high. In fact I think I shocked many of my doctors. Someone with that high of triglycerides normally means that have a problem with alcohol. That isn't me though. I may have an occasional drink (once a month) but nothing nearly to send my triglycerides high or off the charts as they are.

The doctors recommended that I go through with a procedure called Plasmapheresis. Basically it's just like dialysis, they filtered and cleaned my blood through a machine and put it back in my body. They redid my blood work and found my triglycerides had dropped to just above 300.

I've been in recovery and have had a bit of a set back. I was stomach pain again. My abdomen has a few liquids pockets, but there isn't anything they can do. They are going to continue watching me so that my pancreas doesn't relapse.

This is my third time in 4 years. I've been doing some mad research trying to find out how I got this way and how to prevent it from happening again. Diet and exercise of course, but I've already been doing those things. So more research to do.

Sorry that I haven't been around much. I'm still hanging in there though.
Have a happy and healthy day!
Love always
Amberly