November 10, 2002
-
If anyone out there is reading me, I've been very ill.
Woke up at 4:30am on Tues. Oct. 22nd, with extremely excruciating pains in my stomach. To make a long story as short as possible, here's a brief run down:
I had a severe case of food poisoning, which refused to get better, and I ended up in the ER at 10:30pm on Fri the 25th, after being unable to eat or drink ANYTHING.
I stayed in the hospital for 5 days, living for most of that time on ice chips (they also had me on constant I.V.s, right up to the moment I left).
It turned out I also had a really bad urinary tract infection, as well as a white blood cell count at 16-17,000 (Normal is at/below 10,000), which is now down to a healthy 6-7,000, and spent the whole 5 days getting pumped full of antibiotics (also by IV.)
The diagnosis that got me into this predicament, was a gastro-intestinal condition called "Ileus". It's an inflammation of the inner lining of the intestine, which swells up, and narrows the passage for stuff to get in and out. (*AGONY*!!!)
As an aside, I also spent Sunday Oct. 27th---my 62nd birthday!---in the hospital. Considering the circumstances, it was a lovely occasion, with several of my very dear friends visiting me, bearing gifts and well-wishes. My brother and his family...who live in Colorado Springs...sent me an extraordinarily lovely floral arrangement with both "Get Well" and "Happy Birthday" balloons included! (Of course we spoke by phone too.) I got lots more beautiful flowers (some from a home garden), a plant, a great book called "The Blue Day Book", with nifty photos of animals and cute captions for each; a stuffed bear with his paw in a honey-pot, and a pair of slippers, and of course lots of cards, phone calls & emails. I am a truly rich woman, in the things that matter---it's wonderful to be appreciated and loved by so many special and wonderful folks!
I left the hospital on the 30th, against medical advice, because I had to get my low-income housing annual application & documents turned in, or ultimately be out on the street (the full price of my apartment is hundreds more than my monthly Social Security amount!).
After I did that, I went into major battle against a really bad bout of clinical depression. (Please remember, I am bi-polar/manic-depressive, so this is a "natural" state for me.)
It's one of the worst depressive episodes I've had in a while, but because of my years of spiritual recovery work on this mental-illness area of my life, I was able to keep it from descending to the level of "worst of the worst---paralysis". (I call that state "lower than a snake's belly"!)
Today (Sunday, Nov. 10th), I am finally feeling better, a bit more like a person again, instead of a war-zone, so here I am posting a weblog for posterity.
Hope all of you are doing well. Haven't gotten around to reading anyone else yet, but will when I can.
Love and tons of "Original Earthmom" {{{cyberhugs}}} to all!
Shelley
Comments (4)
Sorry to hear about the food poisoning. But glad you are feeling better! I'm about to post an answer to your question on my site; I was going to link to your site as well, hope you don't mind...
Wow no wonder you just disappeared. I had kept checking in and you had not been around and I kept thinking it seemed odd and wondered what had happened. I am glad you didnt make it into the snakes belly and that you are feeling human again. I hope that the Illeus has gotten better also so that you are both physically and mentally healing. Glad to see you back..and by the way roflmao..that is lazy abbreviation for Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off..sorry about the profanity
hugs and strength to you
belinda
Aren't you glad you've had all that experience with depression so you know how to handle it?
Don't mind me or the levity, please, I'm just trying to look on the bright side. I'm glad you're feeling better.
wow, hope you're feeling better!!!
to answer your question, it's actually the display of that data that kills us... but maybe we can create a special page where if you click on it, you can see that monthly calendar module that you like so much!
Comments are closed.