A birthday do-over

Well, some days just suck.  Sometimes several days in a row!  After I posted my last blog post I started feeling a little off.  I threw up.  Of course, I freaked out and called the Transplant Team (hereafter referred to as TT).  I started 3 new meds and increased some others... all yesterday morning.  We thought it might be the Bactrim, so TT said to call back if I threw up again.  I had a little lunch, took a 1.5 hr nap, woke up and took a Percoset on an empty stomach (I'd done it before... but my stomach lining wasn't sensitive from puking already).  Then the fun began.  I was "flip-top head" Katie.  It was a nickname in college for my post-drinking puking abilities.  Yeah... good times, good times...

Anyhoo... we ended up going to the ER Wednesday afternoon.  I had a raging headache and I was dehydrated.  They gave me 1.5 liters of fluid (that did help quite a bit), some anti-nausea meds that didn't work, some pain meds that only semi-helped the headache, and I puked another 5 times in the hospital.  I was absolutely miserable and wouldn't have minded if someone took me out back and shot me.  Ugh.  I desperately needed to eat but nothing, not even Saltines, would stay down.

Eventually we got everything under control enough to discharge me late Wednesday night.  John and Jeff stayed right by my side all night.  I kept telling them to go get dinner, but they wouldn't.  Silly men.  So they didn't eat until we got home at around midnight, I think.  I managed to get 2 bites of an english muffin and was falling asleep, so I crawled into bed hoping Thursday would be my birthday do-over!

Nope.  I slept okay and managed a bowl of cereal for breakfast.  Went back to bed.  Managed some pretzel sticks and peanut butter with a cheese stick for lunch.  Went back to bed.  Woke up and tried to eat something.  Didn't stay down.  A little bit later I tried some chicken noodle soup.  Didn't stay down. I still had a horrible headache and the nausea was still pretty bad.  Finally, at 8pm last night I was able to keep down a piece of toast!  Victory!  And then I had another piece of toast at 10pm and that stayed down too!  I woke up at 4am and was starving, so I made scrambled eggs with cheese.  I needed a Percoset for the chest monster (my new name for the tightness) and I was scared to death to take it on an empty stomach.  THAT stayed down!  Oh, hallelujah!  Went to bloodwork and clinic this morning.  Ate half a sausage, egg, and cheese McMuffin and that stayed down too!

I seriously hope I am on the road to being able to eat my birthday cake and cupcakes!  It's awfully depressing to puke your guts out, sleep all day, and know there are delicious treats in the fridge that you can't have :-(

So hopefully I can celebrate on Saturday!  I feel good again today (thank goodness- I don't know if I could have survived any more days of not being able to keep anything down) and hopefully I can start all over again trying to put weight back on since I lost it all over the past few days.

Hopefully it was just some crazy reaction to the Bactrim.  And I think the more drugs the ER gave me to help, the more they hurt.  We'll know more after the labs come back, which even then will be weird b/c I hadn't eaten hardly a thing in 2 days.

Fingers crossed that I have a good weekend, can get out walking, and the nausea, puking, and headaches are a thing of the past (for now, anyway... until they add a new drug... sigh...)!  Oh, and I know how interested you all are in my bodily functions.  I just wanted to keep everyone informed :-P  Well, it's really because it's the reality of being post-transplant and I told you guys I tell it like it is!  I think healthy people can gain an appreciation of what diseases can do to a body, and I think it helps anyone with a disease for whom a transplant is a possibility get the straight up, no bullshit truth about the process.  Everyone knows it's not rainbows and sunshine.  It's a hard hill to climb, but eventually I'll get to the top and be able to look downhill at a relatively smooth path :-)