Surgery #1
So, no later than around 3 weeks after my diagnosis I ended up with my first Crohns surgery.
It all started the night of my work's Christmas party.
I had been on the steroids religiously since leaving hospital, but this day, something just was not right.
The night began with getting all glammed up, trying to cover the huge black bags under my eyes with mounds of concealer and painting my face. I made the decision to not drink, which disappointed me, as after recent events, all I wanted to do was let my hair down, plus we had drinks vouchers!
It was one of those shared parties, the ones where different companies all come together, and funnily enough my mum was there with her work too.
Anyway. The food arrived, Christmas Lunch of course, and I just could not stop eating. Seriously! I ate my colleagues leftovers. Let me assure you, I barely finished a meal before going on the steroids, and at this point, nothing could stop me. Dessert came and went, and the party started properly.
I went over to the bar, and I just remember a piercing pain shoot through my stomach, and then proceeded with cramp like shooting pains. I tried my utmost to tolerate these new feelings/pains, but it was all I could think about.Maybe i had eaten too much?
My mum was on the dance-floor bopping away to some tribute act, to tell her I was going to go home, to my dads house and rest. My friend took me home, and from then on, my memory is patchy.
I remember being laid in bed, feeling drunk, like the kind of drunk where your head is spinning and you cannot think straight. That is when things really turned.
From around 2am until about 6am I was going to the toilet every 23 minutes. Yes 23 minutes, I was timing it. I thought that if I timed it it would go away? Calm Down? SOMETHING! I debated waking up my Step Mum for most of that time, eventually I did.
We sat and talked about what we thought it could be, Stomach bug? Food poisoning? Eaten too much? Surely it wasn't the Crohns if it had come on this bad this quickly? My Step Mum, is not the type to worry, or jump to go to the doctors or Hospital, but after seeing me be sick and eventually become barely able to move, she somehow got me downstairs and into the car. We decided her driving would be quicker than an ambulance. All that I could think was, "do not be sick in the car". MY focus was on my Dad's silly old man slippers that I somehow had on and I just prayed that this was a 24 hour bug, or a virus.
The pain was the worst thing I had EVER experienced. It felt like my whole abdomen was rigid, like a brick. the slightest movement, let alone a breath, was agonising.
This is where things get Hazy.
I'm sat in A&E waiting to be seen. It cant have been more than 5 minutes. The pain is getting that bad that I am grunting/screaming, and i am trying with every ounce of me not to make a sound. And then things went Dark. I fell on the floor, and could not move. My stomach was rigid and the pain was indescribable.
I was rushed through to the emergency department, given more than was allowed of Morphine via the vein, and it wasn't even making a dent on the pain.
I don't remember any tests, my mum arriving or my boyfriend. MY dad, my brothers coming, scans, doctors, none of it. Until around Midnight.
Midnight- A registrar came over with a consent form and I burst out laughing. "I have only got a stomach bug, I don't need surgery"
"If you don't have this surgery Natasha, you will die"
" Can I have a little bit of time to think about it"
My Parents went absolutely Ballistic. Now what you don't understand is, I was delirious and I really did not have a clue what was happening to me, I wasn't aware of any results from the scans/bloods etc. I don't even think I was aware that I had been into resus, that it had been around 16-17 hours since I came into the hospital, and the clock was certainly ticking.
I signed the forms. They rushed me into Theatre.
My Bowel had perforated.
It all started the night of my work's Christmas party.
I had been on the steroids religiously since leaving hospital, but this day, something just was not right.
The night began with getting all glammed up, trying to cover the huge black bags under my eyes with mounds of concealer and painting my face. I made the decision to not drink, which disappointed me, as after recent events, all I wanted to do was let my hair down, plus we had drinks vouchers!
It was one of those shared parties, the ones where different companies all come together, and funnily enough my mum was there with her work too.
Anyway. The food arrived, Christmas Lunch of course, and I just could not stop eating. Seriously! I ate my colleagues leftovers. Let me assure you, I barely finished a meal before going on the steroids, and at this point, nothing could stop me. Dessert came and went, and the party started properly.
I went over to the bar, and I just remember a piercing pain shoot through my stomach, and then proceeded with cramp like shooting pains. I tried my utmost to tolerate these new feelings/pains, but it was all I could think about.Maybe i had eaten too much?
My mum was on the dance-floor bopping away to some tribute act, to tell her I was going to go home, to my dads house and rest. My friend took me home, and from then on, my memory is patchy.
I remember being laid in bed, feeling drunk, like the kind of drunk where your head is spinning and you cannot think straight. That is when things really turned.
From around 2am until about 6am I was going to the toilet every 23 minutes. Yes 23 minutes, I was timing it. I thought that if I timed it it would go away? Calm Down? SOMETHING! I debated waking up my Step Mum for most of that time, eventually I did.
We sat and talked about what we thought it could be, Stomach bug? Food poisoning? Eaten too much? Surely it wasn't the Crohns if it had come on this bad this quickly? My Step Mum, is not the type to worry, or jump to go to the doctors or Hospital, but after seeing me be sick and eventually become barely able to move, she somehow got me downstairs and into the car. We decided her driving would be quicker than an ambulance. All that I could think was, "do not be sick in the car". MY focus was on my Dad's silly old man slippers that I somehow had on and I just prayed that this was a 24 hour bug, or a virus.
The pain was the worst thing I had EVER experienced. It felt like my whole abdomen was rigid, like a brick. the slightest movement, let alone a breath, was agonising.
This is where things get Hazy.
I'm sat in A&E waiting to be seen. It cant have been more than 5 minutes. The pain is getting that bad that I am grunting/screaming, and i am trying with every ounce of me not to make a sound. And then things went Dark. I fell on the floor, and could not move. My stomach was rigid and the pain was indescribable.
I was rushed through to the emergency department, given more than was allowed of Morphine via the vein, and it wasn't even making a dent on the pain.
I don't remember any tests, my mum arriving or my boyfriend. MY dad, my brothers coming, scans, doctors, none of it. Until around Midnight.
Midnight- A registrar came over with a consent form and I burst out laughing. "I have only got a stomach bug, I don't need surgery"
"If you don't have this surgery Natasha, you will die"
" Can I have a little bit of time to think about it"
My Parents went absolutely Ballistic. Now what you don't understand is, I was delirious and I really did not have a clue what was happening to me, I wasn't aware of any results from the scans/bloods etc. I don't even think I was aware that I had been into resus, that it had been around 16-17 hours since I came into the hospital, and the clock was certainly ticking.
I signed the forms. They rushed me into Theatre.
My Bowel had perforated.
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