Start Your Engines . . .

Once again I'll play a bit of catch up for ya all. I know most of you know that I spent last week in the hospital so I figured it was about time for an update!

The meds I'm on keep my pancreas relaxed once I feel the pain coming on. It melts under my tongue and acts immediately. Under normal circumstances it works within 1-2 minutes. I mean POOF! the pain is gone. If for some reason it doesn't work, I take another one and the second try has always worked. In a case where that didn't work, I was to wait 20-minutes and take a third tablet and go to the ER in Seattle. We thought it was working fine since the pain had not progressed that far, well, until last weekend.

I did the two-tab regiment, followed by the third and added a pain pill not once but twice before I decided to take a trip to the ER. They ran tests, all came back normal, gave me a shot that made the pain disappear and sent me home. A few hours after I returned home, the pain came back with a vengeance. Adam was very worried and loaded me up in the car and we headed back in for a second visit to the ER. That's when I was admitted.

The hospital stay was fairly uneventful all and all. Lots of tests, and a whole lot of drugs to manage the pain and it looks like surgery is in my near future. According to my doctor, we need to wait at least 4-6 weeks for my pancreas to settle down in preparation for surgery. He's given me medication to supplement my pancreatic enzymes until then and more pain meds to get me through. I'm not sure what the actual surgical plan looks like, but will find out more this next week.

The hardest part of coming out of the hospital has been the withdraws from the drugs they gave me while I was there. I've since found out that the awesome pain medication they were injecting me with 5+ times a day was a synthetic Heroin used for extreme pain in clinical / hospital use. They tried to transition me to morphine, but after the worst "Nightmare on Elm St" hallucinations I've ever had, decided that wouldn't be the best for me. I've tried to go off the meds cold-turkey, but feel miserable so I'm trying to manage the best I can.

I am a walking "Just Say No" add from the 80's. I totally feel like my body is revolting against me. Why would anyone choose this for themselves? I can say I understand why people keep on them thought - cuz right now I don't feel normal, but taking more pills definitely would help and it has when I'm desperate enough to succumb to them. Don't worry, I'm not an addict, but I could see how someone could be if not careful.

I'm super thankful to have Adam and Josh here to help me through this odd time in my life; what would I do without them?

I'll be meeting with the doctors sometime this week, so we'll review all this with them then and formulate a plan. In the mean time I'll be on the couch . . .