This is part 2 of my last post. If you want to start at the beginning, click here.
Packing and Driving: The longest trip I’ve ever taken
After a good amount of sleep, the kids and I packed our bags and we headed out. I started out with a 20 ounce Glaceau Vitamin Water and an empty stomach. I had the Vitamin Water to keep myself from thirsting to death on the way. I decided not to eat unless I was just too hungry. I didn’t think that would be a problem because I hadn’t felt hungry in a long time.
We started on our 8 hour trip to Bremerton, WA. It actually took us closer to 16 hours to get there. I was so tired I kept having to pull over and sleep at rest areas. I sipped the water so I wouldn’t become dehydrated and finally I broke down and ate one mini donut. The entire 16 hour trip was done on 20 ounces of Vitamin Water and one mini donut… and I wasn’t hungry when I got there. In fact, I was miserable, exhausted, in pain and I wanted to keel over , fall asleep and never wake up.
Sleep was my only reprieve from the pain and feeling like I was dying. Yuri asked if I wanted to go right then or if I wanted to sleep first. I voted for sleep. I was a walking a zombie at that point. I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until the afternoon. When I did get up, Yuri was so sweet. She took care of me and my kids until my brother, Daniel, got home.
Going to the ER
Before we went to the ER, I decided I wanted to go to Taco Bell and get a bean burrito with sour cream and a large soda. If I was going to go in, I was going to be in excruciating pain, doubling over and they would not be able to ignore me and honestly, I was starting to wonder if it was all in my head. It worked.
When we arrived at the Naval Hospital in Bremerton, I was in a lot of pain. They took me back and did an exam. I was dehydrated, so they hooked me up to an IV and gave me fluids. They also gave me Delaudid for the pain and Zofran for nausea. Then they did a CT scan and an ultrasound of my upper abdomen. I think they did another test but I was pretty doped up at that point and can’t really remember.
By the end of the night, they diagnosed me with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. Finally, I had something to go on! It wasn’t all in my head!
And more tests!
I had more appointments to follow. (These aren’t in order but here are they are)…
I went to see a surgeon about my Gallbladder. He wasn’t sure the pain was just from my gallbladder and wasn’t comfortable taking it out just to find out that it was actually from something else.
Then I went in for an upper GI with a specialist. He said I had adhesions in my esophagus, Mallory-Weiss tears in my stomach, duodenitis, gastritis and basically everything was swollen. He said I needed to lose weight for my liver or I could die. I started telling him how I have tried to lose weight for 12 years and nothing worked. I could NOT lose weight. I tried. I behaved. Nothing worked. He suggested that I look into a gastric bypass. He had a reason for this.
1) If I got the bypass, I would lose weight. 2) In the process of getting ready for the gastric bypass, they will send you through nutrition classes, to a dietitian, a psychologist, your doctor and someone else. Somewhere along the way either you figure out what is wrong and avoid surgery or you get prepped mentally and physically for it, get the bypass and lose weight.
Either way, I was going to lose weight.
Then I went to my new doctor who wanted me to see a GI specialist about the side pain. She prescribed pain medicine for me so I could function and hooked me up with an appointment for my case manager who would help me with appointments and what to do next.
Then I met the case manager, man she was such a sweetheart! I was all thinking everyone would think I was a lazy sloth and not trying but she just as positive and happy to help me with everything. I was thrilled with how they were so non-judgmental.
Nutrition classes and Susan
Then I started seeing the nutritionist. Since there are so many people going through the program, they have classes instead. Our class was huge and my first day I broke down and started crying. I was miserable, my body was hungry for nourishment but I wasn’t hungry, I was sick of drinking shakes, I was sick of not knowing why I couldn’t eat and I was frustrated that I had to go through the classes.
But everyone was so supportive. I get teary eyed thinking about it. They all comforted me and Jenny, my teacher, told me “You have to see Susan! She is a miracle worker!” and a few others chimed in with “Oh my gosh! Yes! Go see Susan! You just HAVE to see her! She is just awesome!” At this point, I was so numb that I was just nodding and saying okay but inside I was shrugging my shoulders and saying “Whatever.”
It took a couple of classes to get the referral into the system right but eventually I got the appointment set with the highly regarded Susan, the dietitian that was going to work miracles on me. The only thing was, I couldn’t figure out how a dietitian was going to help someone who drank her nutrition. I really wanted to keep an open mind about it but I really couldn’t understand how she was going to help me. She would really need a miracle to help me!
Luckily… she was the miracle worker they sang praises about in my nutrition class!
Part 3 Miracle Worker. My Hero!
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