Year of Pain

Skip this one if you are bored or grossed out by medical stuff.

I am not exaggerating. It's now December, and I am still having pain. Let me backtrack to early January 2006 when I went to see my GP. I had been having pain in my upper left abdomen almost daily, so I figured I had an ulcer or something. She diagnosed stress-related gastritis and gave me a prescription to reduce my stomach acid. Hmph. I was a bit taken aback by that diagnosis. Knew I'd had a tough year but couldn't imagine that I'd been THAT stressed out.

No real improvement by the end of January and was due to go back to the GP in early February. Went out for dinner to a local restaurant with the pod on a Saturday night. Woke up in the wee hours with my guts on fire with an intense pain I'd never experienced in my life. Didn't know what was wrong but I knew I had to go to the hospital. Being me, the girl who doesn't know how to ask for help, I didn't wake up my roommate or phone a friend. I put my clothes on and walked to Eyre Square to the taxi queue and asked the driver to take me to the nearest hospital. So off I went to the Regional Hospital emergency room. Pain was bad but bearable by then. I saw the triage nurse, and since I wasn't looking like I would expire on the spot, was sent back to the waiting room. I think that visit took about 6 and a half hours. The resident who saw me, figured since the pain was on the left side, that it was gastritis, like my own GP had diagnosed. Great. The pain had pretty much subsided by that time, so I was sent home. Spent most of Sunday recovering.

Went to work on Monday as usual. Monday night, woke up again in the wee hours, this time, I felt like someone had taken a giant sickle and was cutting my torso in half. The pain was unbelievable. It was all the way around my sides and back and across my entire upper abdomen with fire spreading in every direction. Now I was on the verge of tears and really hurting. Even though I was told to call her no matter what time it was, I didn't want to wake up Stephanie or my roommate, so again, I took myself to the hospital. Silly me. I was barely holding it together when I checked in. While I was waiting to see the triage nurse, I had to make a fast stumble to the bathroom where I sat for a good 10 minutes panting and pale, not sure if I was gonna throw up or faint. Didn't do either in the end. Finally saw the triage nurse, but even being that ill wasn't enough to get me a bed. I was stuck in the waiting room. I couldn't sit. I couldn't read. It was very uncomfortable to lie down, but it was the only thing I could do, I was in so much pain and so tired at the same time. It was the longest night of my life. I finally was taken in to see a doctor after waiting about 10 hours. I was still in pain but much less so by then. I was drained. I asked for saline because I felt so dehydrated. The resident was different, a woman this time. She looked at my chart, saw my age, took a look at me, and said "You've got gall stones." Apparently, I fit the bill for the perfect gall stone candidate - fair, fat, 40, and female. She said that the pain was referring, not unusual. She gave me a prescription for something that would stop the pain if I had another gall bladder attack, and wrote up a referral for the local hot shot surgeon (consultant).

I went to see my own GP later that day to get things sorted and update her on the new diagnosis.

I had to wait almost a month to see the consultant. People tell me this is fast. While waiting to see him, I had another gall bladder attack, but the pills helped stop it. I was put on a restricted, ultra lean diet, but I was still in pain almost every day.

I switched to private coverage so I could get surgery faster because I didn't want to wait a year for this to end! I had to wait another month to have an ultrasound and gastroscopy. I have to say that Bon Secours has one of the best day case units ever. It was confirmed that I had a gall stone, not a big one, but big enough. It only takes one. Two days later, I got a call that there was a spot open for surgery the following week, so the Monday before Easter weekend, I went back into Bon Secours to have my gall bladder removed. It was an interesting two days in the hospital. I've discovered the best thing there - not morphine, no no, OXYGEN! Yeah, give me a mask full of that any day. Ahhhhh.

So, blah blah, recovered from surgery, still eating carefully, had lost about 24 pounds in 3 months, was still scared to eat anything fat, rich, yummy. Was told I would be able to eat whatever I wanted the day after surgery. Hasn't quite turned out that way.

For about a month, I was feeling pretty good, but by June, I was having discomfort on my left side again and had developed some other post-surgery problems that were relatively minor but unpleasant (bunch of hair fell out, and other fun stuff).

Went to the GP 4 times over a 3-month period, until finally I was sent back to the consultant. He sent me for a CT scan of my organs (liver, spleen, pancreas, kidneys), which all showed as normal. So, what to do, what to do? Can't find anything wrong with me, but I'm still having pain every bloody day. Hurts if I eat, hurts if I don't eat.

In the Terryland mall is a little Chinese herbal shop where they have doctors trained in traditional Chinese medicine. I'd tried everything Western allopathic medicine could offer, so I decided to give Eastern medicine a go. I've spent close to €1000 over the last 9 weeks and had acupuncture, cupping, and massage along with the herbal tea, which I have to brew and drink twice a day. It's pretty miserable-tasting stuff too, as the folks at the shop will attest. I have one treatment left and then I'm stopping because I have run out of money. It has helped a little bit but not completely, and I don't know what will happen once I stop drinking the tea. Last week was really great, only a couple of days with any pain, but this week was crap, with pain every single day. So Eastern medicine has not been able to help either.

So, the year of pain continues. But it hasn't slowed me down much. I went to Italy and Canada in May, Germany for work then a tour of County Kerry in July, Scotland in October, and Sweden in November. I have lost 30 pounds, gone down two dress sizes, started yoga, swing dancing, and horse riding. I wore a sexy red dress to the office Christmas party and danced with a very nice man who's probably 20 years younger than me - and I loved every minute of it - even when he stepped on my foot!