My Time(s) at the Hospital

After I was diagnosed, I was prescribed medication that was supposed to help with the inflammation occurring in my intestine. Later on we figured out that the inflammation was irreversible. A month or so after my final diagnosis, I was having serious pains in my stomach. I could not eat because I had no appetite and I would cry at night because it hurt too much to sleep. 

My sister and I live on the third floor in my house and my room does not have a door, so she would hear me crying from the unbearable pain. She would go down to my parents and let them know what was happening because she was so worried. For those few nights, they would come up and sit beside my bed and offer to take me to the hospital. I always refused because I hated it there. After the third night of excruciating pain, I asked to go to the hospital, that is how my parents knew it was serious, my dad rushed me to the emergency room. 

They took me in right away, did some tests and came to the conclusion that I was obstructed, meaning no food would pass through my intestine, because it was so inflamed. AKA The medication was not helping or doing anything for that matter. They poked me with an IV, (I cried a lot) and then they told me that they were going to put a tube in my nose that was going to go all the way down into my stomach and ‘vacuum’ everything that was not being passed through my digestive tract. 

The food in my stomach was what was causing me pain because it was trying to get through my intestine and it could not. I didn’t really hear them I guess or understand what they were saying because I remember just sitting in the hospital bed not fazed… My dad chose to leave the room because he did not want to see me in pain.I remember not having a clue of what was about to happen but hey, if this was going to make me feel better, I didn’t care what they did. 

They got this huge tube, t was a little smaller than those straws you use for boba, (I do not know what else to compare it to, for you to understand) let’s say it was in the middle of the size of a boba straw and a regular straw but more on the boba size scale. It hurt so much. It was not pleasant, they gave me water to drink while they stuck this thing up my nose. I remember my dad coming back in and being surprised that I did not cry. Just to let you guys know, I cry for everything, I am a certified cry baby… So yeah, I was just shocked at what they were doing and it happened so fast. It was more uncomfortable than painful but my stomach pains were all I could feel at that point.

They brought me to a private hospital room and I had the tube stuck up my nose attached to a machine that was sucking up all the gross stuff from my stomach, (yes, it smelled bad) and I had an IV in my hand. That visit to the hospital lasted one week. My mom slept on the spare bed in the room every night. 

Nurses would come in and change my IV or poke me to get samples of my blood. I remember every morning there would be a knock on my door and this nurse would come in and take my blood, I dreaded it. 

Doctors would come in and talk to me and ask question after question. Everyday was the same. One day one of the doctors took my dad to the side and told him that I seemed depressed and I should talk to someone… So the psychiatrist from the hospital came the next day to talk to me. She sat down beside the hospital bed and asked me why I did not want anyone to come visit me. Prior to this visit, I told my parents, I wanted no visitors, I just wasn't up for it… She asked me the question and I just started crying, I cried for a while… I don’t think I even spoke to her for more than 5 min for our whole session. I just cried and cried and cried. At my second session with her, we talked a bit more. I basically just explained to her that it sucked to be stuck in the hospital during your last year of high school. I also remember that, that day was grad photos… and I missed them. Obviously I got to retake them later but I didn't get to take any with my friends. I also loved high school and I missed a significant chunk of it, which sucked.

My friends actually ended up coming to visit me, which was so nice of them, I felt uncomfortable but they were so sweet, they brought presents and balloons…but when they came in I had the tube in my nose and I just felt awkward, I wasn't comfortable with people seeing me like that. The nurse came in and said they could pull out that huge tube and I was like: it hurt so much going in, I think I would like to keep it there. Obviously that wasn't an option, so she told me to take a deep breath and yanked it out. horrible few seconds, horrible. 

After my first week in the hospital, they sent me home. I believe it was a Wednesday, because I remember going to school the next day. I was so excited to go back to school and get back in my normal routine. The morning before I left for the hospital, they gave me a menu so I could order food. At first I was excited because well it was my first time eating in a week and it felt like room service. I think I ordered an omelet and bagel… Honestly it was probably the grossest thing I have ever attempted to eat, it was horrible. When I left the hospital, the doctor gave me a long list of foods I could not eat, like grains or seeds, popcorn, high in fibre foods… the two things that I was told to strictly stay away from were popcorn and corn. While this might not be a big deal for some people it was for me, a few weeks before I was diagnosed I discovered Nutella mixed with popcorn, it is amazing. You should all try it if you love sweet and salty things like I do.

When someone tells you that you can’t eat something, you want it more. Or even when someone tells you not to do something, you want to do it, I always feel that way in those types of scenarios. I was supposed to take it easy for a while. So I got home and went to school the next day… I don’t really remember that day, nothing really significant happened. However, the next morning, I woke up and the second I sat up, I projectile vomited. I never believed that was a thing, but I sat up and it went all over my walls and my bed, my floor, just everywhere. I remember hearing my mom telling me to get ready for school and her voice sounded so far away. I was really sick. I ended up sleeping in my parents bed for the whole day. In the evening I woke up and I was freezing, my mom had to wrap three duvets around me and I was still shivering. I was so cold, she ended up running me a very hot bath and I was still shivering in it, she had to leave the room for a few minutes because she couldn't stand to see me in that much pain and suffering. My parents kept asking me if I wanted to go to the hospital and I kept saying no, because I still hated it and now I had actual experience there and I hated it more. The next morning, my dad insisted on taking me to the hospital, so we went back. 

When you first get to the emergency room, there is a waiting room, then they assess your vital signs and then put you in this little room by yourself till they are ready for you. I remember being in that little room and just crying and wondering why is this happening to me. By the way, that day was my brothers birthday… So I also felt so bad because obviously my parents attention was on me and not him… He was obviously very understanding and didn't care about that, but still… They took me up to a hospital room and stuck an IV in me. I was there for about two weeks this time, I sat in my room and watched the food network with my mom every single day. They play the same episodes in the morning and at night, we watched it the whole day, twice. I didn't go outside, I was stuck in the hospital. I was told to take walks inside two to three times a day, it was super depressing, I was there walking with my IV pole and seeing other sick kids, I hated it. Half way through this visit, the doctor came to me and said that they think surgery is the only solution. I remember being very fine with this decision, all I wanted was for all this to go away, I was just thinking about having no pain and being out of the hospital. So after explaining to me what the surgery would entail, they told me that I would have to use an NG tube till the surgery just so my stomach can settle. An NG tube is a nasogastric tube which is essentially a very very small tube that you stick in your nose and it goes down to your stomach and you attach it to a machine that feeds you liquid nutrients. So kind of like that other tube I mentioned earlier but way smaller and it does the opposite thing. Still painful and uncomfortable but a way smaller circumference. So yeah, I was told that I had to stick this little tube up my nose and get fed through it for ONE WHOLE MONTH, that means no solid food or any liquid that is coloured for one whole month. So I drank water and ate jello, but not red jello (the best jello) since if an emergency happened and they had to do imaging, the redness of the jello could be mistaken for blood… It was very very sad, I was shocked when they told me I could not eat real food for a whole month.