Pancreatitis



This last Christmas I spent my break getting my tonsils out and even got a flu shot before that to prepare for this semester of student teaching so I wouldn't have to miss any days of student teaching. And what happens to me? I get Pancreatitis. I've never had any problems like this before, usually when I'd get sick, it'd always have to do with my tonsils. I guess I was bound to have something go wrong with me.
Tuesday night around 11 I woke up with a sharp pain on my side. I thought about calling Tim or my mom about it, but figured it would go away. When I woke up Wednesday morning I tried to stretch and take a deep breathe and became almost paralyzed with the pain it hurt so bad. I tried to learn how to move while getting ready for school so I could make it through the day and be okay. I told my teacher about it when I got to school, she said I looked really tired, so I told her I couldn't sleep well 'cause I had to be careful how I slept and breathed. I told her that Tim's mom is a nurse and I thought about calling her and seeing what she thought, so my teacher urged me to do that. With Nancy's advice I left school and checked myself into the ER since my doctor is 3 hours away.

I spent most of the day in the ER completely bored waiting to be released. They took a few tests, got an ultra sound (that was pretty cool) and got an IV stuck in me. Tim came to stay with me and keep me company, I probably would've gone out of my mind staying in that room hours upon hours alone.

The nurses I got kinda scared me. The one that came to take my blood prodded around in my right arm before giving up. She let a good looking bruise trying to dig around for my vein. Then she went to my left arm and got it with no problems. The lady who came in to put my IV in looked around for a vein on my arms and didn't want to chance it so she tried to put it in my hand...while trying to do that she says, "Oops." Umm yeah, when you're sticking a needle in someone trying to do something, "oops" is not good to hear. I kept looking at Tim with my eyes super wide with the hear of that word and didn't dare to look at what happened. She finally gave up and went to my left arm and got the same vein the other lady drew blood from. Before doing this though she says, "If I can't get it this time then I'll send another nurse in, we only get two tries per nurse." That wasn't comforting to hear either. Also when she said, "You probably don't want to look, there's a lot of blood." After she left I asked Tim what "Oops." meant, and he said the needle started to bend when she was trying to put the IV in my hand.

So all of that is over (luckily). I felt like I was putting myself through much more pain that I was feeling before I got there. Tim took me to SouperSalad afterwards for lunch (at 2pm). Then we went back to his apartment and I crashed on his couch for 3 hours before small groups. The indications that usually cause Pancreatitis don't apply to me, so I'm one of the cases where you just don't know. I'm suppose to be on a clear liquid diet for a couple days, so I'll do that today and see how I'm feeling tomorrow. I'm planning to be back in the classroom tomorrow. I miss my kids, and I've realized that they get really attached to their teachers, and they worry a lot too when their teacher isn't there. My teacher told me that they've been asking a lot of questions, so I can imagine what they'll ask today. I need to make myself rest a lot today and drink lots of fluids. I'm assuming this is an acute case, which means my pancreas will heal it's self within a couple days.

I did some research on it and here's a website I found that explains it more...
http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/pancreatitis/#top

3 comments:

  1. oh my goodness! i hope you feel better really soon!

     
  2. oh, the previous comment was from your favorite sister-in-law. didn't think to leave my name. duh.

     
  3. Hey Brooke! I'm feeling better. I developed a super sore throat the day after this, but luckily that is gone too now. I should be back at school tomorrow.