C
chachi
Guest
telling my tale part 4
After several days on the Solumedrol, there was still no improvement in my condition. The doctor ordered a CT scan of my abdomen. The results were not good. I had a HUGE blockage in my small intestine. That means I was “full of shit.” The doctor said it looked like I hadn’t had a bowel movement for weeks. Now how was that possible as I was shitting all the time. Of course, I was just shitting blood. She ordered a charming medication that was to help the blockage pass. Boy did it work. I spent the next three days on the toilet. One day I was on long enough to read Hillary Clintons autobiography (thanks for being there Hillary). I had visitors but could only talk to them from the bathroom. I was yelling “HI….THANKS FOR COMING…SORRY I CAN’T COME OUT…..HOW’S THE HUSBAND AND THE KIDS.” Also during this time it was not unusual for people to hear me screaming in the bathroom from the terrible pain I was having. The pain was caused by a huge fissure on my asshole. A fissure is caused by severe Crohn’s. The disease basically eats away at your insides and makes its way to the outside of your body in essence forming another asshole. I’ve been an asshole many times, but two assholes, not a good idea. Because of this, I became unable to hold off getting to the bathroom until it was too late. I started to bleed all over my bed sheets. My doctor finally said “we need to do something.” Hello, I know that! She contacted the doctor she trained with in Philadelphia who recommended that I have a temporary ostomy or come to Philadelphia for a drug called Cyclosporine. My doctor did not feel I was in any condition to go to Philadelphia, so she and I decided to go with the temporary ostomy. Now remember, my greatest fear was that I’d end up with an ostomy, but she assured me it would be temporary. She would be starting me on a medication called 6MP. 6MP is a chemotherapy drug used in the treatment of Leukemia. In lower doses it has been shown to put Crohn’s into remission as it stops the immune system from attacking. Crohn’s is believed to be an auto-immune disease. The unfortunate part of this drug is that it takes 3 months to work. So, I’m looking at three months of an ostomy. A surgeon was called in and she felt that given the slides she saw of my colon, a temporary ostomy would not work. She believed I needed a permanent one. My doctor and I disagreed, so she went ahead with the “temporary” surgery.
This surgery took place on 2/14 (Happy Valentine’s to me). The “temporary” or loop ostomy surgery had gone very well and I was back to my friends in the Surgical Care Unit very fast. A few things had changed. I now had an IV in my neck that was stitched in (I have scars there that look like I was bitten by a vampire). I was now on TPN, an artificial means of nutrition given through the IV. I was on oxygen and an EKG machine. The nurses aide asked if there was anything I wanted. I asked for an ice pop. The nurse in the room hit the ceiling yelling at the nurses aide “HE CAN NOT HAVE ANYTHING AFTER SURGERY, HE WILL THROW UP!!” The nurses aide and the nurse went at it arguing about a fucking ice pop. Even with all the tubes and stuff, I found this to be quite entertaining. They were calling each other names, acting like they were on Jerry Springer. Finally a supervisor came to the room and agreed with the nurse. So much for my ice pop.
The next few days went very very well. I had finally saw the ostomy or stoma. A stoma is when they bring a small piece of your intestine to your skin and waste is deposited into an ostomy “bag.” I was shocked at first to see it. It looked like a rosebud. I didn’t get too upset because I was sure this was going to be only temporary and it would be reversed in 3 months.
On 2/20, I had my first small meal, chicken and potatoes and the doctor said that I would likely be discharged home on the 22nd. I was extremely positive and happy. Later that night around 11 PM, she did something that I thought was strange. She wanted me to have an rectal steroid enema. I had told this doctor that these enemas made me bleed and furthermore I thought the whole idea of the ostomy was to leave that area alone. I hadn’t bled in a few days, why chance it? She disagreed and told me it would help. I reluctantly agreed. She said she would have me sedated for it so I didn’t feel the pain.
Around midnight on 2/21 (my mom’s 50th birthday), the nurse came in, sedated me, and SHOVED the enema up my ass. I don’t remember a lot of what happened next but I do recall feeling like I had to go to the bathroom. This was odd because the ostomy was supposed to do that now. I walked to the bathroom, attempted to sit on the pot, but hit my head on the toilet seat and passed out. When I came to I was lying in a huge puddle of blood. I was bleeding out. I think I passed out three times in the bathroom before I could reach the nurse alarm button. When I finally pushed it, a nurses aide came in, saw the trail of blood from my bed to the bathroom, looked at me and turned completely white. She said “hold on, I’m gonna get you some towels so we can clean you up.” I said “No, call a nurse, I’m bleeding out…I’m dying.” I fainted again and when I came to, every nurse on the unit was with me cleaning me up and trying to get me back in bed. I overheard one say “call the on-call doctor NOW!” “He’s gonna need blood and he has to go to the ICU.” I got another shot of Dilaudid and as you know I like to phone people when this happens. So around 1 AM, I called my mother and calmly said to her “yeah, I’m bleeding out, they are likely going to move me to ICU, I might need a blood transfusion.” Then I promptly passed out again. My mother called the nurses desk and confirmed what I had said. She and my father (they are divorced) got there in 20 mins. Before the doctor came, I was having serious cramping and they gave me a commode near my bed. I got on it and immediately passed out. My father picked me up and put me in the bed. The blood would not stop.
Finally the doctor arrived and stated that my hemoglobin was 3, meaning I had hardly any blood in my system and I needed to be rushed to ICU and have a transfusion. When I got to the ICU, the blood was pouring out of me, all over the bed. The cramps were horrible. They tried to give me an anti-spasm medication, but it did not work. Finally they just doubled the dose of the Dilaudid and the cramps stopped. I passed out for the night. My mother stayed in the room all night with me (what a happy birthday for her). I learned the next morning that I had 10 transfusions that night. Obviously things had changed drastically. It was now life or death. I found out later by reading my medical records that the enema caused my rectum to hemorrhage. I thank the ladies of the surgical care center for saving my life that night.
Copyright 2007 Christopher Carozzo (all rights reserved)
After several days on the Solumedrol, there was still no improvement in my condition. The doctor ordered a CT scan of my abdomen. The results were not good. I had a HUGE blockage in my small intestine. That means I was “full of shit.” The doctor said it looked like I hadn’t had a bowel movement for weeks. Now how was that possible as I was shitting all the time. Of course, I was just shitting blood. She ordered a charming medication that was to help the blockage pass. Boy did it work. I spent the next three days on the toilet. One day I was on long enough to read Hillary Clintons autobiography (thanks for being there Hillary). I had visitors but could only talk to them from the bathroom. I was yelling “HI….THANKS FOR COMING…SORRY I CAN’T COME OUT…..HOW’S THE HUSBAND AND THE KIDS.” Also during this time it was not unusual for people to hear me screaming in the bathroom from the terrible pain I was having. The pain was caused by a huge fissure on my asshole. A fissure is caused by severe Crohn’s. The disease basically eats away at your insides and makes its way to the outside of your body in essence forming another asshole. I’ve been an asshole many times, but two assholes, not a good idea. Because of this, I became unable to hold off getting to the bathroom until it was too late. I started to bleed all over my bed sheets. My doctor finally said “we need to do something.” Hello, I know that! She contacted the doctor she trained with in Philadelphia who recommended that I have a temporary ostomy or come to Philadelphia for a drug called Cyclosporine. My doctor did not feel I was in any condition to go to Philadelphia, so she and I decided to go with the temporary ostomy. Now remember, my greatest fear was that I’d end up with an ostomy, but she assured me it would be temporary. She would be starting me on a medication called 6MP. 6MP is a chemotherapy drug used in the treatment of Leukemia. In lower doses it has been shown to put Crohn’s into remission as it stops the immune system from attacking. Crohn’s is believed to be an auto-immune disease. The unfortunate part of this drug is that it takes 3 months to work. So, I’m looking at three months of an ostomy. A surgeon was called in and she felt that given the slides she saw of my colon, a temporary ostomy would not work. She believed I needed a permanent one. My doctor and I disagreed, so she went ahead with the “temporary” surgery.
This surgery took place on 2/14 (Happy Valentine’s to me). The “temporary” or loop ostomy surgery had gone very well and I was back to my friends in the Surgical Care Unit very fast. A few things had changed. I now had an IV in my neck that was stitched in (I have scars there that look like I was bitten by a vampire). I was now on TPN, an artificial means of nutrition given through the IV. I was on oxygen and an EKG machine. The nurses aide asked if there was anything I wanted. I asked for an ice pop. The nurse in the room hit the ceiling yelling at the nurses aide “HE CAN NOT HAVE ANYTHING AFTER SURGERY, HE WILL THROW UP!!” The nurses aide and the nurse went at it arguing about a fucking ice pop. Even with all the tubes and stuff, I found this to be quite entertaining. They were calling each other names, acting like they were on Jerry Springer. Finally a supervisor came to the room and agreed with the nurse. So much for my ice pop.
The next few days went very very well. I had finally saw the ostomy or stoma. A stoma is when they bring a small piece of your intestine to your skin and waste is deposited into an ostomy “bag.” I was shocked at first to see it. It looked like a rosebud. I didn’t get too upset because I was sure this was going to be only temporary and it would be reversed in 3 months.
On 2/20, I had my first small meal, chicken and potatoes and the doctor said that I would likely be discharged home on the 22nd. I was extremely positive and happy. Later that night around 11 PM, she did something that I thought was strange. She wanted me to have an rectal steroid enema. I had told this doctor that these enemas made me bleed and furthermore I thought the whole idea of the ostomy was to leave that area alone. I hadn’t bled in a few days, why chance it? She disagreed and told me it would help. I reluctantly agreed. She said she would have me sedated for it so I didn’t feel the pain.
Around midnight on 2/21 (my mom’s 50th birthday), the nurse came in, sedated me, and SHOVED the enema up my ass. I don’t remember a lot of what happened next but I do recall feeling like I had to go to the bathroom. This was odd because the ostomy was supposed to do that now. I walked to the bathroom, attempted to sit on the pot, but hit my head on the toilet seat and passed out. When I came to I was lying in a huge puddle of blood. I was bleeding out. I think I passed out three times in the bathroom before I could reach the nurse alarm button. When I finally pushed it, a nurses aide came in, saw the trail of blood from my bed to the bathroom, looked at me and turned completely white. She said “hold on, I’m gonna get you some towels so we can clean you up.” I said “No, call a nurse, I’m bleeding out…I’m dying.” I fainted again and when I came to, every nurse on the unit was with me cleaning me up and trying to get me back in bed. I overheard one say “call the on-call doctor NOW!” “He’s gonna need blood and he has to go to the ICU.” I got another shot of Dilaudid and as you know I like to phone people when this happens. So around 1 AM, I called my mother and calmly said to her “yeah, I’m bleeding out, they are likely going to move me to ICU, I might need a blood transfusion.” Then I promptly passed out again. My mother called the nurses desk and confirmed what I had said. She and my father (they are divorced) got there in 20 mins. Before the doctor came, I was having serious cramping and they gave me a commode near my bed. I got on it and immediately passed out. My father picked me up and put me in the bed. The blood would not stop.
Finally the doctor arrived and stated that my hemoglobin was 3, meaning I had hardly any blood in my system and I needed to be rushed to ICU and have a transfusion. When I got to the ICU, the blood was pouring out of me, all over the bed. The cramps were horrible. They tried to give me an anti-spasm medication, but it did not work. Finally they just doubled the dose of the Dilaudid and the cramps stopped. I passed out for the night. My mother stayed in the room all night with me (what a happy birthday for her). I learned the next morning that I had 10 transfusions that night. Obviously things had changed drastically. It was now life or death. I found out later by reading my medical records that the enema caused my rectum to hemorrhage. I thank the ladies of the surgical care center for saving my life that night.
Copyright 2007 Christopher Carozzo (all rights reserved)
