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Hi all,
It’s been a while since my last post, (as Staind sing in their song that goes by this title). The reason for this lengthy hiatus, is a few-fold. Firstly, working full time has been challenging whilst looking after my home and family. I don’t seem to have a lot of energy in the evenings. All through the summer months I felt exhausted in the evenings, and sometimes would fall asleep on the sofa around 7pm. For my age (early 40s), I found this quite strange. Alongside the fatigue, I was experiencing digestive issues, including frequent bloating and abdominal discomfort, particularly after eating. I also had some occasions of reflux. This has been a year of health scares for me.
I put the symptoms I was feeling down to a potential IBS condition. Also, I was wondering whether I was perimenopausal, as I had heavier periods than previously, with a slightly shorter cycle time. I got quite bad PMS and felt irritable / snappy. My hair has been shedding a fair amount too. And while my facial skin is oily and I get spots, the skin on my body is extremely dry.
Content warning: Bowels, Cancer, Sickness
Bank holiday illness; the beginning of my health scare
On the Bank Holiday Monday, my family and I went to a local agricultural show. My daughter went on a bouncy castle, and I believe she picked up a sickness bug while on it. On Tuesday night, around midnight, she woke me up, having projectile vomited over her bedroom floor. I woke up, and proceeded to clean her carpet and her furniture that had been splashed.
She was extremely apologetic and I reassured her that it wasn’t her fault, she’d caught a bug. We kept a bowl nearby as she was still feeling queasy. Once I’d cleaned up, and given her a hug, we put a towel and a blanket on her bed, and I stripped her duvet to wash in the morning.
Over the Wednesday our little girl was recovering, with occasional waves of nausea. She seemed to bounce back quickly and was fine on Thursday.
August/September; on my sick bed.
My health had been ok up until the Thursday the 29th August. Whilst at work I felt queasy and was sick in the toilet. I told my team leader and I was sent home. On arrival at home I went to bed, with the bowl at my bedside. I vomited several times that afternoon. My husband and daughter cam home from a day out to find me in bed, weak and feeling nauseous. I’d not eaten since breakfast and I didn’t feel like eating. I was drinking boiled water, to stay hydrated. On the Friday, I was still vomiting and by the evening was suffering with terrible diarrhoea. Over the weekend, I didn’t leave my bed apart from to shower, which left me feeling drained. I started to feel less nauseous and the diarrhoea subsided.
On the Monday / Tuesday I felt more lifelike, and did a few small jobs at home. By Wednesday I’d had 3 and a half days off work, so I felt well enough to return. I was there all of one day. I filled in my return to work paperwork, and one of the questions was ‘is this likely to be an ongoing illness?’ My answer was ‘hopefully not, but no way of knowing for certain.’
On Wednesday evening, I made the mistake of eating something that was fatty and had spices. Two things that aggravate inflamed bowels. That evening after dinner and all night I had awful abdominal pain, and bloating. I couldn’t sleep due to the pain. Thursday morning I was feeling nauseous; I’d barely swallowed my probiotic capsules, and they were resurfacing. I could not eat the rest of the day. It happened to be our anniversary that day, and I felt so ill. Mr Bunny ate our anniversary dinner with little Bunny.
Stool sampling to check for infection
By Friday I was feeling weak, and I’d tried to eat some boiled rice, but after only a few mouthfuls it came back up. I was thinking this was more than just a sickness bug by this time. A bug would normally clear within 4-5 days. I’d been ill 8 days by this point. I phoned my surgery and was triaged. A GP called me back and I discussed my concerns with him, that I was worried it was more than just a sickness bug; either IBS or possibly IBD.
He agreed that we needed to test my stool, to see if there was any bacterial infection, as I had started with sickness, gone through diarrhoea and returned to vomiting, so he was wondering if the gastroenteritis I’d had, was developing into gastritis. Producing a sample was arduous work, as my bowel hadn’t opened in at least 36 hours due to being unable to eat.
I was desperate to take a sample in before 5pm, so it could be collected before the weekend. We managed to get it there about 4:30-4:45pm. I also took a urine sample. That was clear of infection.
While I was there, I asked to see a GP in person, as I was feeling so weak, having barely eaten in over a week. I was dehydrated despite drinking the diorylate.
A different GP from the one I’d spoken to over the phone in the morning saw me. They took my blood pressure, pulse rate and O2 levels; all fine. My stomach felt soft to them. I asked why did I keep feeling sick, and why could I not eat without being sick? The GP didnt have much of an answer, except to say that sickness bugs really take it out of you, so I was probably still getting over it, and that I ought to rest as much as I could, rehydrate and try to eat small meals. All of which I’d been doing.
Second weekend of sickness.
Over the weekend, I continued feeling sick. I tried to eat boiled rice with chicken. I vomited in the evening. On Sunday I had a slice of dry toast and came downstairs to sit for a few hours in the afternoon. Monday and Tuesday followed a similar pattern. I was phoning the surgery daily to find out whether my cultures were back.
On Wednesday (11th)the wait was finally over. My cultures were clear of bacterial infection. I asked to see a GP (yet another one, as the ones I’d already spoken to were not available) By this time, I had spoken to 5 separate GPs! Each time I had to relay the whole series of events to them. It was extremely draining and I was feeling frustrated that they hadn’t looked at my notes and seen how many times I’d contacted them with these issues over the course of a week.
The GP I saw did similar things to the one I’d seen on the previous Friday. My stomach felt soft, apparently. My blood pressure, etc was all fine.
I asked the GP what other tests could be done. On the Wednesday early in September where I’d had one day in work, I had talked to a separate GP about arranging a full battery of blood tests to check hormone levels, full blood count, liver, kidney and thyroid function, and for any mineral deficiencies. The GP I saw on the 11th September decided to add some other testing to the panel, including cancer biomarker analysis for CA125. Cancer was one of my concerns, during my health scare.
The GP prescribed me Buscopan, and an anti sickness medication. I was dubious about the Buscopan. I queried whether the blood panel alone would be sufficient and if I would need a CT scan. This idea was dismissed as not being necessary until we had the blood results. I was due to have the blood tests on the Monday afternoon. Only I did not make it until then. This post is getting rather long so I will continue the saga in a new post…
Thanks for reading. If you have found any of this content triggering, I do apologise; I attempted to add a disclaimer to warn of the nature of this post. It’s not easy talking about illness.
