Mashie's real soap suds enema in the ER this week
If you follow my posts then you probably know that a few months ago I was in the hospital for a wicked colitis issue. That was horrible, you have no idea. You know, smart people usually learn from their mistakes so they don't make them again. When I ended up in the hospital that time I had no idea what was going on until I got the Dx, then it all made sense. When I went in to the ER that time I really was, according to my doctors, close to dying, and had I not been taken by squad that day I probably wouldn't have woken up the next day. Not trying to be melodramatic, honest. But I took account of my signs and symptoms that lead up to that time, and vowed I would never forget, and I wouldn't let myself get that sick again.
So move forward to Tuesday. I again wasn't feeling good. I started thinking about things, the last time, what happened. I again started seeing a pattern, the same pattern that I had seen 2 months before. I had to take a nap in the middle of the day for the past three days, I hadn't pooped in 14 days, I was really nauseated but never got sick, I had a really bad taste in my mouth, I had a severely distended abdomen which made me look 9 months pregnant, and I tried to eat some mac and cheese and I was having trouble swallowing it. I had to fight to get it down so I wouldn't choke. I wasn't hungry or thirsty but one thing that got me in trouble last time was that I didn't eat or drink. So this time I did my best to not get as dehydrated.
You know, doctors and nurses first of all are really bad patients. We are often non-compliant too. We fall into two different categories, we either ignore things until they get really really bad and we have to get treated or die, or, we are hypochondriacs so when we get a hang nail we think it's going to have to be amputated. I tend to ignore things until I can't any longer. I didn't want to end up in the same boat, so I was trying to be more proactive.
The signs and symptoms that I was experiencing were actually not pointing to colitis, but actually towards a bowel obstruction. I took 15 doses of Miralax in a 24 hour period trying my best to get things to move and open up. It did absolutely nothing. At that point Doc sent me to the ER again. I went and was in triage for a few minutes and then they got me right in. I wasn't in pain except for when the parastalsis tried to move things and they were not moving. The pain was really harsh but only lasted for about 20 seconds. The rest of the time I was just really uncomfortable.
My tech, nurse and doctor were all males lol. Naturally when there probably be nakedness. The nurse took some information and started an IV. I told him he didn't need to because I didn't need any pain meds. To which he said, "well, you might before all is done, so we will just place it just in case." I did get some zofran IV which did help with my nausea quite a bit. The doctor came in pretty quickly for being in the ER actually. He was huge but in shape. He introduced himself and we talked for a minute. When I told him about what all I had done to get it to move including the 15 doses of Miralax he sort of laughed. He did say that it should have opened up. So he sent me for a KUB, or a flat plate of my abdomen.
It came back that I didn't have an obstruction, but the colitis I had 2 months ago still wasn't all the way healed so things were stuck at the colitis area and couldn't get past it. And he said I was completely full and it was no wonder I was still burping up mac and cheese and my belly was so big. Then he said he would fix me right up with an enema. I was not amused nor was I excited, quite the opposite actually. I told him that if I would have known that an enema was what the solution for this would be I would have taken one at home. He actually got a bit stern and said that while he appreciated that I am a nurse, I was presenting 100 percent like a text book obstruction which an enema would have been contraindicated. He said he was glad I didn't. He told me in this instance, because of the reason it was stuck, putting things in from the top wasn't going to work, or be enough, that I had to go in from the bottom.
So I sat there wondering how this was going to work? About 5 minutes later both the tech and my nurse came in to my room and told me that they had the enema all set up in the bathroom one door down. So I looked in and there it was, a 2 quart soap suds enema bag hanging on the wall beside the toilet. They asked me if I knew what to do and asked if I could handle it. I said yes. Then they left me alone to take care of business. I can't even tell you how glad I was that they let me do it myself.
I have to tell you it worked for the most part. Three days later I'm still working on getting rid of all my crap, lol. One enema at a time I guess, lol.
Mashie