Day 43, AYAT - The day before they had restarted the antibiotics. My white blood count went down but I was feeling nauseated. Vancomycin was a hard drug to be on. They had to test my blood daily to see if there was enough in my system and make adjustments accordingly. My body does not tolerate a lot of medications so I am not surprised that I felt so sick during that time. I have to be in a lot of pain to take painkillers and I usually take the least about. I absolutely detest opioids! I only started taking sleep aids when I couldn’t sleep more than 4 hours a night but those do not make me nauseous. Back to day 43… The hospitalist was concerned that I had lost so much weight that they started counting my calories. She had also said if I didn’t stop losing weight that they would consider putting in a feeding tube. This frustrated me as I had tried to eat all that I could but I was so nauseous that my stomach rolled with the thought of food. I do not tolerate being nauseous well. One of my amazing nurses K. had worked it out with the kitchen to provide a protein shake so I could take in a few more calories. I did better with these than the chalky Ensure they were giving me. When they first started arriving I ignored them. No one had told me why they were sending them to me. When I found out I explained to them that I was already nauseous and that giving me something so disgusting would not help the situation. My nurse was great and we figured it out. I do believe the biggest issue was the colostomy. My body was not absorbing enough and I was eating very little. Looking back I was consuming around 1500 calories and let’s face it, I had weight to spare so the forced healthy diet was not the problem. I know you need protein to heal so I focused on eating meats. One of the other nurses had helped me come up with a cheese, meat, and cracker meal. I was able to get it down and I didn’t upset my stomach in the process. I topped it off with a Banana and strawberry Naked. Sounds like a great meal to me. They never did put in that feeding tube. I think I would have protested a lot and it wouldn’t have happened without restraining me. Lucky for all, we didn’t have that battle.
Today: Have I mentioned that I am not a fan of spiders??? I don’t know what it is but something in my senses caused an uncontrollable sound to emerge from the back of my throat when surprised by one. I blame them entirely! I love all animals and beings, snakes and bees, but I am terrified of spiders, or at least I used to be. The fear only intensified when I was in Okinawa and the huntsman spiders were as big as my hand! Instead of killing them, I would just leave. They owned whatever they were on and I moved out! Okay, so I didn’t drive my car for a month after finding one in the door. I was happy to ride in my friend’s cars or walk. I have now adopted a new attitude and brokered a treaty with them. As long as they stay out of sight, I will not kill them. I will relocate them if they show themselves to me. I think it’s only fair, everything has a right to life. Spiders are no exception. Well, today I was looking at my catnip plastic Temu grow box and noticed the catnip didn’t look as healthy as it had before. TMI - I was sitting in the bathroom and yes I was doing stuff you do in the bathroom. The grow light was still working so I knew it wasn’t for a lack of UV so I picked it up. I took the top off and began to inspect the leaves. Something moved out of the corner of my eye and I locked eyes with a ferocious house spider!!!! It scrambled across the 8-inch box towards my hand at the exact moment that uncontrollable sounds escaped my lips. My hand lost control of the box, as I well how do you say this… let go of the box and chose to save my hand versus letting the thing crawl on my fingers. Down went the plant, box, and spider onto the floor. All of the wet dirt splashed everywhere and there the spider continued to walk around the remains. I sat there trying to finish what I had originally set out to do but you know how things work when you are stressed out! Finally, I was done and able to retrieve the box, box lid, what was left of the dirt, and plant remains. The spider was relocated a short time later by my husband as I was not properly dressed to help the spider to a new home. I learned a valuable lesson! When in the bathroom stick to the plan and do not deviate until all the important stuff is done.
Pic is of a spider a few days ago when I found him on the wall and let him be. I will never do that again! The treaty will be enforced!
