and sometimes life throws you a curveball!!

My apologies for the long radio silence or maybe more accurately, I should say for the keyboard silence!

I had several great posts planned and even started to be shared with you for the past month.
July was just a crazy busy month with travel and work and then at the end of July/early August I made my way to Washington DC for a week for work. A grueling 6 nights/7 days of a tradeshow and here is where I started my downhill roll. Felling a little run down and crappy but hey, I figured it was from tradeshow work making me exhausted.

I come home and before a week was out I was back in the hospital :(
I wont go into the nitty gritty, suffice it to say that I thought I was going in for a night or two. You know for rehydration and what not... NOPE... 6 days later I finally made my way home feeling flattened and somewhat destroyed.

Acute pancreatitis is the pitts.

And it isn't like you just rest for a few days and your all better, No, No, No it's a LONG process. it takes weeks for your body to recover and during that time your are walking on eggshells around your body and especially around your GI system. Zofran and Norco become your best friends.

I also realize that I am surrounded by some of the most wonderful people in the world, people who stop what they are doing and come to be with you. To sit by your side and remind you that you are loved. They fill you with hope that this nastiness will one day also be gone. People who are there with you through the good and bad. If nothing else it reminds me that I am not alone and that is so very important.

Any of my longtime readers know that last year I had my first bought with Acute Pancreatitis and the ensuing consensus by the doctors was that my gall bladder was diseased and that it needed to come out. Surgery happened and yes my gallbladder was diseased and yes I felt much better. Fast forward 7 1/2 months and WHAM! another acute pancreatitis attack.

Now what??? Now the docs have to do some serious sleuth work to figure me out. There are a couple possibilities and some ideas as to what is causing my pancreas to rebel. For now, it is a waiting game. I wait for my pancreas to settle down so that we can start the tests in mid september.

Until then, I am getting some well deserved R&R and even starting back to puttering in my sewing studio! Although, being down has not kept me from doing some online fabric shopping!! Thanks to Fabrics and Fabrics and Emmaonesock, I have some wonderful fall fabrics coming to my door!.

I have quite a few things to blog about so stay tuned!!
and Happy sewing!

Princess Victoria playing dressup with my UGG slippers!

Sidelined by illness.... A story of acute idiopathic pancreatitis.

This month brought me a whole new scary challenge!

Several weeks ago I was on a business trip to upper Connecticut and central Massachusetts when things started going awry. On a Tuesday I was a little bit like an acid stomach so I ate a couple tums. By Wednesday I had a full on stomach ache so I started taking some Pepcid. Sometimes on business trips this can happen. You know, planes, rental cars, meetings deadlines, customer dinners, hours in the car going from here to there. By Thursday things just hurt, I didn't sleep, I was feeling a bit nauseated. Nothing I took helped and nothing really made it acutely worse. It just slowly was getting more and more painful. By the time I flew home Thursday night I was a wreck. It was the worse flight of my life. And it was about my 67th or so flight this year! My middle/upper back was spasming, I was nauseous the entire way and generally wanted to just click my heels and be home!! 

By Friday the 13th dinner time I was in the emergency room with a diagnosis of acute pancreatitis. What the hell!!! 

The emergency room personnel went from 'oh you probably just have an ulcer, here is a special cocktail to drink to make you feel better and let's get an ultrasound' to immediate concern with shots of zophran and morphine and a cat scan followed by a MRI the next day.

I was immediately admitted and from Friday night to Wednesday had nothing by mouth. And I mean nothing, not a sip of water, not an ice chip, nothing by mouth. Which actually was strangely ok with me since I had zero appetite. For me not to have an appetite, something was seriously wrong!!! I always have an appetite! For 4 days I subsisted on IV fluids, shots of morphine every 4 hours and Zophran and IV Pepcid. I had no idea that this little gland that sits tucked under your stomach could cause so much trouble! 

After a multitude of tests it turns out that they have no idea what caused my pancreas head to suddenly become inflamed and swollen. I had no evidence of cancers or lymphomas, no anatomical deformities,no alcohol abuse  no immunodeficiency issues, no gallbladder problems and never been bitten by a scorpion. Yes, they actually asked me that! 

So the fancy term for the doctors not having a clue is 'acute idiopathic pancreatitis'. 

Have to love the fancy names for we have no freakin idea!

After going for 96 hours with no food and minimal movement outside the bed they moved me to a clear liquid diet. Think water, broth, jello and that's about it. I got to do this for a day and a half. With the added bonus of let's try to take a walk. Along with a try your best not to vomit, it's bad for your pancreas. 

Getting my hair done after 6 nights in the hospital....

Long story short 7 nights later I finally made it home. I cancelled all thanksgiving plans and my hubby and I just hung out for a quiet holiday of me trying to figure out food again. I still have no appetite, am losing weight, around 16 lbs in the past 2 weeks and eating is now a chore. Something I have to do to try and keep up some energy.

During all of this I found that I have some of the most amazing friends, loved ones and coworkers. I had some of the most beautiful flowers to brighten up my hotel room and I was glad for them. I was too nauseous to read or watch TV so I spent many hours listening to podcasts and staring at my lovely flowers! I had the best visitors to help keep my mind off things! They definitely helped me through my ordeal, I don't even want to think of trying to go through that alone. My husband was amazing. He was there early every morning and all evening. 

Grand baby hugs and snuggles make everything feel better!

Now the road to recovery after an acute bought of pancreatitis can be a long one. A super strict diet of low fat and bland with no alcohol for a while and then we shall see. Right now I still don't have much of an appetite but I'm assured that this too will improve over time. I still have some lingering nausea and some mild pain especially when I lie down. 

Despite all of this I am most THANKFUL that things were not worse! Thankful that they did not find any 'bad' stuff going on. Thankful for all my family and friends who love me, sent prayers and good thoughts my way. Thankful for my life.