I joked around about a month ago wishing that I could spend the night in the hospital so that I could get some rest. What the hell was I thining? I am now in the hospital and it sucks. What is worse is this damn headache that won’t go away and the weight gain I am putting on from this constant saline drip. Ugh.

Since they cannot figure out exacly what is wrong, I have gone back and thought about everything hoping to figure out this issue myself.

I had the knee surgery on the 5^th and last week (after the hubbie’s turn) I was up all night in the bathroom with the double ended ailments. :p I haven’t really been sick since then until Tuesday morning. I hadn’t slept all night because I was in so much pain that even if I did fall alseep for a minute, I would quickly awake again. I finally got up around 4am and took a couple of Vicadin. When I finally did get up, I initially felt just fine. I had some breakfast, got my son ready and off  to school, came back home and collapsed on the bed. The lack of sleep that night caught up to me quickly. I thought perhaps a nap. When I woke up again, I hurt so bad again that even my skin hurt.

TIP: When you get a massage, make sure to drink a lot of water to rinse away the toxins or they will simply settle to your skin and cause you to feel like you have a horrible sunburn.

What worried me the worst though is when I noticed that the area above my kidney transplant was very sore and warm. I was also very tired so I layed down and went to sleet for a while. When I woke back up around 8pm, I felt terribly hot so I asked M to get me the thermometer. 104.4 Time to go to the E.R..

When I first got to the hospital I was terrified that I may have lost my kidney.  I am not sure that I am strong enough to go through that again. Where would they put the port acess now that my fistula is dead and the tube in my other arm is no longer in there? If my friend Shannon reads this, you are my hero! Personally, I cannot believe that said friend has been through all she has but she is my inspiration.

After days of pain, no sleep and no food, partially because I couldn’t stay awake long enough and some of this time I was in the hospital waiting for a test (because they are coming any minute to take me down eventhough that turned into hours later). I only had a small bowl of jello on Wednesday. And yet I gained 7 pounds that day. What was in that jello? Actually, it’s just the 150ml/hr of saline that has been pumped through my IV since I got to the room at around 4am on Wednesday morning.

Thursday started out as liquid diet day. I had more jello and some coffee for breakfast. Then, as soon as the doctor came in, I told him that I  loved the jello but would like to try some scrambled eggs. I think that I called before he got the full work yes out of his mouth. And yet, I found them discusting and only ate 2 bites. I then ordered some cream of rice, pears and coffee. The pears are always a good choice if you enjoy canned pears. The cream of rice, not so much. I really prefer Bob’s Red Mill GF Hot Cereal. Even if you don’t eat GF but enjoy cream of wheat, this stuff is awesome. The hot coffee was nice too.

My head still felt like it was going to explode. The pain medications that the nurse would add to my IV helped a little if not knocked me out so that I didn’t actually know that I had a headache.

For lunch, I ordered a fresh fruit plate and chicken noodle soup. The fruit plate was beautiful with grapes, sliced apples and pineapple. I was able to eat some of the fruit but the soup was cold and bland and I can’t eat the noodles anyway. Forgive me for wasting this food. I have been trying to find something I can tolerate without throwing it back up. It wasn’t until later that night when night when I saw my son and husband  that I hit the jackpot. They had visited Wendy’s prior to coming upstairs and it was  M’s french fries that worked their magic. In less than an hour I started to feel great. The pain in my abdomen didn’t stop however, my head stopped hurting, my neck felt a lot better and I was finally awake and lighter feeling. As soon as I returned to my room (children under 14 are not allowed to visit in the room until after flu season) I ordered rice and green beans, a side salad and a piece of cheescake. Yes, I felt so much better I thought I would like to enjoy one of my favorite deserts.

The cheesecake was terrible! It was great when I tried it the last time my husband was here so it’s definitely me.

I ate half of the rice and green beans and a couple of hours later, half of the salad.

Last night, I asked the nurse for a sleeping pill and am so greatful for the sleep. It’s never uninterupted in the hospital though because they take your vitals (blood pressure, temperature and oxygen readings) throughout the night. I still slept better for the first time in a week. Thank you.

Today, Friday, I woke up at around 6am fully rested and ready to go. So, that’s what I did. Otherwise I may have slept all day like I have for days. Ooh it’s going to be a good day. For breakfast today, I ordered a mushroom and onion omelet and ate all of it. Coffee with french vanilla creamer. Yum!

I saw the Doctor early this morning and he had decent news if only because it wasn’t anything bad. It would be good if they could figure out the why. Have you ever had a problem with your car yet when you take it to the mechanic he cannot get the car to reproduce the problem? Well, apparently I am the car in this scenario.

Ooh, lets get back to the food.

For lunch and since it was already after 2pm, I ordered Talapia with fruit salsa and a Gluten-Free Italian dinner roll. I just found out about that they offer a GF menu. I also got a chocolate Ensure shake for later since I have not exactly eaten well this past week.

Random Question: How can something be lactose free if there’s milk in it?

I am not sure what I will order later to eat. Perhaps the roasted vegetable salad. Mmmn.