The week of November 20th was not a good one for me. I did the bowel prep for my colonoscopy on the 21st. My scheduled 11:45 a.m. procedures didn't take place until 1 p.m. on the 22nd. This was done at the local hospital in the surgical center. When I woke up from the conscious sedation, I was coughing a lot. Once that settled down, my husband drove me home. My throat was a little sore from the upper GI scoping (EGD). I drank a cup of decaffeinated tea to soothe my throat and ate an English muffin. I figured we would have a light early supper, maybe just soup for me, around 5 p.m.
Around 4:30, a wall of fatigue hit me, and I felt cold. I crawled under my electric blanket trying to get warm. I cranked it up again and again, until I was shivering so hard my whole body was shaking. I felt really bad.
My husband took me to the emergency room at the hospital where I had been earlier for my colonoscopy and EGD. We didn't have to wait even 10 minutes before being admitted and placed in a room. I had a fever, and they said my heart was racing. Lots of waiting for tests including a CT scan of my abdomen and chest. Several people came through and drew blood samples.
Several hours later the nurse who had checked me over when I arrived, popped back in to announce that I had pneumonia. By 10:30 p.m. when I was wheeled to my hospital room, I was coughing again, and my chest hurt when I breathed in.
I spent November 22nd (p.m.) to November 25th in the hospital. I tried to enjoy turkey breast, sweet potatoes, and green beans Thanksgiving evening, but I had little appetite. I had asked the food department to give me just small portions, but still didn't finish it. I think one of the antibiotics (flagyl) causes loss of appetite and makes food taste bad, as that has lingered even when home and taking it as oral medicine, not IVs.
When I was discharged, I found part of the diagnosis said suspected aspiration of food causing pneumonia. At my follow-up yesterday, the nurse practitioner called it aspiration pneumonia, and said yes it could have been caused by some of the secretions that were disturbed by the scoping entering my lungs. So I don't think it was food, but saliva or gastric juices.
I had not spent time in a hospital since 2003. I knew it would be unrestful, but I was surprised by the constant churn of employees. Maybe it was more than usual because of the holiday. I soon learned that when I rang the call button, and the tech or nurse said they would be in my room soon, that meant at least 30 minutes and often several hours would go by. I became rather adept at unplugging the IV "cart" and dragging it with me to the toilet.
It is ironic that my husband and I have been avoiding group activities and watching church service on-line to avoid COVID and the flu because I thought that I might have back surgery in November, to end up with pneumonia. It will be several months before scheduling back surgery is a possibility.
This beggar is not very happy with the "rations" filling my life, but I have to accept that this is what God wants. It is my portion for now.
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