Home, Sweet Home!

Well, I'm back home again! After a brief stay in Pittsburgh from Saturday morning until about 7:30 p.m. Monday evening at one of the hospitals there affiliated with UPMC!

And boy, let me tell you this, it sure is great to be back in the old homestead once again. That I am here without any major incisions is a big bonus too as Saturday morning, when I got to ride down to Pittsburgh in the back of an ambulance, it was kind of looking like I might be heading then to the operating room but thankfully, the early "diagnosis" I got at the local hospital didn't turn out to be what they thought it was. So no surgery -at least not on this visit!

To clarify a bit here, I had some problems Friday night -lots and lots of pain in my stomach, then nausea (big time) and my daughter and I were really concerned that I might have an obstruction somewhere in my intestinal tract. So, after a call to my surgeon in Pittsburgh and the on-call doctor recommended I go first to the local emergency room, have things checked out there and to have that doctor then call Pittsburgh to bring them up-to-date, etc., the local doctor felt the cat scan showed a blockage in the upper part of my small intestine so the Pittsburgh doctor advised that I be transported then down to Pittsburgh.

After a diet on Saturday and Sunday that consisted of a thin cream soup of some type, some plain jello, juice, ice chips and coffee, the intestines began to work properly -or as properly as can be expected with a colostomy in place any way and finally, by Monday morning I was told they would give me a little solid food and see how well I tolerated that. If that went down okay, they said I probably could be discharged Monday afternoon. And, by 7:30 Monday night, that's pretty much what happened.

So, my daughter Carrie and my granddaughter, Miss Maya, drove down and picked me up then and brought me back home!

But in the meantime, while at the hospital, there were a few other things that happened too.

One was that every four hours when they came in to take vitals (temperature, blood pressure, etc.) they also were monitoring my sugar levels. Why? Well, I'm not sure exactly when this happened -either at the local hospital or when I was admitted initially in Pittsburgh, it seems my sugar level was registering in at a whopping 469! Yeah, you read that number right -or at least that is what they told me it was anyway.

So as a result, any time my sugar levels registered above a 140, the nurse then appeared with a needle and I got an injection then of insulin! Lovely!

How in blazes my sugar level got so high Saturday morning to register a number like that when ALL I had eaten all day Friday was one apple, a burger that I cooked for myself and a couple of bar cookies (no more than 3) that I had baked to take out to church for the big Spring Garden Party the women of our church had scheduled for Saturday -and which, of course, I missed because of the fast ride down to Pittsburgh -is beyond me!

So now I have to call the surgeon and schedule an appointment for a follow-up visit with him in the near future to discuss this weekend's events and also, to get his opinion on the other surgery I'm going to have to have in the near future too. Always something, isn't there though?

One thing though I noticed about this visit to the hospital there was that I think, judging by the size and texture of the towels they gave me to use for showering there, next time I have to return there I think I will invest in a couple of custom beach towels or something close to that anyway, so I can have a nice soft and very large towel to wrap around myself when I do have to take a shower there! Definitely would be something that would really come in handy, ya know! (The ones the hospital had were pretty small and also, not very soft and comfy to use either!

But other than that small complaint, and feeling like they were using my left upper arm for a human pin cushion -what with all the insulin injections I got during this stay, I suppose you could say it made for quite a break in the action for me.

However, I'd much prefer to schedule my weekend get-away someplace else if it's at all possible!

But thankfully, everything turned out for the best -so far, anyway!