}003{ Epiploic Appendagitis

Hello!Unfortunately, as per usual, life doesn’t always work out like we plan! I was not able to go to the gym at all this week. I ended up working last Sunday, and was exhausted. Turns out, my period decided to start and make me feel really uncomfortable. On Wednesday I started to notice I had faint pain, as though I pulled a side muscle. Saturday (yesterday) the pain was severe.. My fiance’s mother thought I might have appendicitis, and called her friend who is a nurse… It didn’t seem like it, so we weren’t sure what it was. We thought it might be an Ovarian Cyst.. I decided not to go to the hospital, since I hated to move.. and I know what hospitals are like here.

In any case, today I decided to go to the hospital. I woke up and had thought I was better, but was having a hard time moving/sitting/standing/lying. So my fiance’s father drove us to the hospital. Went in, and talked to the first couple people. Apparently 100 or so people had already gone in that day with ‘stomach issues’. We waited in the main waiting room for about 30 minutes before I was summoned. They took my blood, and sent me off to another waiting room. I spent a bit of time in there, before they called me over to the next room, felt around (causing pain) and ran out of the room telling me to hold on a second, as things could be time sensitive due to the area. She came back and said it could be my gallbladder or pancreas. Told me someone would bring me some pain killers, and then escort me to my ultrasound. Someone came and took me to my ultrasound, and I waited forever for the ultrasound. It was painful, as apparently my tissue doesn’t let the waves transmit properly, so she had to push in hard (in an already sensitive area). It ended up being futile, and I needed a CT Scan. What does this mean? I get escorted back to my waiting room, until someone comes to see me. They come, drag me off to put an IV in my arm, and for the 2nd time ask me if anyone gave me medication. At this point, it was 2 hours after they originally told me I would get it, and I expressed this. The nurse sent me back to the waiting room and said she would see what she could do. This started my 3 hour wait for my CT Scan. I had to drink drink this nasty barium, 500ML every hour. The last glass, didn’t end up having any juice in it so it was straight and nasty. I then had to walk down the hall way again, for my CT Scan. It was an interesting experience. They injected dye into my IV, within’ seconds there is a warming sensation in your genitalia area, which makes it feel like you’re peeing your pants. It only lasted about 30 seconds at most. After the scan, I got to return to the waiting room again. This time to wait for the doctor to hear from radiology. Time past, about an hour, and finally they called for me. Turns out I had this really uncommon benign thing called Epiploic Appendagitis.

Basically, there is a wall of fatty globs that protect the bowel/intestine/etc. One of these globs is twisted in my  abdomen. The blood is cut off to it, so it’s painful. However, they normally clear up on their own because they end up falling off. Although, I do have to meet with the general surgeon on Tuesday morning to ensure that I don’t need surgery. I was worried, I would have to stay the night but they released me and gave me 3 pills of dilaudid. It doesn’t seem to work as well as everyone says it should, but it helps and helped me sleep.

I will keep everyone posted, and let you know what the general surgeon says.