These balloons don't sound fun.

Waiting and trying to keep my symptoms in check -- that's the focus at this point.

The hospital sent me home August 10, feeling more like a dirty, stinky, limp dish rag than a person. The hospitalist had prescribed a cardiac diet as I left, though the high-fiber part of that would have been quite harmful. She got the low-fat part right anyway. I went with what the hospital GI doc had recommended -- low-residue, low-fat, mostly mechanical soft diet. I hasten to add, though that the staff at St. Mark's Hospital took great care of me, even though it wasn't any fun.

At home, slowly, I regained strength, tiring a little less rapidly with each day.

About 10 days after discharge from the hospital, at my follow-up visit with my GI doc, Christopher Cutler, we had a plan. He gave me a choice between two diagnostic tests: a capsule endoscopy or a double-balloon, retrograde enteroscopy. He said he'd rather have a live professional with the scope doing the enteroscopy, so he could biopsy and visualize directly whatever there is to see inside my small intestine's lumen so there was no risk of missing it as could happen as a capsule endoscopy zooms by. So I opted for that.

Trouble is, the earliest appointment is Sept 6. So I'm on Prednisone to keep symptoms minimal until then, using Ondansetron (an anti-nausea med) and liquid Lortab (narcotic pain reliever) to quell pain when it happens (like it did today). When the pain occurs, it means the obstruction is back or building again, and I revert to liquids for nourishment until it passes. Hopefully, I can prevent another emergency. And I'm trying not to worry about what the test results might show. 

If scar tissue from inflammation is the culprit, there's a chance it could respond to being dilated from within, opening up the narrowed passage to prevent future obstructions. Dr. Cutler believes, based on the information he has so far from the tests in the hospital, that the problem is more likely mechanical (meaning that it is a permanent sort of obstruction whether inflammation is active or not) than inflammatory, although it is apparently made worse with inflammation. If nothing is found inside my bowel to explain the obstruction, it's proably being caused by something pressing the bowel from the outside -- something like an adhesion from the surgery I had in 2004. If that's the case, the decision of whether to venture another laparoscopic surgery will be complex, since more surgery can just cause more adhesions. 

Sigh.

Meanwhile, for the past few days, I've felt pretty well, until today. Prednisone tends to give a false sense of well-being. Although it makes sleeping almost impossible for me without a sleeping pill, it gives a caffeine-like energy in the daytime, now that my endurance is getting better. At the same time, it numbs my feet, lower legs, hands, tongue and face. And it makes me kind of clumsy. Soon, if it follows the all-too familiar pattern it has in the past, my face will get fuzzy and moon-shaped. My tummy will start building up extra fat layers again. And eventually, my muscles strength will wane. Hopefully, the time between now and the test won't be long enough to realize all of those yucky side effects.

Enough already. I'm grateful to be home with my family and back at work. And I can walk around the neighborhood without exhaustion. I even started sewing an new quilt top. And most of the time, I'm not in pain. That's a good thing!

Take care of yourself. Be well.

Beth :-)