I am a Frequent Flyer

Which airline?  Actually, that's not what I mean.  The health care industry has a term for people who regularly use EMS (emergency medical response) and ED (emergency department) as "Frequent Flyers". This isn't a complement; it refers to people who call 911 multiple times a day or week, often for mundane reasons, such as wanting a warm bed to sleep in.  In my case, I've been having a lot of abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting and have had 5 ER visits in the last 4 months!!

So, what's going on?  Well, in my previous blog, I talked about being hospitalized for blood clots.  In that blog, I also mentioned that I developed abdominal pain while in the hospital.  It wasn't treated nor addressed, and I was being discharged feeling worse than when I entered the hospital.  Over the course of November and December, I would randomly develop abdominal pain.  There would be nausea and occasional vomiting.  I attributed this to the chemo.  But, when my nurse told me that the chemo should not be causing abdominal pain, that made me realize it's something else.

In December, I had a few visits to the ER; the diagnosis was a partial bowel obstruction.  When the obstruction doesn't self-resolve, I end up hospitalized.  The cure is to place a NG (nasal-gastro) tube down the nose and into the stomach.  Then, low pressure suction is applied, the stomach contents are removed, and the stomach and intestines start to decompress, thus alleviating the pressure.  This was a 5-day process at Stanford Hospital, over Christmas.

Well, in mid-January, I found myself back at ED at  Stanford Hospital.  I was nauseated, no appetite, hadn't eaten much in 3-5 days, and vomiting on and off with no relief.  Again, I got a  CT scan and the diagnosis was a partial bowel obstruction.  The obstruction was not as bad as it was in December, but it was still visible on the scan.  Fortunately it resolved on its own, and I was not hospitalized.

But, the question is, what's going on?  And how do I make sure I'm not back again?  I don't want to be a frequent flyer.  

The doctors told me there are a couple areas in my small intestines that are prone to a bowel obstruction.  It's either from adhesions, the previous surgery, or the cancer.  They can't tell.  Surgery is too risky - they suspect a lot of adhesions (based on previous surgeries), my organs are weaker, and I'm on blood thinners.  This is now an ongoing problem that I'm going to need to manage with a low residue diet.