Another Trip to the Hospital

Monday, December 29, 2008  The past week has been so busy that I have not had very much time to write a note in my journal.   I spent Christmas Eve at my sister's. Counting her children, grandchildren, and her boyfriend, there were eleven of us for dinner. There were an additional five people, who are relatives of her son-in-law, making for a total of sixteen of us.   After dinner, there was the usual exchange of Christmas gifts among all of us. My sister was given a surprise gift by her son-in-law's mother. After that, my sister quickly ran upstairs, and somehow managed to come up with a gift for her as well. I think she always tries to have one or two extra things on hand just in case of a situation such as this.   Although my brother was not there that night, my sister, her boyfriend, and I, are going to my brother's house this coming Saturday for lunch. I have not been invited there for many years, so I really believe that all of us are trying to get closer to one another.   My niece's husband, Randy, came to my apartment on Saturday to fix my computer. He repaired some of the problems, but said that he would have two buy some new parts in order to fix the rest. When he first came here, I was kind of dozing off in my chair. He asked if I was okay and I said that I was but was not feeling very well.   As the day wore on, I began feeling worse and worse. I had some nausea and vomiting, very painful stomach cramps, chills, and at least eight bouts of diarrhea. I wound up getting some emergency care from my home health care agency twice that day. If I did not have so darn much pride, I would have had them here more often.   By the time my CNAs came to pull into bed that night, I was feeling awful. In fact, they even told me I looked horrible. At 10 o'clock that night, I started using common sense and called for the paramedics to take me to a hospital. I remained at the hospital until 7:30 the following morning. I was given a couple of shots (who knows what they contained?), two liters of saline for my dehydration, and then some liquid just to see if I could keep anything in my stomach.   After that, I was given a prescription and sent home, but was told to return that day or the following if any of these symptoms returned. Fortunately, although I am not quite as perky as I usually am, I have not had to go back to the hospital.   I have been invited to spend New Year's Day at my sister's home, but I am going to have to feel a lot better before doing that. I cancelled physical therapy appointment for this morning, because I did not feel very well yet. I am feeling much better this afternoon, and believe that I will be able to keep an appointment with my social worker tomorrow morning.