ER Visit

I experienced some severe abdominal pain on Wednesday morning around 12:00 am. I thought I could bear to wait and visit the doctor the next morning, but it increased in severity and nothing seemed to sooth the pain. I was down on my knees and could not even stand up-right, and I was also experiencing vomiting. Around 4:30 I told Kimberly that I needed to see a doctor. We went to the ER at UAB and they admitted me and did a CT scan. It turns out that I have a hiatal hernia. They also noticed some bowel inflammation. They did not really comment to me about this much, but I do know from speaking with my oncologists that persons who experience bowel surgery are at higher risk for inflammatory bowel disease.

On a side note, I was scheduled to do my regular 4 month CT Scan this Monday but for efficiency sake I think my oncologist will look at these results. As far as cancer, everything was still alright with no signs of metastasis.

Needless to say, it scared the crap out of me (not literally this time...ha ha!). I was fearing the worst and it seemed to take hours before they had my CT results. They administered some pain medicine and some nexium, as well as, gave me some fluids since I was vomiting at the hospital also. I have not really experienced any acid reflux since I changed my eating habits, but they said some of the CT dye escaped up into my esophagus indicating reflux disease.

I am doing better now and hopefully will not have anymore issues with the hernia. I especially hope that I do not experience that pain anymore. They said that hiatal hernias are usually watched closely and not addressed surgically unless someone is continually symptomatic.

Josh