My First Flight with GP & Updates for this Week

My fraternity brother decided to have his birthday shindig in Fort Lauderdale because they are known for their Tiki drinks. So, this meant that it was going to be my first time flying with a SPINAL CORD STIMULATOR and with GP. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous. My husband gets hassled every time he goes to the airport because he has an insulin pump - so what were they going to do to me?

We got there and checked in early. Everything actually went pretty smoothly. We checked our bags and then went to security. I took off my shoes and put all of my stuff in the bins (the body scanners were disabled, which is good because of the implant, I can't go through them) and went through the metal detector. The TSA agent yelled at me because I left my stuff in the bins to go through the machine, not realizing that my husband was behind me keeping an eye on my things. When the TSA agent realized this, he apologized to me.

We boarded our flight and took off for Florida. The engine smell was making me very ill, but I was in the window seat out of three seats, which were all full. So, I couldn't exactly get up to run to the bathroom. I had a bag, just in case. I just felt extremely nauseated but didn't vomit. I was quite proud of myself.

When we got to the hotel, they didn't give us a room block like they said they were going to, so all of my fraternity brothers and friends were scattered all over the hotel. I sat by the hot tub while I was talking to friends and this rude security guard comes out of nowhere. We were being quiet. There were even a group of teenagers sitting by us and they were quiet too. The front desk said we could stay in the hot tub until 12am but the security guard herded us like cattle out of the pool area and locked it. Then, he spent the rest of the night patrolling it. I wanted to punch him in the face, mostly because I don't get out much and I REALLY wanted to hang out with my friends.

So, the next morning, the hubs and I got up and went to the hot tub, since it was open now. We met a friend there. They ate ice cream in the hot tub while I just soaked. The water felt SO good on my poor muscles. Bending over to vomit really does take a toll on your back and my SCES is still healing in place, too.

After the hot tub, we took a nap. When he woke up, it was time to dress for dinner which was at the MAI KAI RESTAURANT.









I was looking forward to hanging out with my friends and just being OUT and having FUN! However, we were lead to go back to a private-ish room. I ordered one Tiki drink, which I regretted later, but I wanted to celebrate actually smelling the beach and being with my brothers and friends. We were down there to celebrate one of my good friend's birthdays! Anyway, the waitress was great in the back area where we sat. Our group had to be broken up into three parts for dinner and the show that the restaurant puts on. We were in group three.

Finally, we were seated for dinner. I found soup that I could eat that wouldn't make me sick that I was pretty happy about. However, we had BBBBBAAADDDD service! The guy took an hour to fill up our water glasses and never checked to see if we had refills. He wouldn't get his manager when we asked. One of my friend's food was too spicy that even he couldn't eat it. My soup was also really spicy and I couldn't eat it either. Usually, that kind of soup isn't spicy at all. The manager comped some of our meals but we refused to go to the show after that because of the bad service we got.

So, we all went back to the hotel room and goofed off.

I pushed myself too hard this past weekend and the past few days. I cleaned my room because I couldn't take it anymore. I think I managed to get the weird spells out of the carpet. All the laundry is done, which is awesome because we had mountains. I've been vacuuming the room daily to help Jesse with his allergies. Oh! And we hired a maid! She'll be here Wednesday afternoons. I'm very happy about that because I usually don't have the energy to clean. I wanted to clean our room though to do something nice for my husband since he's been so good to me. He's been patient and understanding about me getting sick so the least I can do is the laundry and to clean up our room so he can walk without tripping on stuff! lol









Still getting over pneumonia. Everything still makes me a bit tired. Trying to get up and move around as much as possible but that wears me out too.

Update from this Weekend to Today

I woke up this morning with horrible stomach pains. I started crying. Then, the vomiting started, which I'm glad I had a bucket beside the bed. I just feel miserable but let me catch you up on my weekend.

This past weekend, I had a Leadership Retreat with my fraternity. It's a tradition to have one of these, in the woods off of the grid, to bond together. I was quite proud of myself for surviving the car trip without vomiting in front of my friends, although I loaded up on all on of my medication (which means I couldn't drive). I got to the cabin and picked a bunk close to the restroom. I made sure to bunk with my brothers who wouldn't mind vomiting. I brought a bag of baby food for eating.

While talking to one of my little brothers, I vomited in my mouth. But, I was able to swallow it down, because I was no where near my bucket or the restroom. My little looked at me, knowing what I was doing, and fist bumped me for not getting sick on the floor. She knows how bad I feel but my brothers feel bad that they can't help me. I was amused by the fist bump though. That's not the first time that I've swallowed vomit down. I did that in the car yesterday too. My throat is sore and burnt from all of the vomiting.

Anyway, I actually got sleep on the trip. I don't know if it was because I was in the woods away from electronic devices or what, but I actually got some sleep. Usually, I'm a light sleeper but I didn't hear anything. When I woke up, I felt bad, because apparently, I was snoring. That ran some of my brothers out of the room. I apologized but they were just so happy that I finally was able to sleep that they didn't care. I have really nice brothers.

I ate some lentils during the retreat because I thought they might stay down. I think I ended up vomiting four to six times during the retreat. I wanted to take a shower, because that always makes me feel somewhat better, but it was too cold for me to stand in the shower. The ride back wasn't too bad, I didn't get sick because I loaded up on phenergan and my other medications.

I talked to my doctor's nurse yesterday because I was tired of not being able to sleep. My stomach keeps me up by vomiting all night. The doctor called me in some Ambien to help me sleep and told me he was following up with the Mayo Clinic because they should have scheduled me by now. He's sending me to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL.

Honestly, I just want some kind of relief without vomiting. I don't like carrying a bucket around or embarrassing myself in front of my friends, even though they understand. I can't even do anything simple like going to someone's house to hang out because I spend most of the time in the restroom. This is just no way to live. I'm eating baby food but that's hit or miss with my stomach too.

So, I'm waiting patiently to hear back about the Mayo Clinic. If I don't hear back today, I'm going to call both my doctor and the Mayo Clinic tomorrow. I need some sort of relief. Until then, I'm going to take my medication and hope that one day, food will be in pill form.


Something did make me laugh yesterday. Every time I hear about the Mayo Clinic, I think about the scene from Airplane:

Woke up at 6am - and My Stomach Hates Me

My stomach managed to wake me up and I went straight to the bathroom and vomited. So much for that. I thought I was having a good day yesterday. I vomited up some of the food that I ate at the wedding reception, some of it wasn't digested (OK, I know that's probably TMI - but my blog is to help keep track of these things to tell the doctor). I have very intense stomach cramps. I also feel very tired, exhausted, and fatigued even though I slept yesterday and some last night.

I just took:

1 pain pill

2 anti-spasmotic pills

1 anxiety pill

1 muscle relaxer

2 anti-nausea pills

Between all of those, and I hope I can keep those down, hopefully I'll go back to sleep. I just hate waking up with that immediate need to be sick. And, as per usual, I whacked my knee on the side of the toilet again.

I just want to feel better. I'm going to call and make an appointment with the motility specialist. She's at Crawford Long, so that's a bit closer to me to get to. When I do drive, I have to drive around with a bucket. I've gotten pretty good at vomiting outside of moving cars though. I don't feel safe driving because I might get sick while I'm driving.

I need to find a primary care doctor closer to my house as well. I feel bad just walking in and saying, "Hey, I've got gastroparesis and I'm your new patient!" I would like all of my records in one place, though. My knee records, my stomach records, my records from my old primary care doctor. I feel as though my medical records are scattered all across Atlanta.

I have to say that it was good to leave the house for a little bit. I've been confined here since March since my GP has been so severe. I slept on the car ride back because the nausea started to hit. Then, I went to bed and didn't wake up until about 10pm or so. This new medication knocks me out.

The medicine that helps the most is the muscle relaxer. It relaxes my stomach enough for me to eat and not be in as much pain.I don't know if they'll keep me on it or not but it's the only thing that seems to help.

Maybe one day this Summer, I will get to go to the beach! I miss the salty smell of the air... there's nothing quite like it. I'm leaving Wednesday or Thursday for a car ride up to Connecticut for convention for my fraternity with my friends. I hope that I can make it up there with no problems. I'm more worried about the car ride. If I don't eat while at convention, I won't be sick. I know that sounds absolutely horrible. I didn't each much before or after the wedding, so I didn't get sick like normal. So, I'm going to have to monitor myself very closely with food. Most of the time, I'm not hungry anyway. But, social conventions seem to be centered around food and drinking. I can't do either.