Two Weeks In Hell

[Steve81]

You mean all those times we joked about eating pizza you were really eating pizza?

Yeah dude. And not something resembling healthy pizza. poop pizza. Lots of it. And lots of Wendy’s. I mean, I knew I shouldn’t eat the poop. It was just irresistible at the time. Now it’s not. Watching the tubes pull gunk out of me, it felt like I was having each one of those crap meals pulled out of me, slowly but surely.

 

[Steve81]

Steve’s favorite foods that probably didn’t contribute to his health:

1.Any meaty, salty, greasy mess of a pizza. The king of kings? The Pizza Hut pepperoni lovers.

2. Lots of fast food burgers. I especially liked the Wendy’s Baconator.

3. Fried chicken; sadly I didn’t get that as much as I wanted to.

4. Candy. Reeces PB Cups, Butterfingers, Twix, Crunch, ohh the list goes on. I’ve eaten meals of candy.

5. And chips. Utz smokin sweets, Cheetos, spicy nacho Doritos, to name a few. I’ve definitely made a meal of s bag of chips. In fact, I recall making trades in middle school: crappy lunchable that my parents packed me for a small bag of Doritos or some such.

 

[Alex2507]

And lots of Wendy’s.

Uh-oh.

My real weakness is sugar which reminds me the girl had brought home a Bismark. She had better not have eaten it.

 

[Steve81]

Also, I’m sure decades off and on of vaping and smoking served my situation. Don’t know that they have much to do with a pancreas though.

 

[lovinthehd]

Steve’s favorite foods that probably didn’t contribute to his health:

1.Any meaty, salty, greasy mess of a pizza. The king of kings? The Pizza Hut pepperoni lovers.

2. Lots of fast food burgers. I especially liked the Wendy’s Baconator.

3. Fried chicken; sadly I didn’t get that as much as I wanted to.

4. Candy. Reeces PB Cups, Butterfingers, Twix, Crunch, ohh the list goes on. I’ve eaten meals of candy.

5. And chips. Utz smokin sweets, Cheetos, spicy nacho Doritos, to name a few. I’ve definitely made a meal of s bag of chips. In fact, I recall making trades in middle school: crappy lunchable that my parents packed me for a small bag of Doritos or some such.

Yow....that's a significant amount of junk food. Soda pop, too? I love chips, tortilla particularly, just buy them maybe twice a year as I also can't resist if they're around. I guess my diet is pretty good compared to that, not been a junk food fan much as an adult except in emergency road situations, and have sourced/prepared most of my meals for most of it....altho needs some work in terms of quantity....someone recently posted pics from a party on FB and boy do I need to lose a coupla pounds! Getting younger (am 66) would be nice, too but that ain't gonna happen. Good luck with the healthier diet!

 

[Steve81]

Yow....that's a significant amount of junk food.

I suppose I could blame mental health issues as well. As some of you know, back in July of 2019 my dad passed away. And it was then that the full scale of my mom’s dementia became clear, as she had fallen in the garage and couldn’t get up.

Add a pandemic, the increasing polarization of things, etc….yeah I got depressed. And I don’t care what I eat when I’m depressed. It’s a cycle.

 

[ryanosaur]

Steve’s favorite foods that probably didn’t contribute to his health:

1.Any meaty, salty, greasy mess of a pizza. The king of kings? The Pizza Hut pepperoni lovers.

2. Lots of fast food burgers. I especially liked the Wendy’s Baconator.

3. Fried chicken; sadly I didn’t get that as much as I wanted to.

4. Candy. Reeces PB Cups, Butterfingers, Twix, Crunch, ohh the list goes on. I’ve eaten meals of candy.

5. And chips. Utz smokin sweets, Cheetos, spicy nacho Doritos, to name a few. I’ve definitely made a meal of s bag of chips. In fact, I recall making trades in middle school: crappy lunchable that my parents packed me for a small bag of Doritos or some such.

I had to give up...
Soda. My college roomate and bandmate (he was a guitarist) lived on Coke. I can't even quatify at this point the amount of that cr@p we swilled.
Pizza. I worked for a couple pizza kitchens in school. Domino and a local shop. Needless to say, with those pills in me... Coke and Pizza were about 9/10 of my intake.
Hostess had been a long time friend. And little debbie, that b!tch-slut mistress of a trailer-park meth-ho you just can't push away. My weakness was cupcakes... especially the baseball ones. Did you know the cupcakes at least used to have pork gelatin in them? Truth.
I had a bad candy habit, too. Nothing a snickers couldn't fix.
Burgers. Those may still be a problem, but not fast food.

I did Atkins for a little bit. Fringe style, not hardcore. It was the focus on eliminating bad carbs and getting more protein and good plant matter into my body that helped me get started.
Now I'm a little more of a Paleo-Keto approach. Do not leave me alone with a rack of well cooked Ribs or a Rib-eye Steak. I pound that and a salad of Arugula and Avocado then go swim 2 miles!

*sighs

In retrospect, I can't believe the sh!t I ate.

Now, my biggest problem is beer. The Water of the Gods!

 

[GO-NAD!]

One thing I can say: as natural supplements went, fish oil along with a keto-ish diet was effective. And tiring.

Mom made us take cod liver oil when we were kids. It was so repulsive, the thought of it makes me shudder now. When gel capsules came out, it was like a godsend.

 

[Steve81]

Back in the hospital. Hyperglycemia (400). Took 14 units of lantis last night, had a chic fil a egg white grill sandwich and fruit cup this morning. That and Gatorade Zero. Haven’t slept well in weeks.

 

[Steve81]

Here’s your heartbreaker story. Thinking positive, I bought tickets to Monday Night Raw for the family. Good tickets. Show is 8/15. Less confident of making that all of a sudden.

Favorite wrestler: The Miz. He’s funny, and I’ve followed him off and on since the Real World. My wife also went to Miami, so there’s that connection.

 

[Steve81]

Jamming Tubthumping on my iPhone, because why not.

 

[Bruce53]

4000 is major league level. Most common causes of pancreatits in US are gallstones and excessive alcohol, but high triglycerides are up there too as a cause. Smoking is a risk factor also, but not nearly as high as those 3. I'm retired emergency MD and never saw a triglyceride level over 1500 in 33 years, although that was not an emergency test (I only found the high levels when reviewing patient's histories). Hope that you clear up more easily this time.
As for the NGT, some people are just totally intolerant, although that number is few. They tried to put one down with multiple attempts one time when I was admitted with SBO and it was no dice. I know that they did it correctly, but my nose wouldn't pass it well. It made it to the back of my throat and caused bad bleeding and really bad pain and they had to stop. They did eventually place one after sedation for surgery, but when I awoke after surgery they said that I ripped it out immediately, although I have no recollection of that. So I'm with you on the bad pain from the NGT.

 

[Steve81]

Should be out of the ER and home before too long. I got a decent amount of rest, and things are starting to stabilize. Heart rate is back more to normal now, BG at last check was 170’ish, no issues on chest and head CTs beyond the pancreas.

 

[Steve81]

Now I’m just sitting in a hallway waiting for a room? Love the excellent communication.

PS: I started a fundraiser for the American Diabetes Association on my Facebook page, and gave it a modest seed. Check it out if you are so inclined.

 

[Steve81]

Nightly update. Things are going well tonight. Haven’t felt the need to call emergency services lately. Finally, I’m able to sleep. Only nagging problem is that my blood sugar is stubbornly stuck around 250. With any luck, it’ll go down over time.

 

[Steve81]

For those interested, I’ve set up a small fundraiser for the American Diabetes Association on my Facebook page. Profile is here.

 

[its phillip]

Crazy story. Glad you are getting better!

 

[Steve81]

Been working on the story a bit...

Additions:

Still, there were good points during my stay thanks to some extra special staff.



I’m not one to play favorites normally, but Nurse Aisha will always have a special place in my heart. She took care of me three evenings in a row. In spite of lackluster equipment (her cart couldn’t even take my blood pressure), and a tech shortage on night one, Aisha was there to take care of me whenever I gave her a ring from my room’s phone. More than that though, I directly credit Aisha with saving my life. In addition to my bowel obstruction, I had developed serious breathing issues. One of the doctors had given me a spirometer, but given my physical and mental state, it wasn’t something I had a lot of interest in. That a surgeon had knocked it off my table and onto the floor didn’t help my opinion of it.



When I recounted that last bit to Aisha, she immediately pitched the spirometer in the trash. It was about that time I noticed that she was wearing a subtle pineapple scent; for a guy who hadn’t eaten in some time, it was absolutely intoxicating. I began breathing deeply to take it all in. I’m guessing Aisha recognized what was happening, and she even let me borrow the bottle the scent came in to help my breathing.



Then there was Nurse Chastity. In spite of only spending one day together, she left an impression on me as being one of the most compassionate and competent nurses in the hospital. One example of that compassion was how she went far out of her way to get me a popsicle. The poor thing had the consistency of a banana by the time she was able to get it back to me, but it was an amazing treat all the same. I didn’t complain at all.



Another honorable mention was the tech, Laxmi. Our relationship developed in an odd manner: I was listening to Baba O’Riley by The Who when she walked in to take my vitals. I asked Laxmi if she was familiar with the song; she replied that she didn’t listen to American music. Being a minor music buff, I proceeded to inform her that the song was by a British band, not American. Further, I advised her that the title of the song was partly a reference to Meher Baba, an Indian guru who had a profound influence upon The Who’s primary songwriter and lead guitarist, Pete Townshend. After that, she was always down to listen to me blather on about one thing or another.



It took until Saturday, 07/30/2022 to begin the clamping trial.

Contemplating adding something fairly negative about Spotsylvania, but we'll see.

 

[Alex2507]

Been working on the story a bit...

Is there going to be an orgy or not?

 

[Steve81]

Is there going to be an orgy or not?

Sadly, no. They tend to frown upon that in hospitals. One of the techs was goodly enough to clean me up gently, that's about as much action as I got.