A Bump in the Road

     Last week, I had a little hiccup on my road to recovery. I had some dull pain just under my ribcage on my left side. I ignored it for a week or so, brushing it off as a sore muscle. Having sore muscles has been a common feeling since surgery. As I increased my activity level, I would have sore spots in my abs, almost as if I had done crunches or sit-ups. They usually passed with time, so I was easily able to ignore this pain. However, this time, the pain did not get better.

     I was actually off of work this entire week (President's day long weekend plus furlough days) and was able to finally sit and relax after two VERY LONG weeks at school! However, my body had some different plans! I started getting a small head cold (either from allergies or just a cold) and the pain started to intensify. On Tuesday of this week, the pain was so intense that I considered going to the ER (if you know me, I'm not dramatic... it really hurt!). I called my GI to try to get an appointment, but didn't hear back from them by the end of the day. I was able to tough it out and made it through the night (albeit with little sleep). Wednesday morning, I called my PCP to try to get an appointment, but they had no openings. Finally, I decided to go to an urgent care center to make sure I wasn't dying! On the way, my GI's office called and told me they had an appointment Thursday morning. I told them that I was on my way to urgent care, so they asked me to follow up and send any bloodwork that they did over the my GI's office. I decided to keep the appointment with my GI and continue on to the urgent care as well. 

     The urgent care doctor came to the conclusion that my spleen is enlarged and that is what is causing the pain. He drew blood and did a CBC (complete blood count?) to rule out any sort of infection. The CBC came back normal, so he told me to take some pain medication and follow up with the GI in the morning. They also told me that if I started getting a fever, chills, or the pain got unbearable, that I should go to the ER. However, he didn't seem worried about that.

    Thursday morning I went to my GI (who squeezed me in between colonoscopies - this is the 2nd time he's done this in the last year... I really like him!) who also felt that my spleen was enlarged. He agreed that the bloodwork looked OK and decided to set me up with a CT scan for Friday morning to try to find out why the spleen is enlarged. He also mentioned that I could possibly have kidney stones, but I don't think the pain is that intense or in the right location. 

      The CT scan was an interesting experience. I had to go the day before to pick up some oral contrast to drink. They gave me to bottles of barium contrast. I was supposed to drink one at 10pm the night before and the other one the next morning on my way to the office. However, I asked the radiologist about drinking both since I have an ileostomy. She said that it was unnecessary, since my transit time is so much quicker than someone with a colon (suckers!). So, I only had to drink one bottle of the contrast on my way to the appointment :) It was not very pleasant, but not quite as bad as the prep I have had to drink before my colonoscopies. Yuck!

    At the office, they had me change into scrubs and started an IV. Then they took a quick X-ray in the CT machine. The actual scans took no time at all. I have had 2 MRIs and those each took around 45 minutes to an hour. The CT probably took only 30 seconds total to take all the pictures. The whole process took around 20 minutes top! Pretty amazing how quickly they can conduct these tests!

     The weirdest part of the whole thing was the IV contrast. They took one scan without the contrast, then inject the contrast and take another scan. When the contrast enters your body, it gives you a very overwhelming warm feeling. I read somewhere that it feels like you drank a hot cup of coffee in one gulp. This was pretty accurate. Also, the radiologist warned me that it might feel like I'm urinating once the contrast is injected (strange right!), but I didn't really feel this. 

    The coolest part about the scan is that the radiologist gave me a CD of my scan. She will write a report and send to my doctor with the results, but she gave me the scans in case my GI or surgeon want to see them. Also, I can look at them at home, which is so fascinating to me! 

Here is a video of the scan. I was lying on my back so the bottom is my back and the top is my chest. Also, my right side is on the left and my left side is on the right. It starts around the bottom of my lungs (the black things) and the base of my heart, then progresses down my abdomen toward my pelvis. You can also see my ileostomy around 00:16. Pretty cool, huh!

Here is another view that goes from the base of the table up through my body (from back to front) at a different angle. It's not quite as clear, but still really cool!