So, it wasn't a stomach bug.

That whole thing last week where I thought I had a stomach bug? Wrong. Very wrong.

Friday, I felt sick and tried to rest. Same on Saturday. I called the doctor on call, and she said to wait it out for 24 hours and see if it might be a stomach bug. On Saturday night, my fever went up to 101.1. Along with the pain when swallowing and just pain in general, I thought it was time to go to the ER. Unfortunately, all of my symptoms coincided with a leak, which can be really serious. I had a fever, pain in my tummy, overall fatigue, and left shoulder pain. This had me really worried.

Mom came down and took me to Barnes. The ER wait was pretty long, but eventually I got in and got a cat scan. They were able to see a pocket of fluid indicating a leak or an abscess. By this time it was almost midnight. They put me in the hospital overnight to monitor me. On Monday morning, I went in for a barium swallow (always pleasant!) and the news was good: no leak! So it's either an abscess or a blood clot. The doctors thought they might drain it with a needle or put a surgical drain in, but they decided that it was too close to other organs and too much of a risk.

They wanted to monitor me another night. In my typical fashion, I kept the nurses running for barf pans and Zofran. I puked 3 times in the hospital. It may be just because I'm not eating anything or because the abscess is causing me pain. Who knows. They sent me home on Tuesday morning with an intense antibiotic, Zofran, and an anti-fungal. So I get to suck down 4 pills a day. Yippee!

The bad thing about all of this is that Thursday I went to Peoria for the All-State conference. I just got back home. Luckily, I was able to get some rest in the hotel. My body was just not up for walking around downtown Peoria for miles in the freezing ass cold. I did get to reunite with some Millikin-ites, which was nice.

I am feeling better. I threw up on the drive up to Peoria on Thursday, but have managed to stay barf-free since then. I have to keep drinking milk to keep protein in me, and that seems to keep the nausea away. The doctor put me back on an all liquids diet, which was a pain being in Peoria. I had milk with me everywhere. I did some soup, which went okay.

I go back to the doctor on Tuesday. Hopefully I'll get to go back to soft foods. Guess it all depends on how I am feeling.

The stats... 38 pounds post-op, 46 total!