June's Lupus Flare Part 1

Back in June I was having a lot of stomach problems.  I was having severe stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, heartburn, and cramping no matter what I ate.  I went from eating anything I wanted to crackers and water over a two week span.  Then the crackers and water wouldn't even sit well with me.  My mom and sister were out of town on vacation together and I was taking care of my disabled father and my mom's dogs, so I couldn't go in the hospital until they got back.  I tried to ask my mom what she thought was going on with me because I knew it wasn't a virus as I had no fever and it was lasting too long.  She would just act annoyed when I would give her a run down of my symptoms and tell me to go to the ER.  So when they came back from their vacation I called and made an appointment with my GP, who is also a family friend.  He wanted to see me ASAP when I told his wife I had not eaten or drank anything in 3 days and I felt very weak and dizzy.  He said he was probably going to hospitalize me.  I called my mom and asked her if she could keep my daughter while I went to the appointment and she wanted to know why.  I told her that the doctor was probably going to hospitalize me and and she said, "For WHAT?!"  As if that were the most absurd notion she had ever heard.  I became agitated and reminded her that I had been telling her for the past two weeks that every time I try to eat I get really sick and can't keep it down.  Her delightfully caring response was, "Well, that can't be true because if you didn't eat anything for two weeks you'd be DEAD!"  I told her I didn't say I hadn't eaten ANYTHING in two weeks, what I said was, everything I TRY to eat for the past two weeks makes me sick and the past three days I had not eaten anything.  I went on to explain that obviously if I knew that eating things made me sick, that I had to have been eating SOMETHING, otherwise how would I know eating made me sick?!  She got all exasperated like she always does when I get sick again, but agreed to watch my daughter.

When I stepped on the scale at the doctors office it was the first time ever that I was happy to see the numbers!  I had lost a whopping 26 pounds in two weeks!  Now if you know me, you know what a miracle that is.  For those of you who don't know me, let's just say that one time I was on diet pills for nine months and ate nothing but salads, yogurt, and fruit and at the end of the nine months I had somehow managed to GAIN a pound.  So as soon as the doctor saw how much weight I lost since I my last visit two weeks prior he slammed me straight in the hospital.  I called my mom and my husband to let them know I was being admitted and went over to the hospital and this is where my day began to get interesting!

TO BE CONTINUED....