Hey guys… I would have blogged while gone but I forgot my computer charger and it was dead and my cell didn’t get service in my hotel room so I couldn’t. Sorry! Trying to sum up what happened…
As you know I left Thursday for Vegas for a cancer conference and I’ve been to Vegas several times to I expected to go to the meetings in the day time and then have fun at night. Sadly it didn’t go as planned. I know everyone that travels frequently like we do experience a bad time or do get sick, it’s only natural that not every time is perfect. Fortunately we have never experienced this on a vacation or travel ever which is crazy but true! I’m always one to be on the go and never want to stop and slow down. When we landed in Vegas I was just ready to crash! It had been a long week and no sleep and I was exhausted. I had been feeling ok or so I thought. I might have had underlying things going on that I had been ignoring.
I was enjoying the conference and meetings Friday and took the last 2 of my dilaudid for pain because I had run out of oxycodone and this was all I had. I had a prescription but couldn’t get it filled anywhere in the DC area prior to leaving because my normal pharmacy didn’t have them in stock for the first time and neither did anywhere else. I didn’t know I would be given such a hard time trying to fill this in Vegas and thats another story for another day (I’m tired 🙂 ).
Later Friday when the dilaudid wore off I started to think I was going crazy. I had been trying to hide it but I was emotional, I took a nap after the last meeting so I could be out all night long and woke up in a pool of sweat. Gross right? I have NEVER experienced such a thing! My body was withdrawing. I had no idea my body had formed a dependency on oxycodone but it is something you don’t want to experience or run out of the drugs. I didn’t worry prior to going because I was in Vegas last fall and didn’t take any pain killers because I was drinking with friends and if you mix a drink with pain killers it will not just “cause drowsiness” but it will relax your body and your brain and tell your brain that your heart doesn’t necessarily need to beat. I also didn’t think I had been taking pain killers all week although when I think about it I was taking dilaudid here and there every day when my oxy ran out. The withdraw feeling is insane! I needed drugs. I tried to just take enough OTC pain killers to calm myself and have a good night. I made it work although I felt exhausted still.
Now it’s Saturday and although I didn’t want to miss a meeting I knew I had to in order to get my drugs and my heart was just racing that morning, I thought my heart was going to come out of my chest. Since Vegas doesn’t take out of state scripts I had to go to the ER. The wait wasn’t too bad when they brought me back into a room but the time to get my oxycodone took a heck of a lot longer! I was in so much pain and they said my heart rate was very elevated although it was lower from when I was in the hotel and my temp was high. I would say an hour later I still hadn’t received oxy and my body started going crazy! I was shaking uncontrollably and had so many warm blankets on me, my temp kept going up and up and my heart rate jumped up to 165+ in an instant. They immediately did blood work and an x-ray and CT scan. The results revealed I have a hole in my intestine, 2 infections, very high white blood count and air around my spleen. They wanted to transfer me to ICU and keep me and I refused. They were all shocked I was refusing and advising I could die but thats the chance I was willing to take. I was not going to let them touch me. I only allow my doctors to do anything with me.
I still wanted to make it to my Zac Brown Band concert and missed it waiting in their pharmacy for hours for my antibiotics and oxycodones… so upsetting!! 😦 I was feeling a little bit better, since I can handle pain very well, so we still went out again to enjoy the night and Sunday.
We decided to go back to the Hoover Dam again and boy has it changed! We had been there years ago when the bridge was being built and now it’s done so tourist can just stop and walk the new bridge to see the dam from afar. I was very happy that we went prior to all the changes and being able to tour the plant and all that. I wish we had gotten up earlier to go to Zion National Park again but oh well, next time. Tim says he wants to stay in every single hotel on the Vegas strip or near like the Palms are with the Westin and Rio etc.. Crazy right?! There are some I refuse to ever stay in! I like just staying at the Bellagio every time which Tim does as well but now he wants to try them all? Crazy.
Today when we made it home we planned on taking a quick nap and heading to my hospital but woke up a bit late. I have to go tomorrow and see what they have to do with me, I don’t want to be admitted and another hole?! ugh! More internal infections?! Oh, picking up my cute little boys today was the best part of the day!! I always miss them so so much. 🙂
Ok that sums a lot of it up. I definitely have more to share but I’m tired so tomorrow. 🙂 Night!
XoX ~Ashley
Cancer Kickin' Girl 