Exciting Friday and Saturday night in EMERGENCY Dehydration Warning!!!

pete43lost_at_sea
pete43lost_at_sea Member Posts: 3,900 Member
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
Stay hydrated!! I thought I was, but I was wrong. I learned a basic lesson the hardway.

Got home from an amazing week long cancer retreat Friday afternoon. Which was great. I turned up dehydrated at the beginning and feeling stuffed. I arrived home at the end slightly worse despite being loved and cared for by the amazing staff at quest for life. The week was intense physically and emotionally.

the retreat will be a separate post about the amazing lessons and advice. I felt genuine care and love that I was not expecting. it was the most wonderful surprise and came at a time when I really needed it.

I needed a hand driving home Friday afternoon. Could not manage the 2 hours drive alone. Had been feeling tired and wornout all week and trying to manage diarrhea. see another post about this for help and advice earlier.

General symptoms ? all week late of energy, wanted to vomit, no appetite, problems sleeping, problems standing, cramps. Sure I have left someout.

well what did I learn?
The effects of dehydration are debilitating and chronic. I had them and should have got help earlier. tried natural remedies to late. Had 20 bags a day sometimes. Also kept going all night. Damm the bag and the leakages. Really over it.
I thought I was doing an ok job drinking lots of water and trying different foods. Kind of drifted along hoping I would feel my energy come back. It never did.

Got home and found I lost 7.5kg in about 5 days. This really worried me, called onc straight away and was advised to go straight to hospital. admitted immediately and put on a drip. started to feel better soon after.

I was sitting up the back end of a large inner city hospital Saint Vincents in Sydney in the heart of the gay party area as no other beds. Well the ER is not like US TV. Real people, old , young, kids on drugs, backpackers getting beaten up. Crazy people screaming. The doctors and nurses impressed me. Many patients gave them a difficult time. I think I was pretty easy to look after.

What will I do different ?
Get on top diarrhea aggressively early. Been told to add in a couple of panadene forte every fours hours for its constipative effect as well as imodiums.

Start chemo tomorrow folfox6 cycle 4. I wonder what treat I will get for xmas ?
feeling fine now. been away from the net for a while.

the highlight was leaving ER saturday night 10.30pm for a late supper with my drip, going down the main street, sitting in a cool Thai cafe out on the street and having lots of lovelly girls sit down and chat away to me. it was a really relaxing and a memorable evening. so I went to bed dreaming of lovelly girls and my wife and woke up with 3 old men. they moved me about 1.30am because they needed my spot in ER, so they found somewhere to put me.

Comments

  • pepebcn
    pepebcn Member Posts: 6,331 Member
    #2
    Pete I see yoou keep a good humor sense despite
    any unforeseen! Haha! I can imagine the nice dinner close to the hospital and your following dreams! hahaha.
    I'm interested about the retreat you got, so please post the experience!.
    Hugs!
  • KathiM
    KathiM Member Posts: 8,028 Member
    #3
    I learned that lesson in hospital, too!!!
    Ended up sharing a room with a gal who was a morphine drug addict. It was sort of justified...she had been run OVER by a bus, crushing her pelvis, 5 years earlier...and still could not walk well, etc. Everything was OK until the hubby/boyfriend (who knows?) came in the next morning and told the nurses she was NOT to have anything stronger than Tylenol. Now, the first night, she slept fitfully, screaming for the nurses off an on that her head was exploding. And this was WITH morphine!!! I started imagining what this next night would be like, and she was between me and the door, and my call button was broken!!!!!!!

    I discharged myself "AMA"....by that point, I had had SOME help with hydration...didn't want to end up dead from an out-of-control roommate!!!

    I always used the pinch technique to test my hydration. If you pinch a piece of skin on the top of your hand, and it takes a while to lie flat again, you are under hydrated.

    Hugs, Kathi
  • pete43lost_at_sea
    pete43lost_at_sea Member Posts: 3,900 Member
    #4
    pepebcn said:

    Pete I see yoou keep a good humor sense despite
    any unforeseen! Haha! I can imagine the nice dinner close to the hospital and your following dreams! hahaha.
    I'm interested about the retreat you got, so please post the experience!.
    Hugs!

    ah but now humour is a curse
    thanks pepe
    we cannot laugh to much or we will get hernias hahaha!!!
    pete
  • pete43lost_at_sea
    pete43lost_at_sea Member Posts: 3,900 Member
    #5
    KathiM said:

    I learned that lesson in hospital, too!!!
    Ended up sharing a room with a gal who was a morphine drug addict. It was sort of justified...she had been run OVER by a bus, crushing her pelvis, 5 years earlier...and still could not walk well, etc. Everything was OK until the hubby/boyfriend (who knows?) came in the next morning and told the nurses she was NOT to have anything stronger than Tylenol. Now, the first night, she slept fitfully, screaming for the nurses off an on that her head was exploding. And this was WITH morphine!!! I started imagining what this next night would be like, and she was between me and the door, and my call button was broken!!!!!!!

    I discharged myself "AMA"....by that point, I had had SOME help with hydration...didn't want to end up dead from an out-of-control roommate!!!

    I always used the pinch technique to test my hydration. If you pinch a piece of skin on the top of your hand, and it takes a while to lie flat again, you are under hydrated.

    Hugs, Kathi

    I will remember the pinch test
    kathi,
    glad you made it out alive to fight on and post here.
    thats a good story. the broken call button, now thats scary!!!

    to be honest I find the real life stories we share as interesting as all the super
    serious medical and test stuff.

    on friday night across the large ER room
    I saw this woman just pacing up and down and up and down.
    head betn over,
    she looked really sad in the distance.
    I though god someones just died and shes grieving.
    I was feeling really sad for her.
    then someone opened the toilet door and she just raced in.
    just shows you cannot judge a book by its cover and I chuckled to myself. gee I got that wrong.
    pete
  • pepebcn
    pepebcn Member Posts: 6,331 Member
    #6
    pete43lost_at_sea said:

    I will remember the pinch test
    kathi,
    glad you made it out alive to fight on and post here.
    thats a good story. the broken call button, now thats scary!!!

    to be honest I find the real life stories we share as interesting as all the super
    serious medical and test stuff.

    on friday night across the large ER room
    I saw this woman just pacing up and down and up and down.
    head betn over,
    she looked really sad in the distance.
    I though god someones just died and shes grieving.
    I was feeling really sad for her.
    then someone opened the toilet door and she just raced in.
    just shows you cannot judge a book by its cover and I chuckled to myself. gee I got that wrong.
    pete

    Hahaha! good one Pete!
    by the way is not 2 in the morning there?.Not sleep ? hahahahaha!
    Hugs mate!
  • abrub
    abrub Member Posts: 2,174 Member
    #7
    pete43lost_at_sea said:

    I will remember the pinch test
    kathi,
    glad you made it out alive to fight on and post here.
    thats a good story. the broken call button, now thats scary!!!

    to be honest I find the real life stories we share as interesting as all the super
    serious medical and test stuff.

    on friday night across the large ER room
    I saw this woman just pacing up and down and up and down.
    head betn over,
    she looked really sad in the distance.
    I though god someones just died and shes grieving.
    I was feeling really sad for her.
    then someone opened the toilet door and she just raced in.
    just shows you cannot judge a book by its cover and I chuckled to myself. gee I got that wrong.
    pete

    The Pinch Test is a standard in medicine
    Pinch test is reliable. I was told about it by a veterinarian many years ago, and while sitting in a Med school physiology class, this came up as well.

    Also, if your urine is very dark - another possible sign of dehydration. I say "possible" because foods/meds can also affect the color of your urine. (My B-complex turns it bright yellow.)
  • plh4gail
    plh4gail Member Posts: 1,238 Member
    #8
    get well Pete
    First...Pete I'm so glad to hear you are doing better after receiving fluids. It's amazing what they do for our bodies. We are usually toughest on ourselves when it comes to getting treatment and care. We always think we can get through it or fix it ourself. Take care of yourself and pay attention to those clues, they mean something.

    Straying just a little off the subject for a moment, hope it's ok....

    Oh...your ER story...lol... sounds so normal to me :) I have been an ER RN for about 12 years. I love my job, I love everything about it. (Almost. I hate the dying.) The stress, helping those in need, saving a life,relieving someone's pain, and such a variety of needs they can be. From starting an IV on a sick infant to managing the patient with a heart attack. There are so many reasons I love my job as an ER nurse. But to me, it's just what I do. It's normal. Now I give so much admiration and credit to others. I can not begin to tell you how I admire teacher's! I cried with my kids Kindergarden teachers, that those people were actually able to teach my little girl to read! She was perfectly pleased with knowing her colors and could care less about learning the alphabet at the beginning of her year. When they said the kids would read by the end of the year I thought "Ha, good luck with my little butterfly". To me, my kids teacher's are hero's. This year, my son's 6th grade teacher has 30 kids!! And, she is doing a great job with this class.....And there are so, so many other job's that just amaze me that people do. I will meet someone with a particular job and think " I am so grateful you do the job you do". I wouldn't want that job in a million years, so to say. I gave my post man a goody bag for Christmas and he acted like it was full of gold. This guy is at my house 5 days week! In temperature's from 30 do 115 degrees! That is the temperature range in my area, winter to summer. I am so glad he does his job!.....All of you amaze me with the jobs you do. And I am so grateful you do them. Mine is just a job that I love to do.

    Anyway Pete, I am so glad you are going to be feeling better for the Holidays. Get over the diarrhea and dehydration and be as well as you can be my friend.

    Gail

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