Really, it does. It sucks when someone you love, in this case Mrs. Freeholder, is sick and all you can do is massage her belly at 2 AM and hold her when she cries because she’s sick and tired of being sick and tired.
A week or so before Easter Mrs. Freeholder had an attack of diverticulitis, or so she claims it was. She’s had it for years, but rarely has an attack. This one went on for days and was far worse than any other attack I remember.
OK, there’s always going to be an attack that’s the worst. But after she was over it, it came back in a few days. Not as bad, but bad enough. Severe indigestion, bloating, cramping and diarherra. And she got over it. And it came back in a few days. Lather, rinse, repeat for 6+ weeks. Of course, it slowly wore her down. I did everything to encourage a doctor’s visit I could do short of hog-tying her and hauling her in myself.
This last attack, which lasted six days, broke her. She finally went to the doctor. The doc told her that they had had four cases like hers before lunch. I find that suspicious. She had to do a fecal capture so it could be cultured. The results came back as “excessive e. Coli” in her stool. Antibiotics for three days. She just finished the last dose Saturday. They’ve been a bad experience for her, with excessive gastro issues, mostly nausea.
Today she is feeling better. Not great, but better. Of course, we feel better so we’re charging headlong into house cleaning. I’m encouraging her to take it easy with mixed results.
I’m curious and concerned where the e. Coli infection came from. From my reading, this isn’t caused by the usual version of the bug that inhabits everyone’s digestive system, but from an interloper which may have snuck in via food or a moment of poor sanitation somewhere. We’ve been eating more take-away than usual because the kids are a double handful most days, and we all know employers are scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to minimum wage jobs. Turnover in those jobs is high, so training becomes hit-or-miss. Mistakes happen.
Or not. Potty training is coming excessively late in my opinion, and we’re still dealing with those sanitation issues. Raw ingediants from the grocery store can also harbor unwanted visitors. Who knows the last time that cart in the grocery store was sanitized. It almost makes me miss the Wuflu lockdowns–at least when you went out you could tell that things were clean.
This episode also raises the issue of how I might deal with this if our medical system was somehow compromised and I had to work from books and stored supplies. I don’t have even a basic lab setup tucked away somewhere. 🙂 Blindly throwing a limited supply of antibiotics at problems isn’t a great idea.
And then there is the thing about being “seasoned citizens” and not bouncing back like we used to. *sigh*
So yeah, it has sucked. Hopefully it stops soon.
Yow! Y’all have my sympathy. I’m glad she’s recovering.
Mrs. F is a lot tougher than me. Perhaps the experience will make her less averse to seeing the doc in the future, should the occasion unfortunately arise.
As for where the bug comes from, would your doc have any insight? I believe various versions of coliform are basically everywhere and mostly more or less benign.
My post-SHTF health plan is to avoid everyone as long as possible and not get injured.
Good luck. Hang in there.
Good to hear the misery was diagnosed and treatable. My husband has on-going digestive problems, and I agree, it sucks. Seems like many things can set off diverticulitis (hubby has it too), and as you noted, the E. coli could have multiple or random sources. We grow much of our own vegetables, so I think that helps – I know the source and handling of the food.
Getting older sucks too. Everyday there’s a new problem, it seems. And recovery takes longer.