I'm back!

I haven't written since April. Wow! Time flies by so quickly, and so many things can happen in a short amount of time. There is a good (well, in my case, not so good), reason for my absence. In July, I got food poisoning at a restaurant in Seattle from a burger, and was in the hospital for a week. E.Coli, specifically, and let me tell you, it was the worst sickness I have ever experienced.

My favorite thing in the world, food, turned into my body's greatest enemy. I (and the morphine every hour) fought for my life and ended up winning. It started out just like any stomach flu might. That's what I thought I had. But after being up all night with a stabbing, cutting pain over my entire abdomen, I woke my husband up sobbing to take me to urgent care. And I'm not a wussy girl! I can tough most things out. But this…..nope.

Of course, there are hundreds of things to rule out when getting a diagnosis, and of course, it takes several hours. At urgent care I was given morphine to ease the pain. What had started out as just diarrhea (excuse me, but there's no other word) turned to straight blood, and the doctors got concerned. This was no ordinary flu.  So I was taken upstairs to get an x-ray of my stomach. What they found?  Inflamed intestines. It could be anything. They listed off so many horrible sounding things I probably would have been terrified, but I was high on morphine, so not much phased me. I spent a day and a night at Urgent Care while they sent my "stools" to a lab.  I woke up every 1/2 hour to go to the bathroom. Not a fun night.

The next morning, they decided to send me to the hospital because they still did not know what was wrong with me. I arrived there and got checked into a room, and waited politely for a doctor. He came in, gave his spiel, and left, not accomplishing much. I asked the nurse for more morphine, as the pain was starting to come back. She said she had to wait for the doctor to approve it. I waited 4 hours. By the time she came back I was bawling because the pain was so bad. She didn't make that mistake again, thank God!  Anyways…..2 days later they got the labs back telling me I had E.Coli. I honestly did not know how serious it was. Thank goodness my husband never once told me I might die. He stood strong for both of us. 

 I sat in that hospital for one week and watched enough of "Keeping up with the Kardashians" for a lifetime. Anyone seen the episode where they "adopt" a homeless guy and pay for him to get fake teeth?  Maybe it was the morphine….maybe not…..but I laughed so hard, and it freaking hurt to laugh! When I was released from the hospital, my husband and friend Eric came and took me home. I'm pretty sure the nurse pushing me to the car in a wheelchair hit on me….really dude? I look like death and am leaving the hospital IN A WHEELCHAIR and your hitting on me????  At least I got to take my hospital socks home, those things are awesome!

And also….I shit the bed. Straight up shit the bed in the hospital. Of course it was when my husband was sleeping in the chair next to me. I remember waking up and thinking….oh no…..this isn't happening! I even tried to call the nurse and have her help me get cleaned up before Patrick woke up. But no…he woke up and witnessed the whole thing. Unfortunately I would say our relationship has gone to the next level…

I am just now (4 months later) able to eat most foods again, although many still hurt my stomach. I am still unable to eat tomatoes, dried fruit, caffeine, and anything remotely spicy. But that is improvement! I lived off of bananas, yogurt, avocados, & white rice for about a month. I never want to eat another banana. EVER!

Full recovery may take up to 6 months. I will spare you all the gruesome details but wanted to write a quick post to say that I am cooking again and planning on adding some new and delicious recipes soon!!! I have been cooking up a storm to make up for lost time, so keep posted! And leave me comments, I love hearing from people!