WARNING: The following post will likely contain detailed elements concerning my bowel movements. If you don't wish to hear about them, or might be easily grossed out, I would suggest to stop reading at the end of this paragraph. For those that want to get the non-detailed summary, scroll all the way to last paragraph.
Again, stop reading now if you don't care to hear the details. This is your last warning.
So, I've had to deal with digestive issues almost my whole life. When I was still real young, yet potty trained, I recall sometimes having to wear large diapers to bed because I would have uncontrollable diarrhea. I had my first colonoscopy before I was even a teenager. The GI doctor couldn't find anything physically wrong with me. It could have been a number of things, but was likely either my diet or some form of IBS or both causing my issues. Regardless, I did my best to try and adapt to this. Road trips and vacations were usually a hassle and we'd always make sure to pack some Imodium along for some insta-brick. So when I found out one of the side effects of Ipi was going to be diarrhea, I immediately figured it would be fine for me to handle.
Oh me and my big mouth.
It started last Sunday. I could tell it was different; not much cramping, almost completely water. Kinda like when you start getting the flu. After I went a few times and knew it wasn't a fluke, I took an Imodium and it stopped up. But hey, even at this point it had only happened once and could just be a one-off thing so we had no reason to get too concerned over it. Besides, I was able to easily control it with a quick dose of meds.
The following Tuesday I had another bout. Just once but it acted exactly the same. At this point we knew it wasn't a fluke, but wasn't sure how often this would strike. Every other day? Randomly? Maybe certain meals might set it off? Either way, I didn't take anything and nothing else happened the rest of the day.
Wednesday was odd. Me and my wife made a new recipe to try out in the crockpot. It called for a strong spice which permeated through the air the whole day. In turn, this made my stomach knot up in anticipation for dinner later that night. As expected, I could only eat about half of it before I told my wife it made me feel sick to my stomach to eat it. Taste wise, it was fine.... but the smell really turned my stomach. I had a small bowl of cereal later when I got hungry, but took my time with it because I was still feeling a bit nauseous. This might have been unrelated at the time, but might have also been a precursor of the events to come.
Friday it happened again. After one time, I decided to be proactive and immediately took an Imodium. Now, the drug does it's job and does it's job well. I never had to go the rest of the day. But, because it was doing it's job so well... I started getting a bit on the gassy and bloated side. You see, Imodium basically stops your colon from pushing anything. That doesn't mean the diarrhea just disappears. So instead of me having to go to the bathroom every so often, I had to sit there with painful cramps and bloating. I also didn't want to chance my drawers by trying to pass gas in the event it wasn't really gas.
The cramping slowly built up throughout the rest of the night and into Saturday. In turn, this started to make me nauseous again and limited my diet. When you can't eat properly and you get hungry, now your stomach becomes even more nauseous because it's hungry and starts feeding this endless cycle. In addition, I wasn't getting any protein in my diet. By Sunday, I was feeling atrocious. I had started with the diarrhea again and decided against taking anything and hoping I could just control it better with blander food.
On Monday we called the doctors to explain what was going on over the weekend. Knowing we would be there the next day, we just needed a short term option. The only suggestion was to take Imodium again to stop the diarrhea. Of course, I knew what I would be getting in for. But at this point I felt like I was getting too dehydrated to keep this up. It was better to suck it up with the gas and cramps than possibly be admitted to the hospital.
Tuesday was supposed to be my third infusion. We had almost a two hour drive and since I had started to have diarrhea again that morning, I hesitantly took another Imodium for the road trip. Here's what went down at the doctor's in a brief nutshell:
- They put me at a Grade 3 side effect. This means it was severe enough to catch their attention, but not life threatening enough to admit me to the hospital for immediate testing.
- Postponing my infusion for at least another 3 weeks. This mean my 3rd infusion which was supposed to happen Tuesday didn't.
- I began a dose of steroids over the next month to curb the inflammation in my colon.
- I get a colonoscopy next week to see if they can find out what the source of the problem is and how bad it might be. There hasn't been any blood, which is a good sign. So initial assumptions would say colitis.
- We won't know how to continue until the doctors can review the results. There are a couple of options at this point, but we're at a standstill right now... at least for the next 3 weeks.
Let me just say that I've never had a stomach bug ever that has been as bad as this. I never had to vomit, but I think that's because it was all coming out the other end anyway.
So I'll keep everyone updated as things continue to develop. I'm sure I'll have all sorts of fun experiences with the steroids as well as getting a telescopic hose shoved into my bottom.
Non-Detailed Summary: The doctors think my side effects from the Ipi have reached Grade 3 status (which is severe, but not necessarily life threatening) and have suspended my infusion. Instead, I"m now on steroids to control any inflammation and have to undergo a colonoscopy to find out what might be going on inside my bowels.
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