Colitis (Patreon)

Hello everyone!

There will be a poll coming very shortly. My intention was obviously to close the last one much sooner, but the last couple of days have been mired with complications ... which I will now explain here!

NOTE: Story is about medical information, ie, stuff considered personal or TMI or whatever. No gross stories or nothing but if you're not interested, here's a fair warning!

Yesterday, at around 3PM, I was hanging out on my lonesome, playing some video games, when, all of a sudden, I get incredibly nauseous. This is a pretty ordinary occurence for me - it's an ongoing medical issue that professionals are currently looking into - but usually these bouts of nausea pass within 15 minutes or so. Life moves on.

However, this none did not pass. With it, came vomiting, also, and with that, intense cramps and pain. This continued for around 10 hours straight, until it got to around 1AM when I just couldn't take it anymore. At this point, I call a friend to take me to the hospital. Friend takes me to the hospital. Since it was late, there was no queue in the ER, meaning I could be seen quickly ... which was nice!

I tell the nurse my symptoms. One and a half needles of Zofran later, the nausea finally passes. I am okay. The drip is in. Drowsy, I sleep for five minutes, until a doctor comes in, at which point I go through my symptoms again. The doctor nods, goes away. I start to feel nauseous again ten minutes later, so I call the nurse, and get myself another needle and a half of Zofran. Nausea passes. Life is good.

Later, I go for a CATscan, which isn't a terribly awful procedure, save for the part where they have to rapid squirt contrast into your arm, which is ... not a pleasant feeling, to say the least. Aside from that, though, that was also fine. The doctor was lovely ... had a similar accent to my mother, so I felt very much at home. I am wheeled off on my little bed back to my room.

The results of the scan come in an hour later. Essentially, colitis. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, it's essentially an inflammation of the bowel. Usually caused by stress or infection, but this has been a reoccruing symptom with me, just ... never so bad that I've been in nauseous, crampy pain for hours and hours.

Because I cannot keep fluids down, they decide to keep me overnight. I sleep. During the afternoon, I do a few more tests. I am feeling a lot better, even without the Zofran. I still haven't been able to eat anything all day, and sips of water have been all I can take down, but ... I am not feeling nauseous. I can write this post out with no issue, for example.

I am discharged, sent home ... told to come back if symptoms return or get worse, naturally. I am still unsure as to what the underlying issue could be. It could be Crohn's, or it could be a less severe GI issue ... regardless, about two or three times a month, it can make my life miserable for a few days at a time. So, for the past 48 hours, I have been unable to work. This is a setback all around, naturally.

The reason why I write this post is transparency. I don't want to keep anyone in the dark with vague medical reasons or anything like that ... I've done it before in the past and I want to put a stop to it. I've been suffering with stuff like this for a little while now. It hasn't effected my work thus far, aside from setting me back for a few days here or there ... like recently. Perhaps stopping work entirely would help fix the problem, but it is not something that I can afford to do.

I want to thank all of my Patrons for being patient with me while I've been going through this. I will continue to provide content on a week by week basis for all of you. You all help me keep a roof over my head, and I am incredibly grateful for that. Being able to work from home has been a godsend in a time like this. So don't worry about October, and the months going forward ... I will provide content as consistently as I always have, and I will, of course, keep you all updated on these matters going forward.

For now, though, new poll coming! And a new story, soon, soon? And an update, of course! Things keep moving. Poll will be up shortly! Thanks for reading, if you made it this far!