Just got out of the hospital again! Don't know what caused it.

I'm down to 15 mg of my prednisone taper, again. I had actually been doing pretty good, except for getting a migraine last weekend. Saw my primary doctor on Tuesday, who believes my migraines are back because of my tapering again. Got my meds for migraines to get me through this taper.

Well I wake up Thursday morning with a lot of abdominal pain, gurgling noises. Didn't think too much about it, ended up having a lot of diarrhea. Then the nausea started, and I vomited for several hours (oddly my dinner from the night before did not digest at all). Unfortunately I was home alone with my 16 year old son, my husband was away on business. I almost fainted he freaked out and called 911. Turns out I was really dehydrated already (did lose a lot at both ends). My white blood cell count was really high, they thought I might have an infection. So they gave me antibiotics, a large dose of steroids and called in the GI doc on call from my office.

They kept me over night, but the GI doc on call really felt it was just a stomach bug. After lots of doses of Zofran and pain meds I was okay today. Held down liquids last night and this morning, then held down a more "normal" lunch. So they sent me home. The GI doc isn't upping the steroids (which I'm okay with, I want off). I see my usual GI on Tuesday.

I just hate not knowing what caused this. If it's my Crohn's still flaring up and they aren't doing anything about it, I don't want to end up back in there next week. I haven't been around anyone sick that I know of. But I did go to my primary doctor a few days before this, so maybe I came in contact with something? So frustrating, so tired of the hospital this year!

Hi Jen,
I don't blame you for being frustrated! Did they do a CT or x-ray to make sure there's not partial obstruction? I can't remember what meds you are on besides the tapering steroids.
It is amazing how quickly you can get dehydrated. When I had my partial obstruction last week, I didn't vomit or have D, but my electrolytes were still a mess and I was dehydrated from one day of no intake...it really surprised me.
This may be one of those things that you have to wait out to see if you get better or worse. When you see your GI doc on Tues ask about some sort of imaging (CT or MRI) so you can see what is going on. I'm sorry you are going through this....good thing you went to the hospital though. It sounds like you needed it!

The ER doc said he would have liked a CT scan but felt that I've been having too many lately (just had one in March). But said they would consider it depending on how I did in observation that night. I guess since I was responding well to treatment they decided against it. gumby, I'm also on Cimzia for my Crohn's. I actually was starting to think it was working. At 15 mg of steroids I was actually having normal bowel movements, which usually by now in a taper I'm seeing things go down hill. This of course could have been that down hill, the only time you hope that it was a flu!

It is rather amazing how fast we can dehydrate. I seem to be very good at dehydrating these days. Also seem to be good at fainting rather quickly too.

Have lots to go over with the GI doc on Tuesday. Including why my blood sugar was elevating in the hospital (they said steroids do that). Geez diabetes will be the LAST thing I need right now.

Post Edited (Jen77) : 5/10/2014 1:37:31 PM (GMT-6)

That's so good to hear gumby. They gave me insulin once in the hospital, and I was like what the heck? I've been on and off the pred over the last few years. Probably on it more then off of it. I can't wait to get off of it and hopefully stay off this time. It's been really messing with me the last few tapers.

I'm really wondering if there are any other options for nausea I can talk to my doctor about. Seems like once it gets to a certain point there is no return, and once I start vomiting I can't stop. I can take oral phenegran or Zofran and it will do nothing at that point. I know there are suppositories, they used to work better for me, but if I remember correctly the last time I tried that it also failed. Shame I just can't walk around with an IV for myself! lol

Thanks so much figsk8! Sadly I know we are all too familiar with all of this. Hope you are doing well my friend!