hospitalized?

My past issues for hospitalization were due to SEVERE cramps that literally dropped me to my knees and tears. I've also been there for Salmonella infections and being immune supressed, any type of infection is very difficult to deal with.

     The first time I was hospitalized in  Oct.1998, I didn't know I had UC.  My symptoms started in the beginning of Sept and progressively worsened.  Severe diarrhea, bleeding, loss of 15 lbs in a month (nothing stayed in, everything I put in my mouth came out the other end), fever of 102.  I thought for sure it was cancer.  I was hospitalized for eight days back then and had the colonoscopy the last day.  I was fed through IV.

     The second and last time I was hospitalized for UC was in May of 08.  Because of prednisone, which the doctor had me on for about a month, my blood pressure went up to 210/110 and even with my blood pressure meds, would not come down.  So in addition to severe diarrhea, bleeding, loss of weight, my blood pressure was a big issue.  Even in the hospital they had problems bringing it down.  They had to have me on three blood pressure meds.  I had a PIC line in and that is how they fed me and gave me my meds...ugh, horrible time...in there for ten days and still sick as a dog when released but the doctor was afraid I would pick up an infection if left in there any longer.

When I was flaring, my doctor told me that if I developed a fever I should go to the ER immediately. I never did though.

Before I was diagnosed, I had an ultrasound and I guess things must have looked bad because the technician told me to go to the ER right away! I freaked out and almost went, but called my doctor first. Couldn't get to see her until a few days later... I had calmed down a bit by then and when she saw me she couldn't figure out what the technician was so alarmed about. Again she told me to go if I developed a fever, but I didn't.

I recently had my first hospital stay for my UC. Up until now, I have been able to control flares by increasing meds and just putting up with the frequent bathroom trips, cramps, pain, tired etc. . . This last time though, after 5 weeks of just getting worse, I gave up and went to the ER. ( I also just changed insurance and had not been referred to a new GI doc ) I was getting pretty dehydrated even though I was trying to drink lots of water. The bathrooms trips were up to 4 per hour. YIKES, I hated that. They started Prednisone almost immediately and within just a day or so, things started turning around. It looks as though I am on the road to "normal", although I still get tired quite easily. . . might be the new meds, not sure.

I ended up in the hospital last summer after about 6 weeks of a horrible flare. After 2 days of vomiting & fever on top of the bloody diarrhea all day long, I went to ER and found out I had C.Diff so that's what ultimately hospitalized me.

80's chick - I totally understand the need for control. As for the bathroom thing, you are hooked up to an IV, but it's hooked up to this rolling tower thing, so I just dragged it into the bathroom with me (unplugged it for a sec if necessary, nurses said thats OK) and then went back to bed. Don't let that keep you from getting the help you need!

Renee

I have had to be hospitalized for severe dehydration and low potassium

When I was hospitalized, it was due to anemia. I fought going, but it got to the point that I couldn't do anything aside from go to the bathroom and then go immediately back to bed. My husband made the call that we needed to go, called my mom and dad to watch the kids and he took me in.

I got 2 units of blood, lots of pred and an iron transfusion while there. My GI came to the hospital to meet me (I had made an appt with their office, but hadn't been to see them yet), and within a week of my release, I was in the Humira trial and completely stopped bleeding. By that point, I had lost 35 pounds in a very short amount of time.

Even with the blood and iron transfusions and getting all of the blood out of my stool with the pred/Humira combo, it took MONTHS of being on iron supplements before my levels reached the bare minimum for them to let me off iron. I seem to get anemic quick.

80schick-the only time I couldn't use the bathroom was when I was getting blood transfusions. Oddly though, I was able to sleep through it and really didn't need to go. After they started the IV steroids, that got my BMs down to a reasonable level, but I was always able to get up to go. (had to give some stool samples though-man, I felt SORRY for that tech who came to collect it) Being in the hospital sucks, but it wasn't as bad as I had expected. My kids were not allowed to visit, so that sucked, but ITU and would probably not have wanted them exposed to hospital germs either. I'll admit though-I was fearful they would want to remove my colon as soon as I got there, and was relieved that that didn't happen. (though maybe that would have been better in the long run...)

One time when I was in hospital, I couldn't even make it to the bathroom from my bed. I ended up asking for one of those potty chairs to be placed right by my bed. No problem. The nurses had an easier time cleaning that than they did changing the bed every half hour. But then, the hospital I go to has all private rooms. Nice.