Bowel Blockage

Ouch, today I'm suffering from a bowel blockage. It is excruciating. This one has been going on since about 7 AM. It's very serious, actually life-threatening. But I'm afraid to go to the ER because the first thing they'll do is pump my stomach using the dreaded NG (nasal-gastric) tube. I'd almost rather die than submit to that again. My rule of thumb is that if the blockage goes on for more than 24 hours, I promise to find a ride to the ER. Fortunately this blockage seems headed for self-resolution before the 24-hour mark, which means I have once again successfully avoided the ER.

This can happen to anyone, including people with full, normal, functioning digestive tracts, but I never had it before I lost my colon. I've learned that there's so much more room in my lower torso minus that large organ that there's now space in which my small intestine can get kinked and twisted. This is why people who've had complete colectomies get bowel blockages more often.

This is the first one I've had since my leg surgery. Thank goodness I can walk enough to do some of the right things for the blockage, like heat up the Bed Buddy in the microwave for applying heat to my mid-section, and carry it into the other room where I can lie down on the couch. I also made hot, sweetened tea for slow sipping. I couldn't have done any of this by myself during the first two weeks after the leg surgery. Thank Gd it didn't happen then!

One of the other blockage-management tools is to take a hot bath, but I'm not allowed to immerse my leg yet, so that option was out.

What caused this particular blockage? Must be something I ate. Most likely it was those innocent-seeming beets I polished off yesterday evening. When will I ever learn: Do not eat beets after 1 PM, Natasha! Or, if I must, at least eat them in tiny quantities only. Hard to remember when I love them so much.