What are your emergency situations regarding health?

I eat a burger and take a hot shower… then call me mom or go to bed.

Whenever the wife suggests cooking an evening meal, I quickly order a takeaway.

My IBS seems to be worse when I stand for long periods of time. When I worked retail it was HELL. I would be helping someone out with selecting books and I’d go “Umm… excuse me.. I need to leave.. NOW!”

So I try to sneak in a sit-down in as much as possible.

There’s not much you can do once IBS attacks. Prevention is the best cure for it.

I have a few chronic things that are almost always nagging me, but something acute like that would be a different story. I’m afraid of that sort of acute thing happening.

From my accident two years ago I got severe vertigo. Just recently I had a spin, after being free of it for a year. I hope I never get it severe again. I would be bed ridden. With this mini occur acne it just reminds me that I am probably forever changed after that accident.

When I eat a lot of raw veggies and/or nuts I bleed from ever bowel movement and it takes weeks to heal usually. I already have an iron deficiency without this problem. When it does happen I worry (not really worry, but know there is a possibility) I could have a bad episode and actually have life at risk. I take extra iron and stop eating raw veggies and nuts and more fruit. One day I will actually have colon cancer (I’m at increased genetic risk for it and have had polyps since my early 30’s) and won’t get tested right away, because I also have this other problem that comes and goes.

When my thyroid is way off I feel my heart stop. It actually misses a beat. I feel it when I am resting and it feels awful. It feels like my whole body stops. Can’t breath, can’t anything. It’s just for a fleeting moment. Along with this I tend to feel like I can’t get enough air when I sleep when I am hypothyroid. No problem with my lung capacity, it just feels like the oxygen is not in the air I breath. I try to relax and breath through my mouth. I take my blood pressure and go for a blood test as soon as possible testing my thyroid and CBC.

The biggest acute thing that can happen to me nowadays is an intestinal blockage, though it’s been more than a year since my last one (knock on wood). I still kind of live in fear of them, however, and so I get very stressed out about any stomachaches. Unfortunately the first symptom is an ordinary stomachache, so it’s hard not to panic even though 99% of the time I’m fine.

I handle it like this: I notice the stomachache. I try to chill. Getting stressed gives me worse stomachaches. I do something to keep my mind busy for a few hours.

If stomachache persists or worsens, I take my pills. I have fast acting anti-inflammatory pills prescribed to me for stopping blockages in their tracks. They’re not 100% effective, it’s kind of a last ditch attempt to prevent a hospitalization, but I actually haven’t had a blockage yet since I first was prescribed these, so I feel pretty good about them.

I chill for awhile longer. At this point I’m pretty much down and out for the day, unfortunately. If I’ve gotten to the point of needing my pills, I’m pretty nervous and in a reasonable amount of pain. I’ll skip classes or other commitments. It takes quite a few hours to know whether or not I need to go to the hospital, so these situations turn into all-day affairs.

At this point, stomachache has hopefully subsided. If it’s still there or it’s getting worse, I start to consider the hospital. I don’t want to wait too long or else I will be in horrendous pain before they are able to help me. This isn’t really considered a life-threatening emergency, so I do not get helped quickly at the ER, but the pain gets absolutely incredible after some time. I consider it the worst pain I’ve had, and I’ve passed kidney stones. Factors that will convince me that hospital is necessary: trying to poop and not much happening. You can get lulled into false security if you poop and a little comes out, but that’s just what was in you below the point at which the blockage is. I’m pretty good at discerning these days what is a blocked-amount of poop and what is a regular bowel movement.

Finally if it’s necessary I go to the hospital. I don’t have other options. I need a tube up my nose to resolve this. It sucks.

Regarding IBS, I can sympathize since I have IBD, though my symptoms are pretty much in check now that I’ve had my colon removed. I still get scared when anything out of the ordinary happens. Back in my sick days, blood and diarrhea were common. Now I shouldn’t be seeing those things too much. When I do, it’s really hard not to panic. I understand that. What helps me is to always have a game plan. For example, this fall I had what was probably a stress-induced bout of bad diarrhea which lasted for weeks. This is not normal for me even though I don’t have a colon. I panicked until I decided to talk to my doctor about increasing my medication temporarily. Once I had that plan in place, I felt OK. I upped my medication, got it back under control, and was even able to return to the lower dose of medication several weeks later without incident.

No emergencies right now, but…I had my first gallbladder attack in Oct. It was horrible! Pain for 2 weeks, could not eat…total paranoia about eating. Had a CT scan, no stones, no sludge, so, maybe passed a stone?

I was on a couple day get away up at Tahoe and did eat an extremely, out of the norm, fattening dinner. I think that it was an acute attack because of my unusual decadence that night.
BUT…the CT scan showed I have a growth ( most likely benign ) on my right Adrenal gland sooo…...waiting on the ref. to an Endocrinologist right now. The joys of middle age.

I have been doing some research and these Adrenal tumors are either, what they call, “secretors, or non-secretors”, meaning, our Adrenal glands produce a lot of hormones and if you are either getting too much or not enough, various conditions can arise, like Cushings disease, crazy high blood pressure, and others. We shall see.