After yesterday's pretty rough evening, I decided to take it easy, both on the ankle and the eating. While it seemed like I had a decent total number of sleep hours, it seemed pretty restless. I'd guess partially the stomach with the added stress on top. I know that I woke up a couple of times in the night feeling uncomfortable...but I did get to bed semi-early and didn't get up for about 7 hours. Just choppy.
Anyways, I got up and instantly called the to get one of my tests scheduled for the day. This was the ultrasound to check my gallbladder. I was able to get an appointment for 1pm. Part of the requirement for this was to fast for 8 hours...luckily, I hadn't eaten since 3pm the day before. Unluckily, since the appointment wasn't until 1pm, I would have to fast for another 5 more hours before eating, which would put me at about 23 hours of no food. I was actually ok with that, since I was still tight-chested and had zero appetite.
I worked from home for the first half of the day, and then had Becky drop me off at the hospital to get the test. I was taken in right away, and it was a fairly simple test. It was basically the same ultrasound that a woman gets when they're pregnant...except, of course, it was around the upper-right abdomen. I got to see the inside of my gallbladder, but sadly they didn't tell me it's gender.
The test took about 30 minutes, when my mom picked me up from the hospital. She had brought soup and cracker for me to eat. At this point I had started to get hungry, and decided to munch on the cracker...I slowly ate the first one, waiting for the tightness to start. Nothing happened, so I started eating the 2nd....and then 3rd...and then as soon as I knew it, I was down 20 crackers. There was a little tightness that had started, but I got home and tried to counteract it with some TUMS.
I then ate some chicken rice soup...and then continued my work day. It started getting a little tighter throughout the day...it wasn't as bad as the night before, but still felt uncomfortable.
A couple of things happened today...I got a call from one of my friends, asking how I was doing. I told him my story about the anxiety and all the problems that I had been having. He actually had relayed almost the exact same experiences that have happened to him...everything from the anxiety to an ulcer that he got a few years ago. It was crazy to hear him describe something that I thought I was crazy having the last 2 weeks. Talking to him was amazingly therapeutic. He told me it gets better, and then gave me some tips for dealing with the stomach issues.
Now I'm not sure if I definitely have an ulcer or an irritated stomach...but the symptoms sounded very similar. He described it as feeling like you have a bubble in your stomach, and you instantly feel a tightness in your chest, right below your sternum. Antacids help, but not completely. One of the biggest reasons for this to happen is the use of NSAIDs, like aspirin or advil. I haven't taken that much but perhaps because my body isn't used to it, it could have at least caused irritation in my stomach. The other thing is that for a while there I was drinking a ton of orange juice, which didn't help...and of course the stress. This kind of put my mind a little more at ease...while even though I don't know exactly what's wrong with me, it would be nice to have something as common as an ulcer. I guess time will tell if my body responds to the prilosec.
The other thing that happened today was that I decided to drive for the first time since my surgery. I just wanted to get out of the house, and considering I was able to "run" on the treadmill, I figured I could handle a simple dorsiflexion to drive. I only just drove up to the local CVS and bought some anti-gas medication. I wasn't sure if that would help, but it gave me a purpose.
So I got home, ate some chicken-rice soup, crackers, and then 3 chicken nuggets, with a pre and post meal of TUMS...The stomach kind of settled down and I went to bed around 10.
The stomach actually settled down enough for me to get some decent sleep. I slept for a total of 7.5 hours which is the most I've had since the surgery. I did wake up, but only woke up around 12:30 and then 2:30. So, even though it was slightly patchy, it was good enough for me to wake up semi-refreshed.
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