Home and scared...

They let me go home last night. I'm still kind of a mess though... And nervous. I can't quite come to terms with the fact that I almost bled to death >.<

This whole thing is really serious, and it scares me. I just want to be well :(

The doctor said that my heart/lungs/body are in excellent shape to have let me maintain consciousness and walk around for the 3-4 days I was living with less than half my blood supply!! That was nice to hear.

They started me off yesterday with cream of wheat and milk and custard:

Then, for lunch, upgraded me to a low residue diet, which means I can't have fiber or any roughage or any foods that won't just easily slip through my stomach. No raw veggies or fruits (except ripe bananas and melon), not even cooked greens!, no nuts, etc. 

Allowed is poultry and eggs, milks, yogurts, sweet potatoes without the peels, very well cooked or canned low fiber veggies, strained soups, WHITE bread/pasta (no whole grains), cream of wheat, etc. Nothing high acidity or with caffeine.

So I have to eat the opposite of how I normally eat, basically. (I eat nuts, fruits, and veggies mostly! And no dairy or grains... I still probably will steer clear of the grains mostly.) The nurse joked that this recommended diet is the only one like it, that she normally would never recommend her patients to eat like that. It's not a "healthy" diet, per se, but it's necessary to not aggravate my wound.

They gave me a meal of turkey, cooked brand, mashed sweet potatoes, barley soup and PUMPKIN PIE:

It was doctor approved, but eating all that food (and I DID eat it all because I was starving) made me super aware of the wound in my stomach. For the first time there was pressure in my stomach from being full, and I can feel the pain now. Scary.

But I'm home. I'm very tired from my hospital stay, it wasn't restful and it was very stressful. I thought I'd be feeling a little bit better today but I'm not really.

I'm also very nervous and very stressed out. I am trying to keep an eye on how my body feels and any symptoms I might be experiencing that would indicate that the wound opened up. I can't quite tell the difference between general lethargy from my ordeal and lethargy from blood loss. And, sorry for the TMI, but my stool will really be the best indicator of if I'm bleeding again. Black or tar like stool is a dead giveaway of bleeding from the G.I. tract.

Being restful today, being careful to rest and follow the diet.

This is a health and wellness blog, it's very interesting to look at food once again as medicine, but in a very different way. Food that I've been eating for years could really hurt me right now, so I won't eat it. 

It's an interesting analogy to the past. I used to eat junk food for years and then it became clear that the food I had been eating for years would hurt me, so I stopped eating it. However, this situation is different in the sense that there is no room for cheating or slipups. It could legitimately cause me to bleed again.

Food is our medicine, it keeps us alive, and I take that more seriously than ever.

Also, to everyone who doesn't really take their health and diet and fitness very seriously, remember that I only came out of this as well as I did because I've been keeping my body strong and healthy for a number of years. This was a freak medical situation that could happen anybody. It is so worth it to be healthy now and to take care of yourself now. You never know what the future will bring.

Namaste.