An Undesirable Development

Ellie's birthday party yesterday was a definite success for everyone except, possibly, me.

The kids had fun; I found a hit with some decorate-your-self sticker pages for the kids as an activity while they waited for cake/food/ice cream. Ellie got way too many gifts -- I've sworn that next year we either have a way smaller party -- I'm thinking like six kids for a six-year-old's birthday party -- or we'll ask for some kind of donation in lieu of a gift, like maybe bringing children's books that we can donate to a school library or maybe coats for kids in a shelter. I tried to suggest that to Ellie before this year's party, but it didn't go over well. ;-) I figure I've got an entire year to talk her into it for next year!

But honestly? The party was too much for me, even though we threw the party at a gymnastics place and didn't have to deal with the whole clean-up-before-the-party and then clean-up-a-worse-mess-after-the-party.

It was just too much activity for me, even though I wasn't doing the gymnastics. You know I'm sick when I barely manage to take a bite of my piece of cake. And Scott had sent a perfect corner piece (lots of frosting!!) over to me!

At the end of the party, I had an urgent need to visit the bathroom. Turned out, about all I did was pass out in the stall, and then lie for awhile on the floor wishing someone would come looking for me. Yep, I was pretty much just as pathetic as it sounds. I eventually was able to get up and find my way to the car, where Scott and Ellie were waiting for me.

We came home, where we started parceling out Ellie's gifts so it wasn't entirely overwhelming. (Twenty-five kids at a party = a LOT of presents.)

Meanwhile, I was having greatly increased pain from my diverticulitis. (Warning: TMI about potty issues and bodily fluids ahead.)

Around the time Ellie was going to sleep, I went to the bathroom and when I looked in the toilet while flushing, I noticed that it looked like there was red blood in the bowl. It didn't seem to have an external source, and I did not have my period.

My belly pain continued to be very intense, and about 90 minutes later, I went to the bathroom again and had what felt like diarrhea. This time, I knew to look before I flushed.

So, I know this is way too much detail about what ends up in a toilet bowl, but it wasn't like any other case of diarrhea I'd ever had. There was definitely more blood, but it's hard to tell how much since the water dilutes it. It was the poop that seemed weirdest to me. It reminded me of a pile of poop-colored flour at the bottom of the bowl.

Wanna know how much my husband loves me? When I asked, he came into the bathroom and looked in the toilet, and then we spent five to ten minutes discussing it and trying to decide if it meant I should go to the ER again. Blood is never a good sign, and I was a little panicky about it.

Scott's judgment was that since it was "just" blood and intense intestinal pain, it was probably OK to wait. It's not like I was bleeding between bowel movements, nor did I have more than a low-grade temperature.

I wasn't convinced, and went downstairs to my laptop to google blood and diverticulitis. What I found, was not encouraging. But luckily, I'd posted to Facebook that I thought I might need to go to the ER again, and one of my friends, who's a physician's assistant, was still awake and called me at home to discuss what was going on. He pretty much confirmed Scott's judgment, with the caveat that since he wasn't here in person to examine me, he couldn't be absolutely sure.

But E went through the things to be on the look-out for, and then explained that it wasn't uncommon for diverticula to bleed on and off during diverticulitis. (Which was pretty much the opposite of what I'd found on the Web, which suggested it was a rare complication.) E said that since I was already on the correct medications to treat diverticulitis, the bleeding was unlikely to be an ER type of emergency.

So, my plan is to wait and call my GI doc first thing in the morning, and see what, if anything, he wants to do.

My intestines have pretty much gone back to holding onto everything that they can, or they simply were completely emptied after Saturday night's experience. So although I had a bit more blood this evening, I haven't had much.

I'm not sure what happens next, and I'm really not looking forward to finding out. But I'm hoping this experience will be over soon, and I can go back to my "normal" health issues.