This Year's Stomach Flu

So I have been hearing about this for a while. The stomach flu was circling around my classroom and the rest of the school. A few weeks ago, I went home on a Friday feeling great! My wife, however, had the stomach bug, and she was running back and forth to the restroom. When I went to pick up my father on Sunday to play basketball, he had a bout of the stomach bug and said that he couldn’t play. I was feeling good, but in the back of my mind, I was saying, “It was only a matter of time.”

I know my body to know when I'm sick

I know my baseline for amount of times in the bathroom. I know when my body doesn’t feel right. I was awoken a few times in the wee hours of the morning to use the bathroom. I had such horrible pain coming from the J-pouch. This was pain that I haven’t felt in about eight years. The pain can only be described as very bad urgency. I had the sensation to have to use the bathroom, but when I tried, nothing would come out. My mind started to race...

As I was sitting in the car driving to work, I started to think of what was going on. The pain was getting worse and I felt the need to stop at a rest stop to relieve myself. The spasms were coming on quicker and quicker. Why wasn’t I going to the bathroom? I started to worry that I had a bowel obstruction of some sort. I have had two in the past from scar tissue wrapping around my small bowel causing a blockage.

I also thought of the time that I had a stricture or dilation. This is caused by narrowing of the bowel, making it hard for stool to pass through the intestines. When I got to school, I was excusing myself from my class every fifteen minutes because the urgency and spasms were so intense. I was thinking that I was going to end up in the hospital that evening.

I called the doctor to figure out what's wrong

Instead of worrying, I decided to give my gastroenterologist a call. I figured why question myself when he would know what to do. His office called me right back and told me what I already knew. He wanted me to head down to the outpatient blood lab to get some blood work done and stool samples. He wanted to check for C-Diff which I have had a million times or other bacterial infection in the gut. Also, he wanted to check for any parasites. 

Right after school, I drove downtown to the labs. It’s funny when they know you there. I knew the drill. Find the nearest bathroom and start scooping stool into specimen cups. Sorry to be so graphic, but just telling you the truth. The next part of the plan was interesting. The doctor’s office said that if I wasn’t going to the bathroom by the next morning, and/or if the pain got too intense or symptoms had worsened, I was to go to the emergency room as soon as possible.