I always seem to have to learn the hard way.
I spent the night in pain, and most of the day today in the ER. They wanted to keep me for a day or 2, but I finally talked them out of it.Apparently I must have some sort of allergy to peanuts — not just an intolerance, but an alergy. I've been trying to reintroduce them into my diet for a few months, by eating some now and then. A very small amount seemed OK, at least initially. A moderate amount often caused a minor bellyache (as if they were difficult to digest), but the discomfort would usually pass after an hour or so. I thought that by continuing to eat small to moderate (and increasing) doses, my tolerance would slowly improve.
But yesterday I apparently overdid it, or else my allergy/intolerance is maturing, because late in the afternoon I ate slightly more than the usual amount, and a fairly serious bellyache soon followed. I didn't think much of it (other than to decide to stay away from peanuts for a while), but just before bedtime, after taking a shower, I started sweating profusely, and feeling lightheaded and generally cruddy, so I went to bed knowing that I probably wouldn't get much sleep, and I was right. About 3 o'clock I decided to get up and go to the ER, but when I started trying to get dressed, the pain and sweating and feeling rough in general quickly became bad enough that I decided to lie back down for a while, until I felt better.
I finally got up about 6 am and got ready to go to the ER. The problem was pretty clear, because the ileostomy pouch that I had put on before bedtime was still empty. IOW, my gut had either completely shut down or I had a blockage. The medical term for this is ileus, and it happens during abdominal surgery, for example, because handling the guts will cause them to stop working — no motility. So I've had that experience before. But whatever the cause, it's definitely not a good situation, because I doubt that there are any guarantees that it will start working again. I recall that my doctors seemed very relieved when my gut began to digest food again about 3 days after my last abdominal surgery (5 years ago). But it never occurred to me that a food intolerance or allergy could stop digestion/motility.
All they could do in the ER was to confirm (with a CT scan) that there was no obstruction, and determine that there was no motility (by listening for digestive sounds), so that's why they wanted to keep me for a day or so. Fortunately, about noon, my gut started working again, so I was able to talk them into letting me go home. I was amazed at how quickly loss of motility causes major pain and other symptoms. So no more peanuts for me, for sure.
And as Roseanne Roseannadanna often said (on Saturday Night Live), "It just goes to show you, it's always something — if it ain't one thing, it's another".
That definitely applies to this disease.Tex
