The Life of the Bulimic

First off, no I am not a bulimic. I love to eat, and I despise puking. I try my best to avoid it at all costs. Unfortunately, it seems to not want to leave me alone lately. It's following me around like great aunts do at family reunions trying to pinch your cheeks. It just won't go away.

I've had to place my running aside, simply due to being so ill. The doctor's still are not sure as to what is causing my nausea and vomiting. There's a few theories out there. One being that I have a virus. The other that this is my body's way of dealing with the pain from an orange sized cyst that is in on my ovary.

Thankfully, even though the cyst is extremely large, I don't feel very much pain. It's more of this dull ache you get whenever you press against a deep bruise. Either my pain tolerance is much higher than I realized, or my God is keeping me from feeling the pain.

I started feeling sick 11 days ago. I wasn't able to keep even water down 5 days ago. Landed myself in the hospital 4 days ago with severe dehydration. They loaded me up with IVs. And may I just point out that it was one of the most painful experiences I have ever endured in my lifetime. It took them three tries and two nurses to get that stupid needle into my vein. Apparently it's rather difficult when the person has been puking non-stop, and hasn't drank water in over 24 hours. Whoops.

They ruled out a lot of stuff--gall bladder, etc. but still were not able to find the root of the problem. They told me to follow-up with my doctor on Monday (two days later). So, I stayed at my parent's house and basically puked non-stop for two straight days.

My family doctor put me on a water-only diet for 24 hours. He told me that I could add popsicles to that diet the next day. Then the third day I could start the BRAT diet (Bananas, rice, apple sauce, toast). I am on the third day.

However, the BRAT diet does not seem to be agreeing with my good ol' tummy at the moment. My fever broke a few days ago, so I'm assuming it's just my body's way of dealing with the pain from the cyst.

But that's where I am now. Still trying to keep a positive outlook on the whole situation. My doc doesn't know for sure whether or not my cyst is cancerous, so we're all in limbo at the moment. She decided to wait for 4 weeks and do more testing to determine if it's changed in size. She told me if it gets bigger, or stays the same size, they are going to remove it. But if it gets smaller, then I'll be able to go on with life without any operations.

Right now I'm praying it disappears within the next 4 weeks. I'm ready to have my energy back, and look forward to the day I can chow down on well-done steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans. Yum.