From Retirement Medical Issues
Going in I was able to eat solid food, although with increasing difficulty the last few weeks. Coming out I was on a clear liquid diet! I graduated to full liquid, and started working toward puréed, but I never ate solid food again.
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On Thursday May 19, 2016, I made a same day appointment to see a doctor at Kaiser because I figured I had a urinary infection. It was painful to pee and I was sweating and shivering from chills. When the doctor saw the results of my lab test he immediately sent me to the Emergency Room for antibiotics to get my white blood cell count down from an extreme level indicating the infection had gotten into my bloodstream. We were in the waiting room of the ER for a very long time. When I was finally seen, processed, and tested again, they admitted me to the hospital with a diagnosis of Urosepsis from UTI (urinary tract infection).
The antibiotic cleared up the sepsis very quickly. I was admitted shortly after midnight Friday, and was in all day Friday and Saturday, discharged mid day Sunday. I had been unable to deal with food except for clear liquids. They sent me home in that condition and no information on how to get enough nutrition. I was extremely weak and tired.
The first day home I frantically researched how to get enough nutrition and started an Excel spreadsheet on my iPad. It shows that for the first week or two I was getting about a third of the daily calories and protein I needed to maintain health. The post-hospitalization follow up with Dr. Brettler had been scheduled for Thursday 5/26. He was very concerned and brought up the conversation about planning for what to do if I wasn’t able to increase the amount of nutrition I was getting orally. It was pretty depressing and very motivating.
After that I steadily rose to a healthy nutrition level. I started on some pureed food, with nutrition still primarily from liquid supplements. By the time I saw Dr. Brettler for the one month follow up I had gained three pounds, and he said he was “very happy” several times during the visit. It looks like I dodged that bullet this time. But the whole UTI episode signaled the transition from a full omnivore diet to a liquid diet.
#7.6 of SA7. Retirement