Life with an ileostomy is an adventure--you never know what fun you're going to have each day. Today's fun was brought to us by the letter "G", as in Grapefruit.
Who knew something as innocent and tasty as grapefruit could perplex me so? I spent a good part of the day getting on to the baby (because he can here me, I know it, but he just ignores me) for kicking around in my lower abdomen. Every "kick" was hurting. Really hurting. Hurting so much that I quit working and was laid out flat in the recliner--You've Got Mail was on television so I was okay with it. Imagine my surprise tonight when it comes to light what the true culprit of all my pain was: grapefruit!
When I first got my ostomy I kept track of everything I ate, making sure to also take note of when it passed. There's nothing like the first time you eat something with red dye in it and you are convinced you are bleeding internally. Or when those green peas come out looking exactly as they had when they went in.
Ten years later it rarely crosses my mind of what I ate and when I saw it again. I will admit, corn on the cob still puts the fear of God me. And I did make my husband take me to the ER last year after I accidentally ate an entire bag of microwave popcorn--it ended up being a kidney infection that landed me in the hospital for three days, but my first response was intestinal blockage.
My doctors have told me that my biggest risk over the remainder of my pregnancy is blockage or rupture of either hernia. As the baby grows, he is competing for space with a rather large perastomal hernia and a so-so incisional hernia. I think maybe I am getting to the point now where I need to start paying better attention to what is going in and what is coming out. I guess I also need to apologize to the baby for blaming him for causing my trouble today.
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