Internal bleeding

A day or two before the birth of my lovely little niece, Emma Kathleen Galloway, I was suffering from some nasty bowel movements. The "output" was black (not dark but black). I was also suffering from some serious fatigue and also some body aches. I figured it was all of the excitement with the new baby and maybe some nerves thrown in. Saturday, June 14th, I was convinced by my mother and wife to go to the Immediate Care Center.

The wonderful Dr. Quaye took his stool sample (Julie left the room for that) and I joked with him as he became "acquainted" with me. He smeared the sample on a test strip and squirted a fluid on it. He explained that what we didn't want to see was blue as that indicated blood in my stool. Not too many moments passed before the strip was blue. Smurf blue. Solid smurf blue.

The doctor assured me that there was nothing to worry about. They were going to take some blood and I would probably schedule some procedures. The doctor left. The nurse took my blood. The doctor returned. And the look on the doctor's face made my heart drop. "Mr. Brinley, this isn't critical but it is serious. You need to go to the hospital right now." Uh oh!

I was admitted that night and spent the next seven days at Audubon. I received two units of blood as my hemoglobin dropped beyond the doctor's comfortable threshold. I developed an infection from the bleeding and was put on antibiotics. I was given Protonix to help solve the problem. I was administered morphine to help with the pain. I was given Fenegren for the nausea. I was poked every 6 hours. And I had, in order, the following performed: EGD (camera down my throat), colonoscopy (camera up my butt), ct scan, ultrasound, some test where they took my blood and irradiated it and then injected it back into me to watch, and then a small bowel follow-through.

We never found a smoking gun. But the bleeding stopped. My hemoglobin has been going up. My strength is returning. And the surgeon is blaming the whole ordeal on the Naproxen I was taking for my swollen knee. He says to stay away from Naproxen and most other anti-inflamatories like Advil and Alleve. I'm only to take Tylenol and I'm supposed to limit my alcohol intake. I'll also be on Protonix for the foreseeable future.

Sorry to give everyone a little scare. And thank you all who visited. It was nice to see you all, even when I wasn't the most coherent. I want to especially thank my wife who barely left my side. And my parents as well, who were bouncing between hospitals visiting me and then my sister.