I thought I was dying

What a strange night it was, last night. I laid down to sleep around
midnight and felt uncomfortable so I got back up. Then I had a painful bout
of "the runs" that lasted an hour or so, and all the while I was feeling
very weird.... There was a sensation of being hugely bloated in my
midsection... so bloated that it felt as if my gut was pressing upward on my
diaphragm to the point I could scarcely breathe and I was going to burst.

For the next two hours I hemmed and hawed over dialing 911, meanwhile trying
to tie up a few loose ends in the house - hang wet laundry, clean up cat
boxes, mop kitchen floor, wash hair, make a list of people to contact if I
ended up in hospital or dead, etc. - all the while keeping the portable
phone handset in range in case I started to faint or something. And all the
cats were following me around looking very worried, which was downright
frightening, knowing how psychic they are.

Around 2:45 AM I sat down at the computer and found an email from Ellie,
sent at 2:30, wanting some PC advice. I emailed back that she could call me.
The phone rang at 3:00 exactly, and I talked with her for almost an hour,
during which time I started to feel sleepy. After we hung up, I again tried
to go to sleep. It was impossible to get comfortable due to a strange new
and absolutely horrendous pain right in the center of my back. It felt like
a freshly broken bone.

I finally fell asleep around 5:30 AM. Billy woke me up a few hours later,
demanding food, and I had NO pain and NO discomfort whatsoever. I was very
glad I hadn't given in to fear during the previous night, for I might have
been waking up in a much different place, needlessly.

"Pat" wrote in message
news
What a strange night it was, last night. I laid down to sleep around
midnight and felt uncomfortable so I got back up. Then I had a
painful bout
of "the runs" that lasted an hour or so, and all the while I was
feeling
very weird.... There was a sensation of being hugely bloated in my
midsection... so bloated that it felt as if my gut was pressing
upward on my
diaphragm to the point I could scarcely breathe and I was going to
burst.

For the next two hours I hemmed and hawed over dialing 911,
meanwhile trying
to tie up a few loose ends in the house - hang wet laundry, clean up
cat
boxes, mop kitchen floor, wash hair, make a list of people to
contact if I
ended up in hospital or dead, etc. - all the while keeping the
portable
phone handset in range in case I started to faint or something. And
all the
cats were following me around looking very worried, which was
downright
frightening, knowing how psychic they are.

Around 2:45 AM I sat down at the computer and found an email from
Ellie,
sent at 2:30, wanting some PC advice. I emailed back that she could
call me.
The phone rang at 3:00 exactly, and I talked with her for almost an
hour,
during which time I started to feel sleepy. After we hung up, I
again tried
to go to sleep. It was impossible to get comfortable due to a
strange new
and absolutely horrendous pain right in the center of my back. It
felt like
a freshly broken bone.

I finally fell asleep around 5:30 AM. Billy woke me up a few hours
later,
demanding food, and I had NO pain and NO discomfort whatsoever. I
was very
glad I hadn't given in to fear during the previous night, for I
might have
been waking up in a much different place, needlessly.




Yikes. If you are fine today, it had to have been some sort of panic
or anxiety attack right? Not that the physical manifestations of
those are any picnic.

Purrs that you continue to feel fine.

The midnight hours are the worst, aren't they?

Again purrs that this was a one time thing.

Jo

"Jofirey" wrote

| Yikes. If you are fine today, it had to have been some sort of panic
| or anxiety attack right?

I don't know... the thought hadn't occurred to me until you suggested it.
But doesn't panic/anxiety attack require some sort of trigger - an event
that would cause one to feel frightened? In this case, there was nothing
going on that was frightening. Well, at least not prior to the onset of
symptoms!

Pat wrote:
What a strange night it was, last night. I laid down to sleep around
midnight and felt uncomfortable so I got back up. Then I had a
painful bout of "the runs" that lasted an hour or so, and all the
while I was feeling very weird.... There was a sensation of being
hugely bloated in my midsection... so bloated that it felt as if my
gut was pressing upward on my diaphragm to the point I could scarcely
breathe and I was going to burst.

For the next two hours I hemmed and hawed over dialing 911, meanwhile
trying to tie up a few loose ends in the house - hang wet laundry,
clean up cat boxes, mop kitchen floor, wash hair, make a list of
people to contact if I ended up in hospital or dead, etc. - all the
while keeping the portable phone handset in range in case I started
to faint or something. And all the cats were following me around
looking very worried, which was downright frightening, knowing how
psychic they are.

Around 2:45 AM I sat down at the computer and found an email from
Ellie, sent at 2:30, wanting some PC advice. I emailed back that she
could call me. The phone rang at 3:00 exactly, and I talked with her
for almost an hour, during which time I started to feel sleepy. After
we hung up, I again tried to go to sleep. It was impossible to get
comfortable due to a strange new and absolutely horrendous pain right
in the center of my back. It felt like a freshly broken bone.

I finally fell asleep around 5:30 AM. Billy woke me up a few hours
later, demanding food, and I had NO pain and NO discomfort
whatsoever. I was very glad I hadn't given in to fear during the
previous night, for I might have been waking up in a much different
place, needlessly.

LOL, that happens to me *all* the time. It's called, plain and simply,
*gas*. I have IBS and colitis and when it goes off, I tend to bloat with
air afterwards. It's the most uncomfortable pain, that I'm amazed you were
able to do so much! It's a debilitating, miserable thing to deal with and I
hate it. You can take all the Tums, all the Gas-X's you want, but it
doesn't fix it. I just go to sleep, too.

Sorry that you had to deal with it. :-(

kili

Pat wrote:
"Jofirey" wrote

Yikes. If you are fine today, it had to have been some sort of panic
or anxiety attack right?

I don't know... the thought hadn't occurred to me until you suggested
it. But doesn't panic/anxiety attack require some sort of trigger -
an event that would cause one to feel frightened? In this case, there
was nothing going on that was frightening. Well, at least not prior
to the onset of symptoms!

Okay, this may be TMI, but here goes:

I suffer from anxiety, but these don't sound like anxiety symptoms. It
sounds like you had too much excess air in your intestines, which happens to
me frequently and it's really uncomfortable. BUT, when I get anxiety, I
shake, I get hot and cold flashes, I throw up, my heart pounds, I have
racing thoughts in my head, I pee constantly, and I get diarrhea. Sometimes
it can take up to two days to go away and all I can do is lay on the couch,
shiver and sweat. My husband also has anxiety, so we try to help each other
through it. I never had anxiety really badly until I got the cancer.

Intestinal gas, on the other hand, I've been experiencing since I was a
teenager. It can feel like you're dying. Your tummy feels as hard and as
full as a basketball. You get sharp pains in your back, between your
shoulder blades, in your sides, it moves around. You just have to wait it
out. It will come out eventually. What I found helps to soothe it, is to
sip on water. Not chug and don't eat, just sip water every now and then.
It's not a permanent fix, but it helps as the sip goes down. I don't know
why. Well, it helps me, anyway.

Glad you're feeling better. :~)

kili

wow, hope you're doing much better. I had
something similar happen to me years ago,
which turned out to be a gall bladder attack. I
thought I was having a heart attack! I did have
to have my gall bladder removed and thank
goodness the laparoscopy type operations were
starting then. I was in and out of the hospital
in a couple of days instead of the weeks of
hospitalization that most gall bladder operations required
up to then.
Good luck!

Lily & her mama

"Pat" wrote in message
news
What a strange night it was, last night. I laid down to sleep around
midnight and felt uncomfortable so I got back up. Then I had a painful
bout
of "the runs" that lasted an hour or so, and all the while I was feeling
very weird.... There was a sensation of being hugely bloated in my
midsection... so bloated that it felt as if my gut was pressing upward on
my
diaphragm to the point I could scarcely breathe and I was going to burst.

For the next two hours I hemmed and hawed over dialing 911, meanwhile
trying
to tie up a few loose ends in the house - hang wet laundry, clean up cat
boxes, mop kitchen floor, wash hair, make a list of people to contact if I
ended up in hospital or dead, etc. - all the while keeping the portable
phone handset in range in case I started to faint or something. And all
the
cats were following me around looking very worried, which was downright
frightening, knowing how psychic they are.

Around 2:45 AM I sat down at the computer and found an email from Ellie,
sent at 2:30, wanting some PC advice. I emailed back that she could call
me.
The phone rang at 3:00 exactly, and I talked with her for almost an hour,
during which time I started to feel sleepy. After we hung up, I again
tried
to go to sleep. It was impossible to get comfortable due to a strange new
and absolutely horrendous pain right in the center of my back. It felt
like
a freshly broken bone.

I finally fell asleep around 5:30 AM. Billy woke me up a few hours later,
demanding food, and I had NO pain and NO discomfort whatsoever. I was very
glad I hadn't given in to fear during the previous night, for I might have
been waking up in a much different place, needlessly.





--
Irulan
from the stars we come
to the stars we return
from now until the end of time.

"Pat" wrote in message
et...

"Jofirey" wrote

| Yikes. If you are fine today, it had to have been some sort of
panic
| or anxiety attack right?

I don't know... the thought hadn't occurred to me until you
suggested it.
But doesn't panic/anxiety attack require some sort of trigger - an
event
that would cause one to feel frightened? In this case, there was
nothing
going on that was frightening. Well, at least not prior to the onset
of
symptoms!



No they don't. Part of what can make then so frightening. The attack
of diarrhea could have been unrelated and left you a bit dehydrated.
That could set off a chain.

But they can just come out of the blue as well.

Jo

Irulan wrote:
wow, hope you're doing much better. I had
something similar happen to me years ago,
which turned out to be a gall bladder attack. I
thought I was having a heart attack! I did have
to have my gall bladder removed and thank
goodness the laparoscopy type operations were
starting then. I was in and out of the hospital
in a couple of days instead of the weeks of
hospitalization that most gall bladder operations required
up to then.
Good luck!

Lily & her mama

I didn't think of gall bladder, but that could be it, too. I need mine out,
but mine is complicated from my previous surgeries. I can't get it done
laparoscopically (I have no belly button) and my lower abdominals have been
removed to rebuild my chest. The complication is that the muscles' blood
supply is still attached to my waistline. If a surgeon cuts through that
blood supply, the muscles die.

So, to help avoid more surgery, I have once again drastically changed my
diet. Pretty soon I'll be down to just water. :-/

kili

On Aug 2, 8:33�am, "Irulan" wrote:
wow, hope you're doing much better. I had
something similar happen to me years ago,
which turned out to be a gall bladder attack. I
thought I was having a heart attack! I did have
to have my gall bladder removed and thank
goodness the laparoscopy type operations were
starting then. I was in and out of the hospital
in a couple of days instead of the weeks of
hospitalization that most gall bladder operations required
up to then.
Good luck!

Lily & her mama

My dad had gall bladder surgery a few weeks ago, and I was amazed
at how much easier it is on the patient than the old-fashioned
surgery.
Most people do have chest pain involved, like you did. And if Dad ate
anything that was high in fat content, it brought on an attack of
chest
pain and bloating. Since symptoms vary with people, I imagine back
pain could be a symptom, too. Gallbladder problems are easy to
diagnose. Usually they show up well with just an ultrasound.

Sherry

"kilikini" wrote

| Irulan wrote:
| wow, hope you're doing much better. I had
| something similar happen to me years ago,
| which turned out to be a gall bladder attack. I
| thought I was having a heart attack! I did have
| to have my gall bladder removed and thank
| goodness the laparoscopy type operations were
| starting then. I was in and out of the hospital
| in a couple of days instead of the weeks of
| hospitalization that most gall bladder operations required
| up to then.
| Good luck!
|
| Lily & her mama
|
| I didn't think of gall bladder, but that could be it, too. I need mine
out,
| but mine is complicated from my previous surgeries. I can't get it done
| laparoscopically (I have no belly button) and my lower abdominals have
been
| removed to rebuild my chest. The complication is that the muscles' blood
| supply is still attached to my waistline. If a surgeon cuts through that
| blood supply, the muscles die.
|
| So, to help avoid more surgery, I have once again drastically changed my
| diet. Pretty soon I'll be down to just water. :-/
|
| kili

I sure hope it's not my GB, and it shouldn't be.... That's something that
happens when the GB gets worn out from dealing with too much fat and oil in
the diet, and I don't think I've eaten enough oil and fat to get there. In
fact, about 12 years ago I did the infamous "Gall Bladder Cleanse" (3 days
of nothing but unfiltered apple juice, followed by drinking 1/4 cup of olive
oil just before bed and laying on one's right side). Much to my surprise,
there wasn't a single stone. I've had friends who did this and had dozens of
small stones come out!