Turns out, eggs DO expire!  I had always been under the impression that eggs don’t expire, and boy did I have that notion dismissed fully and clearly.

Last Saturday,coco_b mentioned that she would like to use some elderly bananas we had around for some banana bread.  So I whipped some up from a recipe we had gotten from our friend Audra.  I quickly dismissed the expiration date from some time in September on the egg crate and baked the bread.  Corinna ate quite a bit of it but I only had one slice.  A few hours later I started feeling ill, and an hour after that I started experiencing a very sharp 10-15 second pain in my lower abdomen every 1-5 minutes.  This continued all night, completely eliminating any chances of sleep.  I had hoped that by morning this would pass and we could stick to our plans of meeting up with at Six Flags.

I “woke” up feeling just as terrible as I had the night before, so Corinna called Tom and told him we wouldn’t be meeting him.  I sat around the house in pain all day, pretty miserable.  Tom came to stay at our place after he spent the day at the park, and we just chatted it up for a few hours before bedtime.  He half-joked that he could take me to the hospital in the morning if I needed it.  After another painful, sleepless night, I almost took him up on his offer..   I called my GP who was unavailable, and decided to go to the ER.  It occurred to me that if he drove me to the hospital it would completely eradicate any chance he would have to visit Boston during the day.  So I called a cab at 8am and went to the ER, and Corinna met me there around noon.  After lots of waiting, some X-Rays and CT Scans, and continuing pain, it was determined that I had an inflammation of my ileum.  The ER doctor speculated that it might be Crohn’s disease or IBS, but he deferred to the GI doctor I’d be seeing once I was admitted. After a full day in the emergency room, much of it on a stretcher in a hall, I was admitted in the late evening.

I went up to the 7th floor and put in a room, and like my stay a year or two prior for my appendicitis, I had a beautiful view of the Charles river.  It took awhile for a doctor to come and see me, and a bit longer for the nurse to finally bring something for my pain. Each individual spike of pain probably ranked 6 out of 10, but after feeling it every few minutes for 2+ sleepless days, it was really starting to break me down. The GI doctor I talked to said that he thought I was probably suffering a bacterial or viral infection, likely caused by bad food. He said he had no reason to suspect Crohn’s or IBS given my history (or lack thereof).  He said they would run some tests and keep me overnight.  He also put me on a clear liquid diet, which meant I was able to eat for the first time in 2 days (even if it was broth and jello).

I woke up feeling better, and more importantly, pain-free, and after lunch they advanced my diet to BRAT (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast) before discharging me.  Well, the pain returned after a few hours and they kept me another night.  Fortunately, I woke up without pain again (although still tender) and they once again advanced my diet to BRAT at lunch, and this time I tolerated it just fine. The doctors determined that I had a viral infection of my Ileum, and that it likely came from food, although they said it was also possible it had come through one of your usual viral vectors (handshakes, etc).  It would take a few days to clear up and some continued pain was to be expected while it did.  Finally after 2.5 days in the hospital, I went home with Corinna on Wednesday evening.

When I was first discharged I thought there was no way I was going to make the yearly Halloween Party up near Ithaca.  But after feeling solid on Thursday and waking up and feeling pretty well on Friday, we decided to give it a shot.  And I’m glad I did..  While it was odd not really being able to eat or drink anything at the party (We brought ginger ale and chicken soup for me), it was fantastic getting to see all my friends.  I even did an epic live edition of my radio show/podcast featuring live music.

Back to work today and slowly advancing my diet to normal food…  Still not quite feeling 100%, but getting close.   This would have been much more awful and difficult if not for Corinna.