Things that cut into my yarn budget: Pancreatitis

There's a reason I haven't posted in a week. I've been in the hospital.

Sunday night I became violently ill, to the point I called my parents to take me to the ER. I was pretty sure I had food poisoning. It came on suddenly. In fact, I had been at The Knitting Nest just a couple of hours earlier, feeling fine.

I was expecting to spend several hours in the ER, get some good anti-nausea drugs, go home and spend the night with my parents and be back at work on Tuesday. I managed to toss a few things on the top of my knitting bag when I left, but I didn't plan on being away from home more than one night.

After some blood tests, they determined that I had pancreatitis, and I needed to stay in the hospital.

I had originally starting blogging about this a couple of days ago, but the entry kept growing to the point that it didn't seem quite right for my knitting blog. If you want to read about all the details, you can read about it on my much neglected Livejournal. I made a point of not making it too gross, but it is detailed and it hasn't been proofread.

The upshot is that I'm recovering. They discharged me from the hospital late Wednesday night, and I stayed with my parents until last night. They aren't sure what caused it. I don't have gallstones, which is the most common cause. They don't think it will come back.

Right now Bunny Foo-Foo is staying with Mom and Dad until I recover a bit more. I plan to be back at work on Monday.

From the time I left The Knitting Nest on Sunday until last night, I didn't knit a stitch. Although I grabbed my knitting bag when I left the house, it didn't stay with me in the hospital. And it didn't matter if it had, because of the IV in my arm. It was in my right arm, and I had to try to keep it straight, or else the IV would kink up. And after a few days, that arm was really sore.


Including the IV, I was poked six times during my stay. I look like an IV drug addict. It was even worse before I took this picture. (The good news is that I'm healing.) You can't see the spot in my left arm where they drew blood twice. The most painful is the ginormous bruise on my left arm. That's where I "blew" a vein during a blood draw. Ouch.

On a knitting related note, the respiratory therapist remember me from Worldwide Knit In Public Day. I think her name was Ayesha, and I hope we see her around.

Also, while I was in the hospital Mom took home my jacket home and washed it - with my Knucks in the pockets. I was pleasantly surprised. They still fit and they didn't felt. I think they're actually better because all the pills came off. I think the silk content in the RYC Silk Wool DK prevented felting. Still, I wouldn't recommend putting it in the washer on purpose.

As for the yarn budget part, this stay will cost me no less than $1,500. Imagine if I didn't have insurance. I have some Aflac coverage to help, and my FSA is about to roll over, so that should help.

The other issue is that I'm completely out of leave, which means I won't get paid at all for the past week. I'll be getting loans from the Bank of Mom and Dad for a while to get by. I fully intend to pay back every dollar.

Yesterday I got a letter in the mail from my insurance company. They were gracious enough to approve 6 days in the hospital. How nice of them. I'm glad I needed less than that.

I also found out that I'm about to reach my out of pocket maximum. So I can afford to get sick again before my insurance rolls over May 1. Yay?

On a related note, if you're an American (or even if you're not) you need to see Sicko.