The new medication I had been given to trial during big abdominal flares was a muscle relaxer called Cyclobenzaprine. I was told to take this so we could see if the abdominal issues were muscle related.

On July 26th I had remained up all through the night from pain. At 8:41 a.m. I had a large flare attack that was unlike any of the others I’d ever had because it maintained a pattern, was in my lower abdomen, and was bowel related. 

I’ve always notated which flare attacks were large enough that I could’ve gone to the ED but didn’t. The reason here of why I didn’t call 911 was that I knew there wasn’t a way for them to help and I had more medications at home than what they were willing to give me there. It also was so much effort to go, and I’d end up having to walk all the way back home likely making me feel worse. The flares tended to be long but not last longer than a day, so I knew what things to look out for to signal a real emergency.

I called my dad and had him on speaker phone as I dealt with the flare. As usual, I was where I was most comfortable which was my bedroom floor, so I could move around safely to attempt to find a comfortable position. This was also an easier place to vomit than in my bed. I had taken my cyclobenzaprine early on in the attack, but it didn’t do anything. My pain would cycle from my lower left abdomen to the center of my rib cage, to my left flank, and then I’d get a wave of heartburn. Each time after a couple cycles, I’d be able to have a bowel movement which seemed to dilute the pain. The flare ended at 5 p.m. that evening. I attributed this attack to constipation.

Since the weeks prior I had already been very immobilized in bed, I determined it was time to get help. On the phone with my dad, I asked if he would be able to travel to Boston to come help me.

He got a ticket for a flight into Boston the next day.

I have to say it couldn’t have been better timing for him to arrive because my symptoms had only begun to get worse.

My dad arrived on July 27th in the evening while I was sleeping after finally getting rest since being awake for more than 24 hours. When I had finally woken up to see my dad- the flare took no time to give an introduction; I began a dry heaving flare.

I continued the next few days to sleep minimal amounts through the night. My dad prepared my meals for me, so I was able to stick to my meal routine that I had slacked on the previous weeks due to immobilization.

My dad was able to work remotely and would do work when I napped and would talk with me when I was awake. I felt so fortunate to have him there and he remained very calm during my symptom spikes and flares. This made me feel more comfortable because I didn’t want to scare him based on what was going on. We had great communication and it made a really comfortable environment to deal with everything.

On July 29th I began having new unprecedented symptoms. They took me entirely by surprise and began to make me afraid. My dad came up with methods to help calm me down as we worked through the unknowns together.

Read more on these new symptoms in the post titled, “The New Symptoms Storm…”