Yes I am sitting in a hospital room.  It is not mine, though. It belongs to this guy.   

Evan has placed himself here for at least 4 days with a painful, dangerously, large, bleeding, penetrated, but not perforated ulcer.  And, yes ,HE did this all by himself. Eating wheat.

I have sooooooo much material I can write about now! Right now I am going to tackle, AGAIN, the ignorance of eating wheat, and tell you the ‘Whaz Up” with Evan.

FIRST, I do not approve the eating of wheat EVER in any of my family. I NEVER serve them wheat, NEVER have wheat in my home. I ALWAYS preach the evils of wheat to EVERYONE in my family and anyone who crosses my path.

Evan is now 23, lives in an apartment of his own, (on our property, but still HIS HOME). Evan buys his own groceries, makes his own meals, eats when and what he wants. Evan is a grown man, just as with all of my ‘boys’ , he has been taught, informed, educated on the ways of life and it is his choice to apply that knowledge or not. Lead a horse blah blah blah….. Well, Evan has chosen to ‘not drink the water’, where it applies to gluten. We have ALL played with gluten , at some point, and have suffered the consequences. Evan’s consequence is this ulcer, at least.

Evan always tells me he is not eating wheat.  I go to his apartment and find the remains of fried chicken he has brought home from work, Albertsons Deli, or a receipt from Rosas for flour tortillas and queso.  Evan also drinks Dr. Pepper and more Dr. Pepper and then tops it off with Root Beer, and munches on flaming hot potato chips with tabassco sauce added.  Ev does eat some ‘good’ food, he will cook himself a steak, and loves to eat salads.He doesn’t eat gluten at home or with us, or about half of the time he dines out. He might as well though, I mean any wheat/gluten is too much.

So, the wheat has set his body off. He has too much acid trying to digest foods that just will not be absorbed because he has destroyed the villa with the gluten. He has food sitting in his gut too long, because it won’t be absorbed, it starts to ferment, in him (ewwwww) The stomach and intestinal lining start to erode.  Not to mention, ALL the OTHER problems he has caused from not getting the nutrients, or the other auto immune triggers he has set off.  Evan set up a rich fertile ground to grow his ulcer, and he did grow one.  He fed it lots of spicy, carbonated, acidic, food so it would grow nice and big. The gastro Dr. G Patel, said it is the largest he has seen, ever.

Evan has been complaining off and on of ‘back pain’ for months, as well as on and off having stomach aches. Sometimes they coincide, sometimes not. Sometimes on days off of work, other times when he should be at work, and his friends were having a ‘game’ day.  The cry of ‘Wolf’ has happened, so sadly we did not always concern a great deal over these pains. Usually, a warm bath, or a good sleep, or an Aleve, or a ‘get over it and get to work’ and he was better. Recently though, he seemed to complain of the back pain a bit more, even on days off. Thanksgiving weekend we were around Evan for a few more meals than usual, I noticed he ate very little and would sit and be very very mellow and still for about an hour after eating. I have been reminding Evan of wheat eating, and telling him to drink lots of water, and maybe eat some prunes. Thinking… well, you know.

A week ago, Evan had a random throw up, just before work, just after spending the night with gamer friend. We pondered, asked lots of questions but we told him to  get to work. I told him I thought it would pass. It did, he said he felt a lot better after he got to work.  Evan started complaining of back ache this past week, came over a couple of days to take hot bath. He said those helped. A couple of times he mentioned his stomach hurt, but his back more.  Thursday he came home from an overnight with his friend and came to our house and took a bath for his back, and laid on the couch all day watching movies and sleeping.  I asked about his back, he said it kind of hurt but not that bad. I asked if he felt sick, since sleeping so much and so lethargic, he said, “No just tired.”. I asked if he had stayed up late playing games, he said no.  I pondered.  I ponder no more.  Since Thursday we have gone to throwing up some, and pain, a lot,  to doctors appointments on  Friday and hydration IV, to more pain in back and appendix area , to a trip to ER at 1am Sunday, a CT, and the finding of what the Gastro describes as the largest ulcer he has seen. This is Monday, just the day after, Evan is on liquids, a constant Protonic drip to keep the acids down in his stomach. He will be here until Wednesday at least, the idea is to keep the ulcer from perforating.  Trying to avoid surgery. IF it does perforate, then he is right here, in the hospital.

Dr. Patel was speaking to Evan about his ulcer, and said he knew the ulcer was a result of eating wheat. He told Evan he had two things to happen, if he continued to eat flour tortillas, or any wheat, Evan would either have a perforated ulcer and possibly die, or lymphoma and possibly die.

So there you are– Now you have it–

I will use this experience for many many more blogs- Milk it for all it is worth– More details to come I promise