Manitoba woman waiting 2 months in hospital for diagnosis hopes to be home for Christmas
Sharon Ellerington has been in hospital awaiting surgery, only to learn it won't help
Stuck in a hospital bed for more than two months now, Sharon Ellerington has one deadline she'd really like to meet.
"It would be really nice to be home for Christmas."
Ellerington, who has called a small, shared hospital room at the Brandon Regional Health Centre home since Sept. 29, has run into another hurdle in her quest for a diagnosis and treatment for abdominal pain. She has now gone without solid food for two months and still has a long tube running from her nose down to her stomach.
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She was first admitted to hospital with abdominal pain, thought to be related to a kink in her celiac artery. After a plea for help on social media, a month later she found a surgeon willing to operate.
No surgery required
She was later told it was not the problem and was referred to a gastroenterologist, who diagnosed her with gastroparesis, a condition where the stomach cannot empty itself properly.
She won't need surgery after all, as the condition can't be fixed by going under the knife.
"It's still very frustrating," Ellergington said. "Whatever is happening now to get things going is more of a maintenance thing."
"I'm on the surgery ward but yet I've never had surgery."
'Everything was done backwards'
Now, Ellerington said doctors will insert another tube down her nose to bypass her stomach and re-introduce flow to her intestines. If all goes well, doctors will slowly reintroduce small amounts of food and water to her stomach to try and get it working again.
If it doesn't, Ellerington may have to be fed through a tube for the rest of her life. She feels waiting so long for a diagnosis has worsened the problem.
"It's like everything was done backwards," Ellerington said.
"I think that it's definitely taken its toll on it [her body] and it's going to take a long time to get that back again," she added. "This is a body that really doesn't stay still for very long, I'm a very active person."
The long hospital stay has taken an emotional toll on her as well.
"It's almost emotions that you can't even explain ... how many times I've cried, how many times I've wanted to scream," she said. "How many roommates I've gone through who have come and gone and I'm still sitting here in this bed."
She said she's disappointed that it took doctors two months to diagnose her and feels the health system failed her.
"All of it seemed very unsupportive and uncaring as to the situation that needs to really be looked at," Ellerington said. "My mind never stops going. I have so many sleepless nights."
"It's very frustrating when you've sat here and you can't get straight answers," she said.
Journey doesn't end after discharge
Fingers crossed, Ellerington said there is hope she will be out of the hospital in as little as three weeks. But her journey won't be over.
"It's going to be trying to put my life back together again after feeling kind of shattered and scattered all over the place," she said. "It's going to take some time."
Prairie Mountain Health, which operates the Brandon Regional Health Centre, said in a statement to CBC News on Monday that they cannot discuss Ellerington's situation or concerns due to privacy obligations and would continue discussions with the family.