Of coffee grounds, dark chocolate and claret

Hey ho, lets have a colour theme for this post. First you vomit rusty brown blood, then you poo dark chocolate stools and finally you need three units of brilliant red blood to bring you back from the edge. This post is a retrospective one [not from beyond the grave!!!], summarizing events of the last 10 days or so. If we start from Sunday 28 March I can count things as 'normal' when I did my morning 9km walk on the Wallaroo Road. Went out for lunch with friends, ate well and consumed a few alcoholic beverages. Took an afternoon lay down to work off the meal...and really did not get up until 16 hours later!!! Right through the evening and night I was in a half asleep mode and quite weary. Got up on Monday rather chastened, but prepared to launch into another day. Had a substantial cooked lunch, but then felt bloated with an ache in the pit of the stomach, as though something was stuck. That feeling built up through a very uncomfortable night, with signs of reflux building. Got up early on Tuesday 30 March, took a glass of water and that was the trigger for a vomit of 'coffee grounds'; tried a very soft breakfast and bingo, same thing. Tried a soft lunch [noodles] and again I just had to vomit to clear my stomach. Rusty red brown is a good colour description!! Also my stools had become noticably dark over the last two days.
Off to see Dr Brown in the afternoon who straight away sent me to Calvary Hospital where I again worked my way quicky through the Emergency Ward to a bed in the Private Hospital. Dr Ashton was my consulting physician through this stay.  My haemoglobin count was down near 75, a sure sign of anaemia and bleeding [normal is above 130 for adult male]. I was put on a Nil By Mouth diet and had a transfusion of three units of blood. Next day [Wednesday 31 March] I had a non barium gastrograph which I was told showed free flow of liquids into the stomach. No reference to liquids flowing out!!!
Next day [Thursday 01 April] I was given a gastroscopy by Dr Ashton, but that proved inconclusive because my stomach was still filled with too much food scraps. I was then put on a 'clear fluids' diet [broth, jelly & fruit juice] in an attempt to clean my system out.
I then proceeded to poo copious quantities of what looked like chocolate ice cream topping....[anyone for sprinkles?]..only to be told later that this excessive excretion of watery stools was often a consequence of the non barium fluid used in the gastrograph.
Thereafter it was really a couple of empty days in the hospital on the hope that Dr Ashton could do another gastroscopy. But that just did not happen and I was sent home on Easter Saturday.

Canberra, Australia
snusher@gmail.com