So they eventually let me move to a regular room on another floor. I was on a floor with a lot of old people.. the nurses said they were surprised to see someone so young there. They said i was so quiet and they had to check on me sometimes just to make sure i hadnt tried to escape or something ;-) Anyway, when i got to the regular room it was nicer b/c it was a lot bigger and I actually had a bathroom instead of a bed pan! They actually let me go to the bathroom.. but then it was straight back to the bed.. I was on bed rest the whole time i was there. I think i was only allowed 2 showers the whole 8 days I was there? Boy i felt nasty, haha. It was a loooong 5 days. I could finally have as many visitors as I wanted, so Arnold tried to come by whenever he could with the kids. Brooke kept saying I didnt feel good, i was worried about how it would affect the kids to see me laying there, and not being at home with them :( I had several friends, family members and church members stop by over the course of the week, some bearing edible treats or gifts, so it was nice :) I also had my laptop and the TV to keep me busy, but that was about it. It got to be real old, real quick. And the hospital food got old too! I had people bring me in "real food" a few times that I was there. Funny enough, I lost 7 lbs while I was in the hospital, and i know it was because of the icky food. :-P It sucked so bad... Sunday night was the Skynyrd Concert I was supposed to be going to for my birthday, with my Father-in-law. Since i was in the hospital.. I gave my tickets up to my brother and his girlfriend. hey, at least someone got to enjoy the concert, but BOY did it hurt letting those tickets go :( I tried to keep my mind occupied that night so i didnt think so much about what I was missing.
Anyway, a DR would come in ever day and check on me and he could never give me an estimated day that I would be able to go home, so that really stunk :( The nurses came in periodically to check on me or give me meds, but for the most part I was all by myself. I was able to get some rest, at least.. and I wouldnt have been getting much rest at home with a newborn! :-P
Then the magical day finally came-- the DR came in and told me since I was healthy aside from the bloodclots, that he thought it would be fine to release me from the hospital. He gave me a whole list of warning signs to look for, and told me to get an appt at my family DR. I didnt have one since getting married, so I finally got on at Arnolds' Dr, which is MTN View Family Practice. I have been seeing Dr Lutz and Dr Hoover and really like them both. He told me id have to go in every few days to get my Proton levels checked... they had to be between certain numbers to make my blood level "theraputic" which means not to thin and not too thick, but just right. (I was put on Coumadin, a high-powered blood thinner to decrease my chances of getting another blood clot.)
So the next evening I started packing up all my stuff and finally got up and got dressed.. it was crazy.. after laying on your back for 8 days straight you feel pretty lousy! My body ached and i felt lightheaded, but thats to be expected. I actually didnt get discharged until late that evening.. Arnold came and picked me up and we got out of there around 1o pm. It was SO nice to see the outside world again! Wow, i never realized how much i took things for granted, like good health and the outdoors.. Ill try not to from now on! But anyway, we got home and the bigger kids were already in bed, but Rachel wasnt.. and she saw me.. and SMILED! It was her first smile ever! Its like she knew I was home and everything was going to be ok. Wow... i will remember that moment forever. My MIL still loves to tell that story to people. That was definately God working his wonders :)
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
*My Stay in the CCU*
So after they found the bloodclots, i was admitted into the hospital. They first got me into a bed and gave me a shot of Morphine into my IV, to help with my chest pains, and to calm me down. Its a good thing they did, because they then wheeled me off to the Critical Care unit, where id spend the next few days. That night a Dr basically went over all kinds of paperwork with me, and was asking me all these questions like "do you have a will made up," and "would you object to us shocking your heart if we needed to." Yeah, stuff like that doesnt make a person's stress levels go down any! Anyway... thank goodness I was drugged up that evening because I dont think I could have dealt with the reality of what was going on just yet. My room was incredibly small, just room for a bed, and a few machines. I was facing the outside hall so the nurses could always keep a close eye on me. I was hooked up to all these machines so they could keep close tabs on my vital signs. I was also started on Heparin (a blood thinner) thru my IV. I was on strict bed rest.. wasnt allowed to get out of bed at all, in fear that one of my blood clots would move around and obstruct something and cause danger to me. So i had to use a bed pan to go to the bathroom.. what fun! (not) I peed all over myself the first two times i used it... trying to get the hang of it. So i slept good that night due to the drugs. The next day I basically just had a bunch of nurses coming in to check on me and stuff..and helping me out with whatever I wanted. The food wasnt THAT bad, which was a relief. They had special visiting hours though.. only 2 people could come back to visit me at a time,and could only stay for 30 minues max. And it could only be immediate family or my preacher. And there were designated times they could come, also... so I hated that Arnold couldnt be with me more. I felt very lonely alot of the time. Until Arnold brought my laptop to me.. and at least I was allowed to get online and watch shows or get on Hickory Moms or whatever. But it still wasnt the same as real human contact w/ family and friends. Most of the time I just slept though-- they were very generous with the morphine ;-) It was a long couple of days. They said once they felt I was stable enough that they didnt have to watch my vital signs so much, they would move me to a regular room in the Heart Tower. So after about 3 days I was able to move.. I think it was on Sunday that I got to move. I was soo relieved to get to move to a bigger room... this also meant that I could see my kids again! Boy did i miss them :(
*Where it all Began"
Ok so lets go back aways, to June 18th to be exact. I give birth to my beautiful new daughter, Rachel. I have her via C-section, which was definately NOT planned, seeing as how Ive always been terrified of the thought of having one. But she was breech, and after the Drs tried (unsuccessfully) to turn her, C-section was my only option left.
The surgery went fine, and we went home 2 days later and bonding began. Everything was going fine until about 2 weeks later, I started feeling pain in my left calf. I thought nothing of it at first, thought I had just overdone it that day. Then the pain progressively got worse over the next few days, to the point where it was throbbing, and I could hardly walk. So i go make an Appt at my Gyno to get it checked out. The dr comes in, looks over my leg and says it looks like theres nothing wrong with it. She tells me its probably just a calf sprain, and sends me on my way.
So i go on about my normal life, and deal with the leg pain by taking my 800mg of Ibprofen that had been prescribed to me after the C-section. Then one evening Arnold and I are sitting on the couch at his parents' house, and im feeding Rachel. I had been having chest pains that evening, but thought it was just heartburn or something like that. Then they started to get worse, and all of a sudden i felt very strange, numb and tingly all over my body. I told Arnold he needed to call someone NOW. So he called 911 and the paramedics came over and checked me out. They said they couldnt find anything wrong with me.
Arnold decided to take me to the ER to get checked, just in case. I waited in the ER for a good hour or so. I had my mom, dad, brother, Father-in-law and Arnold all waiting with me which helped keep me calm. The whole time i kept telling my mom something just wasnt right. No one seemed to believe me up until this point that anything was wrong with me, ive always been so healthy, not to mention im still pretty young.
Anyway, they finally got me into a room and ran all sorts of tests on me. Everything checked out fine. Then the Dr said he wanted to do just one more test on me to be sure i was ok.. a CT scan. So i went to get one done. It was awful.. they give you this medicine that makes your body feel very warm all over, and puts pressure in your bladder. And while youre inside the machine youre supposed to hold your breath and not breathe, which is hard for me. But anyway, when the test was over I went back to the room to wait on the results with Arnold. A few mins.later the DR comes in and said that they found blood clots in my lungs. To be specific, he said my "lungs were showered with clots." Well of course then I freak out. I ask him if im going to be ok. He said calm down, its a good thing we caught this. A few more days and you could have died. But we're going to treat it now and youll be fine.
So...... basically that "calf sprain" had been a blood clot in my leg all along, and I had been walking around for weeks not knowing, and the clot had broken loose and traveled to my lungs. It split into lots of small ones, so they said that was a good sign that they probably wouldnt block anything off, like my oxygen.. or mess with my heart. The dr seemed irate that the Gyno had failed to give me a leg ultrasound that day I went in with the pain... that would have caught the clot and I would have never ended up in the hospital.. and had these serious issues to now deal with. It was a shock to everyone.
The surgery went fine, and we went home 2 days later and bonding began. Everything was going fine until about 2 weeks later, I started feeling pain in my left calf. I thought nothing of it at first, thought I had just overdone it that day. Then the pain progressively got worse over the next few days, to the point where it was throbbing, and I could hardly walk. So i go make an Appt at my Gyno to get it checked out. The dr comes in, looks over my leg and says it looks like theres nothing wrong with it. She tells me its probably just a calf sprain, and sends me on my way.
So i go on about my normal life, and deal with the leg pain by taking my 800mg of Ibprofen that had been prescribed to me after the C-section. Then one evening Arnold and I are sitting on the couch at his parents' house, and im feeding Rachel. I had been having chest pains that evening, but thought it was just heartburn or something like that. Then they started to get worse, and all of a sudden i felt very strange, numb and tingly all over my body. I told Arnold he needed to call someone NOW. So he called 911 and the paramedics came over and checked me out. They said they couldnt find anything wrong with me.
Arnold decided to take me to the ER to get checked, just in case. I waited in the ER for a good hour or so. I had my mom, dad, brother, Father-in-law and Arnold all waiting with me which helped keep me calm. The whole time i kept telling my mom something just wasnt right. No one seemed to believe me up until this point that anything was wrong with me, ive always been so healthy, not to mention im still pretty young.
Anyway, they finally got me into a room and ran all sorts of tests on me. Everything checked out fine. Then the Dr said he wanted to do just one more test on me to be sure i was ok.. a CT scan. So i went to get one done. It was awful.. they give you this medicine that makes your body feel very warm all over, and puts pressure in your bladder. And while youre inside the machine youre supposed to hold your breath and not breathe, which is hard for me. But anyway, when the test was over I went back to the room to wait on the results with Arnold. A few mins.later the DR comes in and said that they found blood clots in my lungs. To be specific, he said my "lungs were showered with clots." Well of course then I freak out. I ask him if im going to be ok. He said calm down, its a good thing we caught this. A few more days and you could have died. But we're going to treat it now and youll be fine.
So...... basically that "calf sprain" had been a blood clot in my leg all along, and I had been walking around for weeks not knowing, and the clot had broken loose and traveled to my lungs. It split into lots of small ones, so they said that was a good sign that they probably wouldnt block anything off, like my oxygen.. or mess with my heart. The dr seemed irate that the Gyno had failed to give me a leg ultrasound that day I went in with the pain... that would have caught the clot and I would have never ended up in the hospital.. and had these serious issues to now deal with. It was a shock to everyone.
*An Introduction*
Many of you know already what has been going on with me medically lately.. Ive decided to start a blog to keep up with everything, mostly for myself. Ive always liked writing, its very therapeutic to me. I haven't had a chance to update on Myspace in forever, and since hardly anyone gets on there anymore I just decided to start a blog on here. I'm going to kind of go backwards for awhile, to cover whats already happened, then start writing more current blogs.... if that makes sense, lol.
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