Tuesday, March 10, 2015

ER visit

On Friday I decided I was feeling so good that I went and did our grocery shopping.  I wasn't on any medication (since you can't drive on medication) and headed out to the store.  Everything went well at the store.  I probably lifted a few things I shouldn't but was very cautious about everything I was doing.  I got home and unloaded all but the really heavy stuff and then took it easy.  Well by the middle of the day I could tell I over did it.  I was sore and just not feeling good.  By the evening I was having a horrible pain on my right side.  I wasn't sure if it was a muscle pain, or if I had torn something, but it made it really hard to move at all.  When I sat still, I was fine.  But getting up, or moving at all caused me horrendous pain.  I felt worse than I had when I first got out of surgery.  On Saturday, I did nothing.  We didn't go anywhere, I didn't move.  I just sat down and put heat on it.  Nothing changed.  No improvement at all. 

Sunday I woke up to the same pain, but it may have gotten even a little bit worse.  At that point, Ryan said he was taking me to the hospital.  If it was something serious, we needed to get it looked at.  I was thinking it might be appendicitis, but thought how random that would be.  But I really had no idea.  We went to the ER and the car ride there was one of the most excruciating things I have ever been through.  Minor bumps on the road were painful.  Big bumps or especially the raised sidewalks downtown caused me to scream out in pain and start sobbing.  Seriously, worst pain ever.  We got to the ER and got checked in. Got an IV in me and some morphine started.  Funny thing was the morphine didn't even really get rid of the pain.  Took the edge off, but getting up to do anything was still extremely painful.  The doctor came in an examined me.  He pushed down on the area that was painful and surrounding areas.  He said because of the pain it was causing, he didn't want to do an ultrasound because that would likely be even more painful.  So he ordered a CT scan.  I had to wait and drink all the contrast for 1 1/2 hours before I could go in.  We finally got in there to do the scan.  It was my first one and a very interesting experience.  It took about 45 minutes to get the results back.  It showed a pocket of fluid that could possibly be causing the pain, but nothing else.  The doctor felt bad that there wasn't more that they could do.  He prescribed more meds and sent me on my way.  I was happy that it wasn't anything worse, but wishing for a more certain answer.  I was drugged up pretty good from the hospital meds, so the car ride home was much easier.  We picked up my prescription and headed home.  By the time I went to bed that night I was feeling okay.  I wasn't sure if it was still the meds in me and didn't want to chance it, so I took one more dose that night before bed. 

I woke up Monday morning and the pain was gone.  Totally gone.  I started pushing on the same area to see if I would feel it lingering still, but there was no pain.  I was shocked but thrilled!  I was feeling better than I had on Friday when I went out shopping.  I'm so glad I went into the ER, because I think whatever it was (pushing on the site to help absorb the fluid, getting me drugged up enough that my body could take some jostling to absorb fluid, etc.) was why the pain was gone.  I think this will always be one of those funky things that happened that I'll never quite get an answer to, but I'm just happy to be feeling better.

It's Tuesday now (2 weeks since surgery) and I have been off medication 2 whole days.  YAY!  I will be going back to work tomorrow and will also have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow morning.  I'm just so ready for all of this to be behind me and get back to normal life.  However I've also been a little emotional today.  I'm not sure if it's because I'm trying to get over these last 6 weeks and dealing with all that has happened or I'm not sure that I'm 100% ready for it all to be over.  I keep thinking of the highs and lows and wishing so badly to have another high.  But it will come.  Maybe not in the form of another pregnancy, but there are many other 'highs' in my life.  Soccer season is starting up here very soon.  Alex will be turning 12 in 2 short weeks.  Lagoon will be opening in about 3 weeks and I can't wait to have some family time there. I'm ready to be well again and go back to all the happiness I was feeling before.

1 comment:

Jenn said...

Eek, that sounds scary, Mandi. Glad you're ok!