I was sitting on the floor making hairbows for Ashley last night. All of a sudden, around 12:45, the room started spinning, I couldn't get a deep breath, only very short, labored ones, and I literally felt like someone had dropped a ton of bricks on my chest. And, my gosh, my legs swelled up even worse than they had been all day.
It took me 10 minutes to get a shout out loud enough to wake Gene up (at this point, I couldn't move), and I told him to get the number for the Labor & Delivery nurses station. (I didn't know if I should just go to the ER or if I needed to go up there.) They told me to come in, so Gene went and picked up Juanita (thank GOD she is only 5 minutes away now), and I got some clothes on to go to the ER.
We got there, and they checked us in immediately. And then, all hell broke loose.
The nurse who checked us in, sent us up to L&D. She figured I was pregnant, so that's where I needed to go. We made the long walk to L&D (remember, I still can't breathe), only to find out that we needed to go to the ER, not L&D. Walked back down and went into the triage room.
Got into the triage room, and this PUNK - there is just no other way to describe him - came in to take my blood pressure, vitals, etc. I answered all the questions, gasping for air the entire time, and finally made Gene start answering for me.
We get to a room, get hooked up to a heart monitor, and one of those pulse/bloodpressure/pulse ox machines, and the same punk from triage came in to put in an iv. Apparently, any time an adult comes in with any kind of chest pain, difficult breathing, etc, they get an iv. I don't think this kid had EVER done an iv in his life. Now, I have been poked and prodded by the best and the worst, but this was by far the worst I have ever experienced. He starts to put the needle in, but he's shaking so badly that he blows out my vein. Then he says, "Ok, well, that didn't work, so let's try it again." Gene said he watched my pulse level drop from 92 to 70. It was at that second that I said, "I think I'm going to pass out."
The kid decided to give me a few minutes to recover, and luckily, another nurse came in to put in the iv. She had it in, first shot, no problems. They took about 10 vials of blood, and gave me a shot of anti-nausea medicine. After that, no one ever touched the iv. Figures.
The ER doctor came in and they proceeded to do every test imaginable on me. They did an EKG, a chest x-ray, and a bunch of other things that I can't even remember right now.
Around 3:30am, the doctor came in and noticed how badly I was swelling. (Took him THAT LONG to notice, after I'd mentioned it several times.) He measured my calves, and my right calf was about 3 inches bigger than my left calf. He leaves the room, and calls my doctor to find out what they're supposed to do. As soon as he left, a nurse came in to give me a breathing treatment. It took them THAT long to do a breathing treatment. I still couldn't catch my breath, and the heaviness was so bad I couldn't stand it at this point.
I get the breathing treatment, and I start to feel a million times better. At that moment, the doctor walks back in and says "You blood came back positive for such-and-such (insert doctor word that I can't remember here) which means it's susceptible to clotting. I'm thinking that you had, and possibly still have a blood clot in your leg which traveled and logged in your lung. I've spoken with Dr. Nunn and we've decided to admit you so that in the morning we can do a scan of your leg and see if there are any clots."
OMG. Talk about being scared out of my mind. I think he intended to scare me, and he sure did a darn good job of it. Because the breathing treatment helped so much, I was SURE that this was all just something from my asthma, and that was it. They way he was talking, I was going to be lucky if I lived to see the scan in the morning. Gene and I tried to laugh it off by saying the little old lady from church was right... go figure! :) Deep down, I was really scared, though.
So, around 5:30am, they get me up into a room. They put me in L&D, just so I'd be monitored a little more closely than in a regular room. They hooked me back up to a heart/breathing monitor, and came in and poked and prodded me more every 20 minutes.
At 7:30, the nurse came in to take me down to my scan. Thank heavens, the scan showed NO signs of any clotting, and they sent me back to my room.
My doctor came in about 8:30, and told me that she thinks I had a bronchial spasm - or just a really bad asthma attack. She said that because it came from nowhere, and the fact that I had so much heaviness while trying to breathe, that it doesn't look like there's any reason to be concerned about clots. She also said that my blood level that the doctor told me about with the clotting wasn't high enough to be a worry. It was elevated just because of pregnancy.
She looked at my legs, measured them again, and the swelling had gone down significantly. And, because my blood pressure stayed so good all night that there's no cause for pre-eclempsia (SP?) or anything else. She said that even though I'm not in the heat, the humidity really can affect me, and cause swelling. She also reminded me that I'm not in Ohio any more, and the heat is a lot worse down here in August, so I'm most likely going to swell more because of that. But, because my blood pressure was so good the whole time, she's really not worried about the swelling.
So, it took them FOREVER (over 2 hours) to get my discharge papers, and they finally sent me home. I was so tired that when I got home, I fell asleep as soon as I sat down on the couch.
This has been the most ridiculous trip to the hospital that I have ever had. Oh! They did monitor the baby, and Parker is just fine. Even when my pulse ox was low because I couldn't breathe, he kept right on kicking and making himself known. His heart rate never once dropped and he seems to be as healthy as a horse. No concern there at all.
And, of course, this all had to happen on Ashley's birthday. I really hope that I haven't ruined her birthday. We've decided to do cake and her special birthday dinner on Friday night instead of tonight. That way I get a few days to recoup, and we won't have revival, so we can have a little longer to celebrate.
So, there was my night. SIGH. At least they didn't keep me because of the contractions I was having! LOL!!
