Hack, Hack...oops...there goes a lung!!

Well as you can see above (and I'm sure allot of you knew) I was in the hospital. Troll took this with my camera phone while I was enduring the ten hours they had me in there doing tests, x-rays and CT scans. I was so tired of sitting in the bed that I opted for the suken in chair and bed rail position!! So below is the story. This is most likely gonna turn into a book so if you don't like it...sorry. I've nothing else to do but sit around due to being so weak so you're gonna have to deal with it!

Last Tues eve I started to feel a bit rough. Feverish and cold. I thought...o gr8, must be getting the flu. Wednesday was more of the same. Thurs I didn't feel as bad and went through my day pretty well. Friday afternoon.......bad news. By the time I crawled into bed not long after Troll got home from school I felt as if Troll had tied me down on the road and had a semi run over me!! By Sat eve it felt as if three had run over me. I've been sick before with being pregnant or just mild cases of flu or whatnot but this was weird. I was feverish pretty much 24/7 up to 101-103. I was weak and had muscle spasms along with it. Sun eve I was beyond myself. Couldn't do nothing but lay there and cough and cry. Breathing felt like I was suffocating and by 5a.m. Monday I woke up Troll and said, I just can't do this anymore. Something is wrong. So he got up, gathered up clothes for the kids and called a couple at church to see if they could watch the kids. And then the long ordeal of getting me down our steps. I honestly felt like jell-o. It was all I could do to concentrate on putting the next foot down as Troll basically picked me up at each step. Poor Jetta was so upset at seeing her mom gasping for breath and tears running cause it hurt so bad and I was exhausted from not sleep all nite that she stood at the top of the steps and just sobbed. I felt bad she had to see me like that and tried to reassure her that mommy was ok. After we dropped off the kids we headed to the hospital. We got to the ER a little before 8 a.m. on Monday. I was there for 10 hours and 20 minutes. They had taken one look at me and rushed me into a sealed off room. The first thoughts were that I had the flu so I had to go to a room that was flu approved!

A nurse named Ann came in to take my blood and hook up my IV. Let me tell you what....that was interesting. She was a study that's for sure. Sniffing, shaking her head and muttering she proceeded to do her job and even growled at me when I jumped as she was putting the catheter in my hand. Tube after bottle and tube of blood later, blood on the bed, running down my hand and her ungloved hand...she finally had enough blood and me all hooked up to the first of 8 bags of fluid/antibiotics (I was pretty dehydrated) and walked out. Troll looked at me and said, "What was that?" I shook my head and said that I didn't know. He said, "I think 'Ann' used to be a man!" So from that moment on she was dubbed "Ann-man"!!!

Next came x-ray and EKG. This was all done in my room and each time they had to lift me up to sit up. I was completely strengthless. After a bit another nurse came in and said, "ma'am I'm so sorry but I have to take more blood. Your blood clotted before we could get it to the lab." So for the third time I had blood taken...and let's just say that that vein was protesting after each needle. Made me wanna say that I'd just walk to the lab and they could just put me in the testing machine!! After awhile the doctor came in and said that the x-ray results came back positive for pneumonia. Then he proceeded to say that one of my levels were up so high that they were concerned there was a blood clot in my lung and he wanted me to do a CT scan ASAP. I remember the first thought that went through my head was wait a minute, I'm only 31 and I have 5 kids at home that I need to take care....this can't be happening. I don'tknow if the shock registered on the outside but inside I was shaking. So off I went for that. After what seemed like eternity the doc came back in to say that the CT scan was negative but he was gonna admit me to the hospital due to me being so weak and coughing so. I was thanking the Lord on the inside and telling the doc I was fine and could go home. Lol!! Troll looked at me in disbelief, said, "honey...you can't even go up the steps!" then he turned to the doctor and said, "that's fine...she needs to be here!" So they admited me. I got to my room at 6:20 p.m. on Monday.

I was put into a double room next to a lady that looked as if she was in a coma. Thankfully I got to have the bed by the window so at least I had some privacy. And then came the doing nothing part. Bag after bag of fluid and anitbiotics were being shoved thru my IV so fast that my entire right arm felt like a frozen sausage!! It literally was ice cold. I was so tired. Hadn't had any sleep since Sunday afternoon and by 8 p.m. monday i had a terrible headache from lack of a pillow in the ER, and everything else. They'd given me tylenol and it'd done nothing so they gave me a percocet. I was able to sleep sometime around 9:30 and did so until 11 p.m. and then "she" woke up!! O my word! By tues eve I was telling my mom thru text that I was praying for a coma as this lady was more than I could take anymore. She was bi-polar and just a messed up situation...of which I won't go into detail as I'm not really sure WHICH of her stories were actual truth other than I knew she'd come there from the "behavioral ward"!! Groan! Morphine and dilauded were handed to her like candy it seemed! She'd be chatting away, laughing and sitting up and as soon as a nurse came in she'd change her voice and say she needed more pain meds cause her pain level was at an 8. AND THEY'D GIVE IT TO HER!! I was so aggravated.

Now this next part is not very nice but I'm gonna put it in here!! They were measuring my urine ouput so I had to use the "hat" in the potty! It was to be measured and wrote down on a chart each time so they could keep track of it. Troll had left at 5 on Tuesday eve so he didn't know about all this or i'm sure he would've went off. That hat sat there completely full and not once did anyone come in and take care of it. From 5-11 p.m. only once did a nurse come in to check on me. She had to give me another percocet for a headache. I went into the bathroom after this and saw that the "hat" was still full. I was so aggravated that I dumped it and didn't use it again. I thought...if they don't wanna do their job...I'm not reminding them and they could do without the knowledge of my output. Around 8:20 I was feeling rather dizzy from the drug and tried to get comfortable to go to sleep. I hear my roommate pick up the phone and call someone. For the next hour and 1/2 I had to listen to her yak. I was so tired. Four hours of scattered sleep was all I had gotten since Sunday afternoon. And then comes the more frustrating part. They'd given my roommate the drink she had to do for a colonoscopy prep at 6 that eve. She'd refused to drink it and finally one nurse said she had to at least try. I'd hear her rattling the bottle and cup and ice cubes around and she'd make comments how this wasn't gonna happen and blah, blah, blah. Next thing I know she gets up..goes into the bathroom and is gone for a bit. About 3 minutes later a nurse comes in. Roommate says, I've just thrown up three times and i can't drink this stuff. Nurse says, well theres nothing in the basin. She says well I already dumped it in the toilet. Now come on...I'm laying in a bed not 3 feet away from her and not once did she puke. And i know she didn't in the bathroom cause you can't cover up noises like that. They BELIEVED her. She told them she wanted this other thing and they called the doc and next thing I know she's getting this little drink shot and pill combination. And then they say they put a potty beside her bed. Groan!! I was over it by this time. I thought...Lord help me but there is no way I can lay her absolutely exhausted and listen to her and smell THAT all night long. 11 p.m. came with the new nurse shift. In walks this 30ish year old black lady that smelled like Bath & Body Works!! She walks over and says, "Hi honey...how ya doing?" I almost cried. I said, ma'am... I'm so frustrated. She asked why and I told her that I was so tired due to not being able to sleep in the day with all the ruckus and then when I was so dizzy with tiredness and drugedness my roommated wouldn't shut up! And then I told her that she was prepping for a colonoscopy (my nurses were different from roommates by the way) and I just couldn't handle it but I didn't mean to be a complainer. She said, "Honey...you're not complaining. I wouldn't want to lay here all nite and listen to that. You hang on, I'll be right back." A minute later she came in and said, "I'm moving you." She grabbed up all my stuff and took it out and then came back and said, "Hurry up..let's get outa here!" She made sure I could walk with my IV pole and then we crept out!! Literally!!! If I could've functioned a thought I woulda laughed at how she actually tiptoed past my then drugged into sleep roommate so she wouldn't wake her up. I got into a double room where I was able to pick which bed I wanted. They did my vitals at 12 and then shut my door and left me alone. I was able to sleep until 2 when my IV got twisted and the alarm went off. Then no one came in until going on 7. It was so nice. I was able to be alone until I was discharged. I don't know if she was an angel or not but she sure seemed like one to me. And then all day wednesday the nurses were extra sweet and caring.

Troll was coming around 2-2:30 to pick me up so they got around with discharge papers and etc. By the time he got there at 2:30 I'd had a round of Chardonnay and been doused in alcohol!!! LOL!! OK, stop freaking out. The Chardonnay was actually the hospitals theraputic Golden Retriever that would go around and visit everyone. He was adorable. The alcohol was due to the layer upon layer of tape that was attatched to my IV catheter. It took 20 minutes alone with the alchohol to get it off my hand. The nurse was rather upset with how much was on there! I do beleive that some of my skin went along with it!

We got home at 4:00 wednesday. Let me tell you this...a christmas tree has never looked more beautiful to me than ours did. Our kids looked like cherubs and the dogs looked like champion blood lined canines!! Course that last statement vanished by bedtime when they kept crowding me outa the bed. They were threatening me to make them extinct!! So anyway...now comes the recovery part. I'm on nasty cough syrup and some potent antibiotic pills that cost $18 a pill. Thank the Lord for insurance. I'm still really weak I guess due to the almost 5lbs I lost this week and my chest feels as if there are a few bricks laying on it. But I'm thankful to be home. Also very thankful for all of you that texted and called to let us know that we were in your thoughts and prayers. A big thanks to the Littles for taking our kids for us. It was nice to not have to worry if they were ok or not. And thanks to Yancy for picking up the kids, watching them for a few hours and all the yummy food. Well, I guess it was yummy...can't say I was able to eat! I also know that different ladies from the church are making our suppers this next few days....that means so much to me....so thanks a heap.

One more thing... this morning Eth and Bia were playing with babies and pretending they were doctoring them. They were making me do breathing things so they could listen to my heart as well. Eth said, "mommy...were there babies at the hospital?" I said, there are lots of babies at the hospital. He said, "Did you lay one while you were there?" LOL!!! Lay one!!! Chuckle!!! Wonder if he's been spending too much time at the Fuller's Farm?!!!! :-)