Anything but a Normal Day

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Today was anything but a normal day...

My alarm went off at 3:00AM, I hit the snooze a couple of times and rolled out of bed about 3:10. As soon as I stood up beside the bed I could feel something wet dripping down my leg. My thought was that it was odd because I had just had my monthly cycle. I walked to the bathroom, sat on the toilet and immediately I began what I thought was a bowel movement (I hadn't turned the lights on at this point.).  It flowed fast and was totally watery so I was thinking that it was diarrhea due to food poisoning. The reason I thought it was food poisoning was because I had it before and it was the same experience and I had also been having stomach cramps for the past two nights that had kept me awake and so I thought that I had somehow gotten some bad food.

But then I started to feel like I was losing control of my body, I tried to lift my hands but they would just flop back down. At this point I knew something was wrong. I flipped on the light and saw that what I had been passing was blood. I stood up and started to walked toward the sink, but knew almost immediately that I wasn't going to make it even that far. I lowered myself to the cold tile floor and could tell almost immediately that the coolness from the tile was reviving me a little - I do believe now that is what kept me from passing out completely. I laid there for about 5 minutes until I started to feel that I was getting ready to start passing blood again and I knew that I needed to get back to the toilet. I pushed myself up on my hands and knees and realized then that I had never stopped bleeding, there was blood on the floor. I got up and made it back to the toilet and the blood continue to flow - it was as if someone had turned on a faucet. I began to feel again as if I was losing control. I got up and again tried to walk to the sink but knew that I couldn't make it. I began to call Mark's name again and again as I once again lowered myself to the tile floor.

When Mark came in he was like, "Oh my God, I've got to get you to the hospital." I said to him that no he needed to call 911. He ran for the house phone but was so nervous he couldn't dial. What he was actually doing was dialing but then instead of hitting send he kept hanging up the phone and couldn't understand why the phone wasn't working. I remember telling him to grab his cell phone...

The police arrived first, and his first question to me was, "Where did you hit your head?" I told him that I hadn't hit my head and then explained what had occured up to that moment. The girls were awake and I can remember telling them to please not wake up Bri because I didn't want her to be scared. Amazingly they were all calm, no hysterics but I could definitely see the worry on their faces.

The paramedics arrived next and began to assess the nature of my condition while trying to determine if I had any pre-existing medical conditions. They took my blood pressure and seeing that my pressure had dropped to 60/40 they began trying to stabilizied me. They gathered and recorded my vital signs, started an IV and administered potassium I believe in an attempt to get my blood pressure up before preparing me for transport to the ER.

The ambulance arrived and the EMT's placed me on the stretcher and secured me in the ambulance for transport to the emergency room. During the transport one EMT drove while the 2nd one monitored my vital signs. Shamesha rode in the ambulance up front with the driver while Mark & Reggie drove seperately following the ambulance.



Once we arrived at the hospital, they passed on my information to the attending physician(s)/emergency room personnel and they left. Once again I had to explain what had happen and they like the paramedics the hospital staff began to moniter my vital signs, and in and out came the parade of nurses, doctors and other hosptial personnel. We were told that they needed to do a blood transfusion as soon as possible, so we signed the necessary paper work to get the process started.


In this picture you can see the first blood transfusion had already started...


At some point I was told that I wasn't going home for at least a few days and that someone from ICU was coming down to transport me there where they would run additional tests and keep a close eye on me.  They weren't messing around and before long I was admitted to the hospital for further evaluation and treatment and swept off to ICU for my 3 day stint...


Once settled in ICU, I was poked and prodded some more. but the nurses that took care of me were EXCEPTIONAL! They were so loving, kind and caring throughout my stay. A few different doctors came to visit and it was decided that I needed a second blood transfusion to stabilize my hemoglobin and that they wanted to perform a Colonoscopy as well as an Upper GI Scope that day. So in order to prep me for the colonoscopy I needed to drink a gallon of this white chalky powder stuff (I think it was called GoLite) which my nurse (Marie) mixed with 1/2 water and 1/2 apple juice. She was truly trying to help me by mixing in the apple juice but I don't believe that anything could have helped to disguise the disgusting taste of this stuff. So once she had the GoLite all mixed really well she brought me 3 cups of ice and a 3 straws and instructed me to start drinking it as fast as I could. Uggg, after the first taste I knew I was in big trouble. I am VERY sensitive to smells and taste. But she wouldn't let up, she kept telling me that I had to get it all down within a certain amount of time so that they could start the colonoscopy or else it would get to late in the day and we'd have to wait until tomorrow and I'd have to drink the stuff again. I was like there is NO WAY I'm EVER going to do this again.

So, I started drinking, trying it with the straw first; then trying to plug my nose and suck through the straw. Then my nurse feeling sorry for me went and found some ground coffee and told me to hold it under my nose and take a few deep breaths so that when I was ready for another drink I would be smelling more of the coffee than the GoLite. DIDN'T WORK! Next she brought me a few cans of Sierra Mist and told me to take a drink of the GoLite and then quickly take a drink of the sierra mist to wash it down. Ahhh, that help a little and so I kept doing it but then about 1/2 way through the gallon I was beginning to feel too blotted from all the GoLite with the sierra mist on top of that. So then we switch from the sierra mist to apple juice but at this point I was miserable because my poor little stomach was so much fuller than what I'd normally eat in a week...

At this point if I wasn't strapped down to that hospital bed with all the tubes and monitors, seriously I would have taken this disgusting drink and started pouring it down the drain or the toilet in my room and believe me I got out of bed a few times and tried to stretch as far as possible to reach across for that sink. I even comtemplated calling someone and telling them to bring me a plant so that I could start watering the plant with some of it, but you can't bring live plants/flowers into ICU. Ahh well it was a really good idea...

FINALLY, Finally, finally I finished it all after about four hours, and I'm not about to even go through the details of what that stuff does to your body. That is just way to nasty, but if you're that curious just click on the link I provided above (colonoscopy) and I'm sure it will provide some details. So now it's almost 5:00PM and I'm ready for this test but my nurse Marie comes in to tell me that they are going to wait to do the test tomorrow morning. I said to her, well you just need to let the doctors know that I'M NOT DRINKING THAT STUFF AGAIN! She just laughs at me but she did relay my message to the doctors and they sent her back with instructions that that was fine but I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything until tomorrow after the test. I was like, WHAT, they even give pregnant women ice chips. But that's okay when the night got long and I got hungry, I just chewed my gum unbeknown to my care givers...


Well, here I am settled in for the night. Mark brought the girls by for a visit. My poor little Bri, to wake up and find out that mommy was in the hospital and then to have to make it through the entire school day and after school activities until someone could bring her up to see me so she could see for herself that I was okay. Not something I ever want to have her experience again...

The day and night shift switches off and my new nurse is Lance and if I thought that I was being treated like I was the patient of the year with Marie, I don't even know how to explain how much more Lance took care of me throughout the night.  At some point he had asked me about family and I told him that we had six kids, and he was like no way and we moved on to other conversations...

THE NEXT DAY:
So in the morning when he came in to take my vitals he told me that he hadn't believed me when I told him how many kids I had, so during the night sometime he went and checked my medical records. Haha! I thought that was toooo funny!


Unfortunately, during the night my hemoglobin levels and my blood pressure kept dropping so I was told that I wouldn't be going home today. At some point, the doctors came in with all their big machines to get me ready for the colonoscopy and the upper GI scope. They told me what the procedure would be and then put the sedative into my IV and off to sleep I went... When I woke up, they were all done, the machine and doctors were gone and I don't remember a thing. I was told that they had only done the colonoscopy and not the upper GI scope but I wasn't told why they decided not to do the second one???  The doctor came in later to tell me that the test had revealed nothing... They continued to monitor me throughout the day and as evening approached they felt I was stable enough to be moved out of ICU into a regular ward in preparation to be release tomorrow. YEAH! At this point I was feeling pretty normal and was ready to go home.  After dinner (my first meal since being admitted) they rolled me out of ICU on down to floor 9 with more fabulous nurses who tucked me in for a second sleepless night (Did you know that when you are in the hospital, you don't go there to get sleep? Hmmm, I'm just sayin!).

DAY THREE:
At 5:00AM I rang for the nurse on call and asked if I could take a shower, there is only so much a girl can take okay! She was happy to accomadate me and went off to collect towels, soap, lotion and anything else I would possibly need. Did I mention how GREAT the nurses are at Banner Good Sam? So showered, dressed in my own clothes (I was going home today.), breakfast delivered, I started asking for the doctor.  When he finally arrived, checked me out one more time and then told me that I was free to go after lunch. I couldn't dial Mark's number fast enough. So I was discharged with instructions to maintain my regular diet; to do activities per my tolerance; follow up with a primary care physican within 2-3 weeks (I don't have one!) and to follow up with a GI specialist also within 2-3 weeks.  Mark arrive a little after 3:00PM and homeward bound we went...

Will follow up with reports once I see the GI specialist...

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