Yup
That's me.
I am battling an Upper Respiratory Infection from Hell.
I have been sick on and off all year...I was sick when I went to the Winter Classic, I was sick when I went to Las Vegas in March, but those colds went away in about a week.
So naturally when I got sick again on April 3rd I figured it was another cold. When It didnt go away in a week I figured I was just getting re-sicked (yes, I know not a word) by my nieces who are walking germ factories, albeit cute ones.
When I was still sick on the 15th I went to the doctor, who informed me of the URI and told me "You sound good and ears/nose/throat look clear so I'm not going to prescribe you anything, just keep up with the cough syrup and you should be ok in a few days"
Yeah.
So on the 24th when I came down with another horrible sore throat,uncontrollable coughing and fever I called the doctor who told me that it was just post nasal drip irritating my throat and she would prescribe me a mild painkiller for the pain (?).
Now utterly convinced that Im dealing with an idiot I got myself a 2nd opinion.
My 2nd opinion informed me that while it was an issue of post nasal drip (ewww) irritating my throat, I also had elevated blood pressure and lowered oxygen levels in my blood due to the URI and the nice wheeze that was living deep down in my left lung.
She also informed me that had I not come to see her I was setting myself up for Bronchitis or a possible hospital stay with a nice case of Pneumonia.
Oh yay.
So here I am, with my antibiotics, my albuterol inhaler, my tessalon for the sore throat, my sudaphed and my excedrin.
And I'm hoping I finally start to feeling better.
Soon.
Please?
Showing posts with label sick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sick. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Thursday, January 21, 2010
The New Improved ErinPatricia, Now with Fewer Internal Organs!
So, just to recap, for anyone reading this who didn't see the Twitter updates over there on the side of the page, or anyone who is not my Facebook friend.
BTW there is some TMI of the EWWW SURGERY kind here, so be warned.
Sunday morning, around 4am I woke up with some pretty seriously painful stomach action, from the right to left side of my chest, beginning under my breasts and from that point straight down the middle to a bit below my navel. From about 430am till about 1100am I was throwing up every half hour and in a serious amount of pain.
Food Poisioning, I thought.
The vomiting went away and the pain lessened, but didnt go away completely. I figured it was strained muscles from the workout my body put me through earlier in the morning.
Monday morning I got sick only once but the pain came back, not as viciously as Sunday, but back. I felt so tired and wiped out that I called off work, something I honestly rarely do. I mean when I had my kidney stones in 2008 I worked straight through that pain, only taking off the day of and the 2 days after my surgery.
Add to all of this a fever. I mean I was hot, blast furnace conditions under the blanket. By the time we finally unearthed the thermometer my temperature was 102. I took some tylenol and fell asleep and when I woke up my temp was down. It kept dropping all night so I wasnt too worried that I couldn't get a doctors appointment on Monday.
Tuesday morning the fever was back, high (101.9) and the pain was back, so I called off again and made an appointment to head to Forbes Family Practice (when you work for a company that does not care enought to give it's employees insurance you cant be picky)
After taking my vitals and talking to me a bit the doc examined me, then told me he was going to "go talk to someone smarter than me" He brought back his supervisor (he was a 1st or 2nd year resident) and they both told me that I was being admitted, that it was probably my gallbladder that was infected, and I was going to spend a few days on IV fluids and Antibiotics and probably have to have it removed in a few days.
They wouldnt even let me go home to pack a bag.
By 9:00pm Tuesday night I had had an ultrasound and a chest x-ray, seen 2 different doctors, had blood drawn three times and had an IV inserted in my hand.
By 9am Wednesday I was being told I was going down for surgery at 2pm, no waiting a few days, it needs to come out now.
I had the Lapryscopic surgery, which means instead of cutting me open they made 3 small incisions to remove the gallbladder.
That didnt go quite as planned though, my surgeon told me that the organ was so infected, rotten, pus and gallstone filled that they had to make a larger incision near my belly button to remove it. Said incision was not stitched shut either. its being kept open and packed with guaze to make sure it drains and stays un-infected.
Yay.
The surgery went well other than that, the pain is there, but its tolerable, I had a small allergic reaction to the Percoset they gave me today that was fixed with a shot of Benadryl...which almost immediately made me into a zombie, they switched me to something called Ultram, then I got sent home.
My heartfelt thanks go out to all of the Doctors who made sure I got the help I needed, regardless of insurance status, I dont remember all of the names due to drugs but Dr. Naiman (surgeon) Dr. Vats and Dr.Ragunot (not the right spelling, but the right way to say it. I cant find his card) He is the one who initally examined me and would not let me leave. There were a few others, Dr Ravano and Dr. Gowda, who realized that the Percoset was doing things it was not supposed to do, and Dr. I cant remember her name, but she's Dr Naimans Physicans Assistant and was incredibly kind to me. The amazing (except for the 2 on wed night/early thurs morn) Nurses of the 6 North floor of Forbes, Michele, Quay, Courtney, Chris and some I cant remember, again...drugs. Ans especially all of my friends and family for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers and pockets.
Thank you Blake for worrying about me and keeping everyone updated, I love you more than you will ever know for being there, even if it was just on the phone.
Also thank you Mom for being there.
Theres more to the story, like my very sweet roomate who kept me up my first night snoring like a trucker and then was on some kind of Bipap/sleep study/oxygen saturation test machine thing that kept poor recently sliced open me up till 430am because the goddamn thing kept beeping and screeching and alarms going off and what kind of stupid fucking person puts a post-op in the same room as a Bipap anyways and how useless were the nurses that night who wouldnt do a goddamn thing about it and the when the sweet roomie (srsly, it wasnt her fault she was cool) went to the bathroom they let the alarms continue till she was finished and then the stupid fucking pants on head retarded nurse put her mask on UPSIDEDOWN so the machine made a high pitched shrieking alarm noise from 335AM till 411AM ( I have audio, this noise would make Mr Rogers want to kick babies) when someone from Respitory came up to fix it and said "Who puts a post-op in with a goddamn Bipap?!"
You bet your sweet ass Im complaining.
BTW there is some TMI of the EWWW SURGERY kind here, so be warned.
Sunday morning, around 4am I woke up with some pretty seriously painful stomach action, from the right to left side of my chest, beginning under my breasts and from that point straight down the middle to a bit below my navel. From about 430am till about 1100am I was throwing up every half hour and in a serious amount of pain.
Food Poisioning, I thought.
The vomiting went away and the pain lessened, but didnt go away completely. I figured it was strained muscles from the workout my body put me through earlier in the morning.
Monday morning I got sick only once but the pain came back, not as viciously as Sunday, but back. I felt so tired and wiped out that I called off work, something I honestly rarely do. I mean when I had my kidney stones in 2008 I worked straight through that pain, only taking off the day of and the 2 days after my surgery.
Add to all of this a fever. I mean I was hot, blast furnace conditions under the blanket. By the time we finally unearthed the thermometer my temperature was 102. I took some tylenol and fell asleep and when I woke up my temp was down. It kept dropping all night so I wasnt too worried that I couldn't get a doctors appointment on Monday.
Tuesday morning the fever was back, high (101.9) and the pain was back, so I called off again and made an appointment to head to Forbes Family Practice (when you work for a company that does not care enought to give it's employees insurance you cant be picky)
After taking my vitals and talking to me a bit the doc examined me, then told me he was going to "go talk to someone smarter than me" He brought back his supervisor (he was a 1st or 2nd year resident) and they both told me that I was being admitted, that it was probably my gallbladder that was infected, and I was going to spend a few days on IV fluids and Antibiotics and probably have to have it removed in a few days.
They wouldnt even let me go home to pack a bag.
By 9:00pm Tuesday night I had had an ultrasound and a chest x-ray, seen 2 different doctors, had blood drawn three times and had an IV inserted in my hand.
By 9am Wednesday I was being told I was going down for surgery at 2pm, no waiting a few days, it needs to come out now.
I had the Lapryscopic surgery, which means instead of cutting me open they made 3 small incisions to remove the gallbladder.
That didnt go quite as planned though, my surgeon told me that the organ was so infected, rotten, pus and gallstone filled that they had to make a larger incision near my belly button to remove it. Said incision was not stitched shut either. its being kept open and packed with guaze to make sure it drains and stays un-infected.
Yay.
The surgery went well other than that, the pain is there, but its tolerable, I had a small allergic reaction to the Percoset they gave me today that was fixed with a shot of Benadryl...which almost immediately made me into a zombie, they switched me to something called Ultram, then I got sent home.
My heartfelt thanks go out to all of the Doctors who made sure I got the help I needed, regardless of insurance status, I dont remember all of the names due to drugs but Dr. Naiman (surgeon) Dr. Vats and Dr.Ragunot (not the right spelling, but the right way to say it. I cant find his card) He is the one who initally examined me and would not let me leave. There were a few others, Dr Ravano and Dr. Gowda, who realized that the Percoset was doing things it was not supposed to do, and Dr. I cant remember her name, but she's Dr Naimans Physicans Assistant and was incredibly kind to me. The amazing (except for the 2 on wed night/early thurs morn) Nurses of the 6 North floor of Forbes, Michele, Quay, Courtney, Chris and some I cant remember, again...drugs. Ans especially all of my friends and family for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers and pockets.
Thank you Blake for worrying about me and keeping everyone updated, I love you more than you will ever know for being there, even if it was just on the phone.
Also thank you Mom for being there.
Theres more to the story, like my very sweet roomate who kept me up my first night snoring like a trucker and then was on some kind of Bipap/sleep study/oxygen saturation test machine thing that kept poor recently sliced open me up till 430am because the goddamn thing kept beeping and screeching and alarms going off and what kind of stupid fucking person puts a post-op in the same room as a Bipap anyways and how useless were the nurses that night who wouldnt do a goddamn thing about it and the when the sweet roomie (srsly, it wasnt her fault she was cool) went to the bathroom they let the alarms continue till she was finished and then the stupid fucking pants on head retarded nurse put her mask on UPSIDEDOWN so the machine made a high pitched shrieking alarm noise from 335AM till 411AM ( I have audio, this noise would make Mr Rogers want to kick babies) when someone from Respitory came up to fix it and said "Who puts a post-op in with a goddamn Bipap?!"
You bet your sweet ass Im complaining.
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