Monday, September 28, 2009

Hospitals Are Not Very Fun

Well, it's been a while since I've written anything, and that's mainly due to the fact that I was in the hospital for 6 days. I had gotten sick with a stomach virus on Thursday, Sept. 17th. I spent that whole night sick at home, and the next 2 days I was so sore that I couldn't move without help. On Saturday, I started throwing up again, and since I hadn't eaten anything or kept any fluids down, Josh took me to the emergency room. Both of us thought we would get in, get some medicine and an IV, and then we would be back home by daylight on Sunday. Well, we were taken back pretty quickly, since I'm pregnant, and they gave me an IV and some medicine for nausea. The ER doctor came in and pushed on my stomach, which made me scream (my muscles were sooooo sore!). He feared that I had appedicitis, so I was sent to get an ultrasound. Believe me, ultrasounds are great, but not when your muscles are so tense that you can't even yawn without pain. The ultrasound tech couldn't find my appendix, so after being tortured through the ultrasound, I had more doctors come see me and poke at my sore belly. At around 6:45am Sunday, I was transferred to a room. They were admitting me, and they put me on the labor & delivery floor with all the other preggos (but unlike the rest of them, I wasn't going to be going home with a baby in my arms anytime soon.)

Josh had spent that whole night in a small little side chair in my ER room, while I had been in and out (due to the medicine) in a bed. When they transferred me, Josh went home to catch a quick nap and to get me a much needed change of clothes. We called my parents before he left...neither of us thought that the hospital would admit me, but we were both certain that I would be home soon. Around 10am, a nurse came and took me to have an MRI done to check my appendix. When I returned to my room, my dad and stepmom were there. My mom and Josh arrived less than 30 minutes later. The MRI showed that my appendix and my gallbladder were fine, but the doctors were still keeping me. We all assumed that I would go home the following day (Monday) since I was feeling slightly better and my appendix was fine. My dad and stepmom returned home, Josh went home since he had to work Monday, and my mom stayed with me at the hospital. Well, it turns out that the pain medicine they were giving me makes me nauseous. Every 4 hours they would give me nausea medicine and pain medicine together. I was on a 4 hour schedule. They would give me the medicine, and it would would knock me out for 2 to 2.5 hours. Then I would spend the remaining time nauseous until I could get more medicine. The doctors finally realized the connection (pain meds = nausea) on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday were better days, and dad came and stayed with me Thursday night. I was finally given solid food on Friday, and when I was able to keep it down, they sent me home.

I can't believe I was in the hospital that long. I missed a whole week of work, 2 children's sermons (since I was still recooperating yesterday), and sending bday cards to some friends and family. The diagnosis I was given: gastroenteritis. In other words, I got a stomach virus that led to my intestines being inflammed. I am on an antibiotic and a probiotic to help my stomach. My muscles are so weak, especially my leg muscles, from laying in a bed for 6 days. I am finally back at work and trying to rebuild my strength, but it's going to take a while.

But, the good news is that the baby and I are both doing fine now. The baby actually seemed to enjoy our time at the hospital. It was doing flips during the ultrasound, which prevented us from seeing it's sex and also made it harder for the ultrasound tech to get all the required measurements. The baby also enjoyed kicking at the doppler and hiding whenever the nurses would try to check its heart rate. Oh the joys of hospitals.

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