Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Long Day!

I had a bit of a scare today!! I woke up at 4:30 this morning because I was coughing a lot and my 5 yr old was awake and I didnt want to bother my husbands sleep since he had to get up in a couple of hours. So I went into the living room, took some robitussin DM for my coughing and hopped on the computer to look up applique designs. Soon after I took the tussin, I had a huge coughing fit and my right side started cramping up really bad. I tried to go back to bed at 7:30 for a couple of hours (I am so not a morning person!), but the kids kept waking me up. I was coughing again and this time I had a sharp stabbing pain at the top of my side below my ribs. The pain got really bad so at 8:30 I called my husband and told him. He told me to call the base hospital for an appt., I called my mom instead and asked her advice.

She had some ideas as to what it might be but told me that I really should go see the doctor. UGH I was tired and I didnt feel like getting up and going to the doctors! Well, base hospital referred me to Urgent Care. My husband got home and took me to urgent care. He checked where the pain hurt and told us to go to the hospital here in town for some blood tests and a CT scan of my abdomen. He said he wanted to rule out any possibility that it was my appendix. He told me not to eat anything before we get there. GREAT I hadnt yet had anything to eat that whole morning!

SO, we get to the hospital around 1pm, they draw some blood in my right arm. We go to CT and she gives me this huge bottle of contrast to drink. She added some crystal light fruit punch to "make it taste better" but it didnt. At this point Im still coughing and still getting the really sharp pain, almost unbearable pain, when coughing.

So, I had to sit in CT for 2 hours drinking this contrast which highlights certain areas of my body to make it easier to see everything when they do the scan. I was able to take my bathroom breaks as needed, but still could not eat anything.

So, I finally get in to have the scan at 3:30ish and they put an IV for more contrast in my left arm! So now I've gotten poked twice by a needle today and my left arm is the worst most painful vein I have. I wait for a bit, get the scan on my abdomen (which is MUCH better than having your head scanned! I had that done last year and it was just awful!), they did 4 scans total, then waited for 15 minutes after with the IV still in my arm to make sure I didnt have any reaction to the IV contrast. Nope, I was good to go!

We waited in the waiting room for about 10 minutes, and then the technician comes out and says to head back to Urgent Care. So we asked, it's not the appendix then? Because if it was, I would be staying there and not heading back to Urgent Care. She said we're all clear and my appendix is fine! YAY! But what was causing my pain?

So we get back to urgent care at 4pm, still no food but having to pee constantly. We sit in the room for a while, doc comes in and says the scan was clear for the appendix but it showed my ovary was enlarged and there was built up fluid around it. Oh great! So here we go, a pelvic exam! Lovely! He said I have a few cysts on my right ovary (which I went through last year - completely different pain this time), but that either my ovary had dropped which could be causing the pain, or that he was feeling a cyst and not my ovary which could also be the pain. OH and the fluid around my ovary could also be causing the pain!

I get dressed, we make an appt. for tomorrow to have an ultrasound done to see the ovary more clearly and look for anything else alarming. It's 5pm and we FINALLY get to go home.

Where did we go? Walmart! I was so hungry I could have figured out a reason to have every single pack of food in that store! We didnt have any milk, cereal, or bread (or cookies hehe), so we grabbed those. If we would have had cereal, I would have eaten a quick bite this morning!

Even better news? *sarcastically* I cant eat in the 8 hours before the ultrasound! My ultrasound is at 4:30pm, which means I have to fill myself up before 8:30 in the morning! Most days I dont get up until 9am from lack of sleep during the night! What did I eat today when I came home? Cookies on the drive home, and then cereal. And then I slept.

Im awake now and I think I will go get myself some more food, watch american idol and big brother, and then go to bed again. Not a happy 2 days here.

This post was supposed to be about the squares I made for my sampler lap quilt and it became all about my day today. Hopefully after about 5pm tomorrow I can relax easier. Oh, and did my pain go away? NO. Still got it. The doctor asked me if I wanted some pain meds for it. I asked if it would help when I cough, laugh, or anything else where I tighten my abdomen and make the pain shoot through me. NOPE, wont help that! I can handle the crampiness of my side during the day/evening. It's when I start my coughing fits that I have a big problem.

Ah well, anyways. If you've made it this far through my post then I commend you! Now Im going to start a new post and talk about the squares I've made!

1 comment:

Joanna said...

Oh wow you poor poor thing! It just sounds like one of those days where you think it can't possibly get worse and then it does and all you can do is laugh and cry!

I really hope you are feeling better and that they can pin point the problem.