Yesterday i spent most of my day in Urgent Care. If you don't have access to a UC, or if you are unfamiliar with it, my Dr's office offers an urgent care program for non-emergencies but urgent matters. Its nice because you don't get charged like you do for an ER, and all your medical records are already there. Yesterday was my first time using it, and i will never go back to going to the ER. It was even worth the hour and 15 minute drive. (we don't live close to my Dr but i don't want to move offices).
Sadly, i am no stranger to needing immediate medical attention. A few posts back will describe my last stay in the ER next to where we live. This time, I became severely dehydrated which is a problem when you are pregnant. I am very blessed to have so many people that care about me and want to know the whole story, so i decided to put it all in here. Disclaimer: there will be talk of poop, pee and puke here.. AND I'm not good at telling a short story lol
It all started on Thursday. Throughout the day i was having pain similar to when i have ovarian cysts in my sides whenever i would stand or stretch out. I was off that day so i spent it laying in bed trying not to move. When my husband finally got home, i remember being mad because he was gone ALL day on my day off and i hadn't felt well, which always makes me want him home more- he makes everything better. We aren't really fighters, i can count on 1 hand the amount of actual fights we've had in 6 1/2 years. We are more of the discussion type. When we disagree we talk it out, and most of the time (even when I'm right) i always feel a little sick because i don't like when we have these disagreements. So i went to bed not feeling the best. I thought our discussion was why.
I woke up at about 4am Friday morning with the worst dry mouth so i drank some water (faster than i should have) and when i laid down i really didn't feel well. I got my emergency bowl and put it by my bed just in case, and eventually fell asleep. Then i woke up again at 5:30am and needed to pee. When i was going i felt a sharp pain in my side again. I had remembered reading that pain while peeing is something you should report to your Dr asap, but me being stubborn i decided it was just because i hadn't felt well all day. I went back to bed.
My alarm for work went off at 6:30 and i got up and immediately made my breakfast to ward off any morning sickness. I still had dry mouth so i ate my cereal pretty quickly and then started to do my makeup. About 10 minutes in i knew that i was going to be sick. This is something I'm used to so when i was done getting rid of my breakfast i went back to getting ready. The only thing i thought was weird was that so MUCH came out when all i had eaten was cereal. Then about 10 minutes later i felt the need to hurl again, but this time it was all bile and this weird foam. (hey i warned you about TMI). It actually made me late because i started sweating really bad and felt dizzy so i had to sit down for a while.
I went to work and right when i got there i felt the sensation again. And Again. And Again. And Again. I know what your thinking, why didn't i just go home? Well, I've been missing a lot of work lately because of this stupid morning sickness, and we were getting a visit from someone important so i was doing my best to be a trooper. Unfortunately in the 4 hours i was there i threw up over 10 times (all the mystery bile-foam concoction). Around 10am while i was getting sick i got really dizzy and saw these black dots pop up in my vision and i knew for sure, that this wasn't normal.
I called my midwife, and after they assessed my symptoms they suggested that i come into urgent care. I was still being stubborn so i asked if there was anything i could try first. They told me to eat a few bites of food and drink some ginger ale, and if i couldn't go an hour without holding it down then i needed to come in. I ate 2 tiny pretzels and drank a little ginger ale and went back to work. Not even 20 mins later i was making a b-line for the rest room. This time it was so painful that i started crying and knew i needed to call my husband to pick me up.
While i was waiting for him, i could feel myself start to pass out. I had laid my head down on a desk and felt my vision go dark, but i could still hear everything around me. (i am very lucky to have such great co-workers that take care of me). Surprisingly when this was happening i didn't freak out, its happened before i and i know to just wait until my vision returns. I got sick 3 more times waiting for my husband to drive the 25 minute commute from our house to my job.
When he picked me up we tried to figure out where the best place for me was to go. We could go to the local ER that is only 10 mins away, or we could go to urgent care which was a much longer drive. In the end i decided to go where all my Dr's were, and my decision was confirmed during our drive when my midwife called and made sure i was getting help.
When we walked in there was a line out the door and i got a little worried. Luckily there was someone directing traffic and told us that we can go to the shorter line for UC. The wait is usually an hour but i didn't even sit down before they called me in. I was taken to an exam room where a very nice nurse took all my vitals, and asked me all my symptoms. The poor guy didn't know i was pregnant though, so when i mentioned that i was 12.5 weeks he was grateful because he said he "would have looked like a huge idiot" when he got the doctor and left that part out. He was very nice and made us laugh a lot, which caused me to need to run to the restroom again to be sick. This time it was just foam, not even yellow.
When the Dr came in she checked my throat and was immediately concerned. She said my throat looked like sand paper, which is a telltale sign of dehydration. She recommended that i get hooked up to an IV and she wanted to run some tests. First though, she wanted to check on the baby's heartbeat. Now, my poor husband is so busy that he has missed every appointment that they check on the baby. He still hasn't seen it on the screen, and he hasn't heard the heart beat. So both of us got excited that she was going to use a Doppler (which is only auditory not visual). We both waited, and although this Dr was very nice, she was very spastic when it came to working the Doppler and couldn't find it. I felt really bad for my husband, but we couldn't spend all day trying to find it. She said it was too early (even though i heard it at my 11wk apt- i think she just didn't know what she was doing).
I was taken to a room called 'the observation room' that looked like a hospital. It had a bunch of beds in it but we were the only ones there. My hubby was even excited because he got a comfy chair- its the small victories ha ha. They asked me for a urine sample but since i hadn't gone since 5:30am -it was probably 2 at this point- i wasn't sure i could. I was successful but it barely covered the bottom of the small container they gave me. At least it was something- another small victory!
My nurse was fantastic, i have had an IV put in at the ER and it hurt so freaking bad, and the bag hardly drained. This time, i honestly didn't even feel it, or when she was taking blood. She was very sweet and kept me company while my hubbs got some food in the cafeteria. Then there was a shift change and they gave me a new, equally awesome nurse. I texted my mom, because she was waiting on me to call her anyway and i didn't want her to worry. Her reply back was surprising "what room are you in?". My entire family goes to the same practice that i do, and my mom is a medical marvel (worthy of another post later) and it actually wouldn't be the strangest thing in the world if she was in the next building.
Turns out she was at target which is a few doors down so she came and sat with us while the IV dripped. The nurse kept coming in to check the IV and was surprised each time how fast my body was absorbing it. I started to feel better, until i tried to turn over. I felt a huge wave of nausea hit and my stomach felt rock hard. I turned onto my back again and instantly felt better. I let the nurse know, so before she let me do anything she had me drink 2 cups of powerade and had me walk with her around the halls. She thought it was strange that i still didn't need to pee even after the entire IV bag had drained into me.
I went back to my bed and the Dr came in with my results. She said that it was good that i came in when i did because my levels were severely low. We were still waiting on my potassium levels to come back from the lab, so i stayed put. It was kind of strange to hear there actually was something wrong with me. I know that must sound strange after the spots, vomiting and passing out, but i always just assume I'm fine. All i could think about while i was there was 'this needs to be the only one, that was too scary' but what i voiced to everyone was "this kid is getting a mullet for this!" I'm not very good at voicing my true concerns, especially with an audience, so i played it off like i was joking around, but really i was terrified.
Eventually the nurse came back to tell us that my potassium level was at the low end of normal, so if i had waited to come in like i wanted to, my potassium would have dropped to a dangerous level for the baby. She prescribed bananas as long as i was still feeling OK. I really wanted to leave so i said i was good. My mom decided to finish her errands and my husband decided to follow through with the bananas and took me to Jamba Juice. Once is started drinking it, and realized that it wasn't going to come back up i started to feel- AMAZING. lol
I felt like Ive never been sick in my entire life. It was like everything i had felt the last 24hours was a bad dream, and i couldn't imagine feeling bad again. I even had a BM, which for most pregnant women is not a pleasant experience from all the iron in prenatal vitamins and anti nausea meds. It had been 3 days, and this is the first time in a month that it wasn't painful. My IV high lasted a few hours, but then i got a head ache (from not having any nutrients in me). After everything i had gone through, i would take a head ache. I wish i had known how good i would feel after getting an IV, because i would have rushed my ass in much, much earlier.
I woke up this morning feeling pretty good, i still have a head ache. The Dr told me to get as much bed rest as possible today and tomorrow, so i am being pampered by my parents in my hometown, thankful that if i have to do this anywhere, at least its here with them. The only thing that would make it better is if my husband didn't have to work and could be here too. I'm thankful for the people that i work with for being so understanding and amazing. the nurses that work at UC, and that my baby is healthy. I wont take my symptoms lightly in the future, that lesson i have learned.
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