Forgotten Moments

Can I just say that when I posted last night - I wasn't exactly completely coherent? There were a few moments that would freak people out that I forgot to mention... but also others that were truly amazing.

For starters, I completely forgot to mention that in 24 hours - I lost 5 pounds... leading to the seriousness in which my doctor sent me to the ER. He said that RNY patients have a tendency to have a really hard time catching up on the fluids because of our smaller stomachs.

He wheeled me over to the ER from his office because of the blackout session I'd had at home, even though I told him that I'd driven myself there - and that he was only going to get me in more trouble for having done so. He laughed, and put me in the chair anyway. I found out from the nurse that actually wheeled me over to the ER that last week he duct-taped a lady to the chair and sent her over. I thought that was hysterical, but it wasn't because he was being a punk... it was because she was fainting a lot and it was for her safety.

I'm not sure, but I think yesterday was a bad day for the elderly in Houston - because while I was waiting to get seen by the doctors in the ER... I literally saw no less than 3 older people with head injuries... seriously - they all came in after having a fall, and all had blood gushing from their heads! I felt a little strange in there being that I had no visible signs of my illness/injury - but I also know that those people got fixed up in MUCH less than the 9 hours it took to get me released.

Can I just interject in here and tell ya'll how wonderful my friend Renee is?! She not only tried to talk me into not driving to the hospital, but then she immediately got ready and came up there to spend several hours of her day sitting in a boring room with me. Then on top of all that wonderful friendship... her daughter, little L - was amazing! She's 2, and hung in there like a trooper! She even sat up in my bed with me for a bit and we looked at pictures on my cell phone. (That is for the short time I had a bed...)

At first things seemed to be moving really quickly. I got there at 9:45 - got through triage - by about 10:45, I had a room. Quickly after that I saw several nurses and a doctor... and got my IV line in. By 12:30, I'd had 3 x-rays done, the scan of my head, and the fluids started. (I don't know why they didn't start them immediately, but whatever.)

From there, I saw no one until we started getting really irritated around 3... at which time they told me that they hadn't seen anything in the x-rays, and that the scan of my head showed a cyst in my brain... which has probably been there since birth. If I had been feeling better - that would have freaked me out, but later in the day my regular doctor confirmed that it was nothing to worry about.

At that time - oh we'll say 3:30ish... she told me that they'd talked to my surgeon from the RNY, and that he wanted them to do a scan of my belly. At which time they finally brought me the nausea medicine that I'd been promised at 12. The scan was done by 4, and then it was more waiting for those results to come back.

Around 5 my regular doctor came by to check on me, and told me that he'd seen everything except the belly scan... so he went back out and looked at those. I apparently still have the kidney stones that they saw last summer, but that's okay... and he told me about the elevated white blood cell count. There wasn't much else that could be done, but he wanted them to push me will the rest of the fluids in the bag that I'd gotten at 12... and then another half a bag.

When they gave me the fluids initially - they started them REALLY slow... I had 1000mL bag, and was getting 150mL an hour... even though that wasn't really how fast it was going. He really wanted them to do it more quickly and get me out of there. So they opened up the line on the first bag and I finished it quickly.

John told the nurses that it was done, but it took them another 45 minutes to come check... while by blood was backing up into the IV line. (Nice!) So when they finally came in - the nurse brought in my discharge papers and started trying to unhook everything... John stopped her and told her that my doctor wanted me to have another 500mL of fluids before leaving. She thought someone had already done it, but went back out to get another bag... it only took a few minutes for all of that to go in.

I rang the call button when the bag was empty and she came right away this time... lovely that they're suddenly in a hurry after I've spent 9 hours of my life there in limbo. When she did unhook me from the IV though... ummm seriously - bull in a china closet... she just yanked it all out of my arm with zero thought about the fact that it was in my vein! I've got a lovely blueish purple knot in my arm right now...

So that is a little more clear version of what my day was like yesterday...

Today, so far... my blood pressure is pretty low, but I'm watching it closely. I'm hanging out sipping on some G2 (lower sugar Gatorade) and resting. That's about all I can do at this point - but hopefully it'll all settle down and things will be better by Monday. My boss might have a heart attack if I wasn't back to full capacity again, and surely that would raise my blood pressure - right?!