So it's kind of a long complicated story...

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

...but I was in the emergency room Sunday night and am still a bit down for the count.

Do you get tired of reading about my many trips to the ER? Thankfully this was my first trip of 2012 and it was not related to my bowels! Yay bowels! Keep on working!

haha anyways some people have asked and it's a lot to explain so...

Super long story time begins now...

Feel free to skip this all:)

Friday, I woke up feeling a little off. I was honestly starting to think that it was because my body was so used to exercise that it now needed it and that my body would feel normal again once I went for a short run (WHO THINKS LIKE THIS?!?). That morning, I still went to the library with the girls and after that we went over to the Peter's house for lunch. I didn't have much of an appetite but I was able to eat my whole sandwich and some fruit. We went home and Kenley and I played outside while Claire napped. It was a hot day and I was feeling it. I kept drinking water and kombucha but continued to feel dehydrated. All of a sudden I got a massive headache and (left side) neck ache and thought that if I didn't get inside to cool down I would immediately pass out. I pretty much laid on my parents couch with that headache for the rest of the night. I tried eating a few pretzels but that was totally unappealing and then later in the evening I tried eating a bowl of ice cream and even that was unappealing. The whole evening my headache and neck ache were getting worse and it was beginning to hurt to swallow. I watched an episode of "I'm having their baby" and did the super ugly cry through the entire show. Then I took 2 Tylenol and went to bed with an ice pack on my neck. (Brian was away on a camping trip).

Saturday morning, I woke up with HORRIBLE pain in the left side of my neck. I was pretty miserable and thankfully Claire went down for a super early nap at 9 so I just put some cartoons on for Kenley and slept on and off until 12:30 which is when I expected Brian to be home. I sent him a ton of texts begging him to come home early. Of course, he got all of my texts at once when he finally got service, and assumed that my bowels were shutting down and that I was dying. Isn't he lucky that he gets to worry about my bowels? :). Anyway the whole day I was totally miserable and pretty much immobile. I kept going back and forth between chills and sweats and I couldn't walk more that a few feet without my head absolutely pounding and me getting dizzy and thinking I might pass out. I tried to stay as still as possible at all times because any slight neck movement was killer. Brian finally came home and was awesome and brought me a coconut water since we were thinking I was maybe dehydrated or had heat exhaustion or something. I took another nap with ice and then when I woke up I made an appointment with a massage therapist since I thought that maybe my half marathon had caused something in my neck to become displaced. I have never had such horrible neck pain or felt so immobilized. I drove myself to the massage and I knew I hadn't eaten anything all day so I tried to eat a piece of toast with jelly and a pear. I forced down 1/4th of the toast and about 2 bites of pear. My appetite just wasn't there and swallowing was miserable. My massage felt awesome but it didn't help with my neck pain at all. She said that my hips were really out of alignment causing my back to be really out of place which probably lead up to my neck. She adjusted my hips and really dug into a lot of places in my low back where she said I was really inflamed. She actually said she was surprised that I hadn't gotten hurt yet from how tense and out of sorts my back was. Leaving the appointment I was a bit disappointed because my neck was still really bothering me but she sent me home with instructions to ice for 20 minutes rest for 20 minutes and then repeat. I stopped at Albertson's on the way home to pick up some ingredients for the church potluck the next day and decided to buy a croissant and a donut. I had to force down the croissant and I couldn't make it more than 2 tiny bites of the donut. THIS IS NOT LIKE ME!! I came home and iced on and off until it was time for bed. I was miserable and we were now out of Tylenol so I took one of the leftover Percocet from my c-section hoping and praying that that would cut the pain enough for me to sleep through the night. Again, I went to bed with an ice pack on my neck.

Sunday morning I woke up at 5:30 in intense pain. It was as though I woke up the second the Percocet had worn off. I didn't want to move or wake Brian up so I laid there until 8:30 when he woke up and then I asked him for more ice in my ice pack and some water so that I could take another Percocet. I knew that there was no way that I could go to church in this condition. I laid as still as I could until 11:30ish when I decided to try going in the hot tub to loosen up my tense muscles and swollen neck. It seemed to help but when I got out to go get some water from my parents house I almost passed out on the way there. One the way back to my house I had to take 2 trips to rest in random chairs and close my eyes so that everything would stop spinning. I am sure that this had a lot to do with the fact that I was now going on 2 days of having nothing to eat and barely anything to drink because it was so miserable to swallow. I came in the house and sat in the recliner with my ice pack on my neck and fell asleep instantly until and stayed that way until Brian came home with the girls around 1:45ish. Brian and the girls took naps while I laid on the recliner until my mom got home from work and brought me over a smoothie so that I could have something in my system. I drank a second glass of smoothie in the hot tub while I decided whether or not to wait until the morning to try to get a doctor appointment or to just go in to the ER. As I was out there I was just getting more and more miserable and knew that I couldn't go much longer without taking another Percocet.... which I know is not a great idea to just medicate myself on old pills but that should let you know how horrid the pain was.

So my wonderful parents watched our girls while my wonderful husband drove me to the ER and sat with me in the waiting room for over and hour... maybe it was 2? I was in so much pain that I just sat as still as I could with my eyes closed for most of the time. When I finally saw a triage nurse she offered to put a neck brace on me to help stabilize my neck. I wish I could say that it helped and it did help stabilized my neck rotations but man swallowing was (is) still excruciating. I waited probably another hour after that to finally be given a bed and the nurse came in and took a look at my tonsils and then did a culture swab on them. She commented on how awful they looked and also commented on the fact that I had a temperature and had probably had one all weekend. I have no idea why I didn't even think to take my temperature but I didn't. Then... Wait... Wait.... Wait... The Doctor finally came in and looked at my tonsils and told me that I have had an abscess on my tonsil rupture and that it is super rare and he has never seen anyone who that has actually happened to because usually people have to go in and have it surgically drained and it must have been super painful.... We both almost burst out laughing when he said "this is rare" HOW MANY TIMES DO I HEAR THAT IN THE HOSPITAL? Oh just every time I am there something else rare is happening to me! Seriously! I am such a rare medical weirdo. I should just donate my body to science when I am done with it... I'm sure that they would discover all sorts of new "rare" things! :) Hahaha.

Anyway they sent me home with a prescription for antibiotics, steroids, and some Vicodin. They all seem to be helping a little bit but I am still feeling pretty weak from not being able to eat. I had a follow up appointment today on base and they sent out a referral for me to have my tonsils removed. But I guess they can't do that until they get them to calm down a bit first. So it might be a few weeks. But the good news is that I was able to eat a little bit of dinner today! Yay for sort of solid-ish food!

So that is the super long story of how I know nothing about my tonsils or my neck :) And that's where I am at right now.. A little bit medicated and a little bit in pain.... but getting better and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel a little bit brighter each day.


I am so thankful that the Lord allowed all of this to happen to me after my half marathon! 

6 comments:

Emily said...

Dang women! Ha you and frank are similar. If he ends up hurt its never anything small. We always say go big or go home! Ha
Super glad you are on the road to recovery.

Kim @ NewlyWoodwards said...

Oh no! That is horrible!

Steph said...

Oh, doll!! I hope you recover quickly, but ... a tonsilectomy is some rough stuff when you're an adult. You're going to have an incredible recovery time. My coworker had that done, and she missed four weeks of work solid. I'm so glad you have a positive support system there!! Praying for you and yours, as always. <3

bean said...

Praying! Regular old tonsillitis is awful, can't imagine a ruptured abcess!!! And remember, everyone is so different. Your surgery could be a breeze. And we'll all help however we can.

Maryn said...

Oh goodness! I am so glad you are getting better and that you ended up going to the ER with your hubs. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and just go.
Wow! Just wow!

Goodfellows said...

Girl!! That's crazy! But we aren't surprised! ;-) You're just one of a kind! :-) You need me to come take care of those sweet girls while you have surgery, dont you?!?! ;-)

 
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