Flu and Armageddon Part 2

If you missed Part 1 you can read it here. So it's late Friday night and Adam and I are headed back to the ER. Once we get checked in they take some blood and I talk to a doctor who thinks we should have seen improvement by now from the antibiotics. She draws a line around the affected area on my arm so we can more easily tell if it is growing.

We are put in a little waiting area until the nurse comes to get me. She takes me to X-Ray where the technician can't stop commenting on how she has NEVER seen anything like my arm. So reassuring! I think they were checking for air under my skin, but the results came back normal. After that the nurse takes me and says they are going to try giving me Benadryl in my IV and see if it brings down the swelling. It only takes a minute, and then she tells me to go back to the waiting area where Adam is.

I got about halfway across the room and it starts to tilt. I stumbled over to my chair next to Adam, put my head between my legs, and told him I was going to pass out. I told him to go get the nurse. He started asking about my purse and I told him to JUST GET THE NURSE! haha. I remember this from when I've been in labor. I hate being asked unnecessary questions when I'm in pain or not feeling well. I just felt so dizzy and lightheaded and didn't think I could even sit up.

She immediately came in and they got me on a gurney in the hallway. And then I started shivering violently. I was covered in goosebumps so they brought me a blanket. I don't know if it was a reaction from the Benadryl or more of a stress-related reaction to almost passing out. After my shaking calmed down I tried to explain to Adam what had just happened. But I couldn't. I felt drugged. I asked the nurse if this was the same Benadryl I've taken before for allergies, and she assured me it was. I just felt confused. And groggy. I guess the Benadryl hit my bloodstream really quickly. I remember trying to explain to Adam some things the nurse had been telling me, and I couldn't form the right sentences. So I just mumbled "Oh forget it" and rolled over.

15 minutes later the doctor came to check on me. My arm hadn't changed at all. So she ordered a new kind of antibiotic to be given to me through my IV. They wanted to observe me for 8 hours once the medicine was administered, so I was given a bed to stay in for the night.

Once I was set up in this new area of the ER, the new nurse tried to give me the antibiotics but my IV was halfway out of my small vein. So he started a new one in my hand. He flushed out my veins and finally got the medicine into me at about 2:30am. I convince Adam to go home so both of us could try to sleep.

I had just started to doze off when a new nurse came in and announces my bloodwork showed low potassium again. Ugh. My advice to anyone out there is to eat lots of bananas before getting bloodwork done. Ha! Thankfully she brought me liquid potassium to drink instead of the giant choking pills. But oh my goodness, that stuff tasted like pure poison. But then I fell fast asleep and slept soundly from 3:30 to 5:30.

I was woken up at 5:30 for my vitals to be taken. My mouth still tasted like poison. My blood pressure was checked many times in the ER and at one point I asked them if it was too low. (It was 98/59). The nurse said it was actually perfect because they like to see 100/60. Who knew?  So I dozed for a little while before a doctor came in to assess my arm. They decided it looked a tiny bit less inflamed. And it definitely wasn't worse.  So Adam came back to bring me home with my new antibiotic Saturday morning.

Once home from the ER I could tell I was feeling better. Still feeling weak and fatigued, but my pain level was really coming down. Everything was great until later in the afternoon I noticed the redness on my arm expanding once again. I did NOT want to go back to the doctor! We watched it for a little while but it continued to grow, so I put in a call to an advice nurse. She scheduled a phone appointment for me to speak with a doctor that evening. I did some housework and made dinner and made tentative plans for the kids to be watched by grandparents if we had to go back to the ER. (Thank you SO much to Grandma Jan, Grandma Linda, and Grandpa John for helping with the kids during this week! And to Adam, for taking time off of work to pretty much take over my Mommy role.)

I also want to share what the two oldest boys made for me with Grandma Jan while I was sick.

 Ryan made the vase himself!

And look at the beautiful picture Lucas colored for me.

So sweet, right?

Ok so I talked to the doctor around 8pm Saturday and she recommended that we continue to just watch my arm. She said that unless I developed a fever, it was safe to monitor it at home. By that point my arm was really hurting again and feeling quite warm. So I iced it and by Sunday morning it had only grown a tiny bit.

Sunday I felt great! I got so much done around the house and my arm continued to stay the same size. And Monday was more of the same.

I am still experiencing headaches that come and go depending on how much pain reliever I have in my system. I'm not sure if it's still the virus running its course, a side effect of the antibiotics, or just my typical headaches. I am also having terrible pain in my back that gets worse throughout the day, as well as soreness in my lungs when I breathe in deeply. I'm wondering if these two symptoms are just lingering from being immobile for so long.

One of the saddest things that happened this week was when the pharmacist told me I cannot nurse Andrew while on this new antibiotic. I know many of you may be thinking "Crazy lady get over it....he's 18 months! Just wean him already". But I wasn't ready to wean. And I still don't want to. I'm trying to keep up my milk supply. Hopefully I can go back to nursing him once the course of antibiotics is done. But in the meantime he isn't happy about it. Neither am I. The first two nights were pretty terrible, with a crying confused baby. I've been rocking him and singing to him at bedtime, and that seems to be okay, but once he wakes up in the middle of the night that no longer works.And then last night he slept all night in his crib! (2nd time since he was born!!)

Based on some research I've done, I'm still not convinced my arm is infected. I think it may be a systemic inflammatory reaction to the pneumonia vaccine that will just require time, rather than antibiotics, to completely go away.

When I was in the ER I was thinking a lot about how I take my health for granted. It truly is a blessing to wake up most days feeling healthy and full of energy for the day. When feeling good is the norm and then you get so sick so quickly, it's kind of a shock! I want to wake up every day thanking God for my life and my health and all the assumed or expected blessings that I take for granted.