Sunday, 05 April 2009

• Latest news and my recent hospital stay.

  It's been ages since I was on Xanga and even longer since I posted much of anything. I have to admit, it's getting harder to put myself out there. Facebook feels safer so I've pretty much restricted my internet world to FB. But several friends have reminded me they don't "do" Facebook so I'm gonna try to keep updates going here as well.
  
  The biggest news in recent weeks is that we found out our match location for residency!! *drum roll please* And Todd got his first choice: An ER residency at Christus Spohn Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas!!!! We have been hugely releaved to have that suspence behind us and a future in Todd's desired specialty. Competition was pretty firce this year for ER residency spots and especially those in areas of the country with nice climates! My family lives in San Antonio (only a few hours North of Corpus) so I couldn't be more happy to be moving closer to Mom!
  
  My latest "adventure" was not one I'd have chosen but has been such an eye opening experience. It all started the weekend before last (March 21st). We've been working on our farm in Kansas every weekend trying to get it ready to be home until residency while we sell our house in Kansas City.  I was surprised to see ticks on the children as they ran around playing and fort building around our 80 acre property. I was hoping they wouldn't be out yet but no such luck. I went to the store that afternoon and bought the strongest Off! I could find and sprayed everyone thoroughly. I only found one tiny little tick on my ankle that evening when I took my shoes off so I was pretty happy.
  
  It was a hard weekend for me. I had felt for a couple of weeks like I was getting another sinus infection and was so tired of feeling run down and like my face was stuffed with cotton! Working out in the wind and chill wasn't making it any better. So Monday I crashed. I tumbled into bed and begged Todd to secure an antibiotic for me from the doc he was working with. He said he'd try and to get some rest. I was determined that I would go to one of those Minute Clinics on Tuesday if I couldn't get a prescription from Todd by that evening. ;)
  
  No luck Monday but Todd said he'd get one Tuesday so I kept going. I felt run down still but I could do my usual schedule. Wednesday, I still didn't have an antibiotic and I was getting frustrated. I picked Todd up from work around noon so we could go see Todd's sister off to her hip replacement surgery. We grabbed a special treat of Starbucks on The Plaza (THE Kansas City hot spot! and one of the places I will miss... *sigh*). To my further delight he whipped out a script from his pocket! YAY!
  
  When we got home after seeing Talitha, I folded some clothes, started supper, and picked up my antibiotic. I watched a movie before bed and started to feel a nasty headache coming on. By 11pm it was a doozer!! I went downstairs to sleep in more complete darkness but even the tiny light on the modem seemed to be drilling it's little green light straight through my brain!! I fought wave after wave of nausea. It felt like I was laying my head on a pillow of rocks! My muscles felt wound tight and I stretched and strained only to find no position was any more comfortable so I moaned and tossed all night! Oh, yeah, and I had chills. Awful, horrible chills!!!!
  
  As soon as I heard Todd stir upstairs I groped my way up, holding both hands over my eyes, and called out for him to take me to the hospital. The kids put my shoes on me and a sweatshirt (that I later found out was Todd's from the dirty clothes!! It had grease and mud all over it from him working on our car!! =0). When we got there I was crying from the pain. They said I really didn't have much of a fever (99.7 or something), they gave me something for the nausea (thank GOD!), and then something for the pain which caused me to have some kind of massive panic attack! I felt like someone had their hands around my neck and was lifting me up off the floor. I could breathe but it was terrifying!! I'm sobbing and scrambling up the bed and begging them to make it stop. They gave me a big IV push of Benadryl and that made me cough for some strange reason only adding to my panic! I guess at that point they decided to just knock me out and that was such a blessed relief! They drew my blood and ran a few tests. Did a CT scan of my head and we waited to see what the radiologist would say. I should say Todd waited. I was in that blissful heavy fog. After a few hours they said I was just having a migraine, they thought, but to come back if any new symptoms showed up.
  
  I could tell that the headache was still there just drugged up. And sure enough as soon as I got home and slept only a few hours it was back. And the chills with it! Todd filled the Vicodin prescription but it only helped me sleep through the pain. I don't know how I got through the next couple of days... They are very foggy. The pain was terrible. I was forever shaking and sweating. I went only to the bath room and back. I threw up once, I think. I didn't eat more than a tiny bite of something a couple of times a day. I remember thinking Saturday afternoon that it would be nice to take a bath. Trenton ran me a tub of tepid water and I was shocked to see red spots all over me when I got undressed! They were all over my hands and arms and legs and stomach - everywhere!!
  
  I stumbled back to bed after my short bath and a few hours later, when Todd stopped in to check on me I poked my arm out from the covers and said, "Look at this. What do you think is going on??" Todd paced around the room in silence. I could see his gears turning. =) "You've been on the antibiotic 3 days now, right." I knodded. "You don't feel any better?" "No." I said. "You should be feeling better by now." He paced some more... "Well, we have to take you back to the hospital. This is new." I remembered my tick bite on my ankle and poked my leg out from under the covers. The red spots on that leg were the worst! And the tick bite it's self still looked dark red and irregular shaped. Todd said, "I think that's Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. We definitely have to get you back to the hospital."
  
  So back we went. By the time we got there it was midnight in the middle of a nasty spring snow storm here in KC. They were busy and not really interested in seeing "headache girl" again. This nurse came in to explain that I was supposed to follow up with my doctor and that I wasn't going to get better until I talked to him but I wasn't needing treatment in the ER - a headache is "non-emergent". Todd said, "Did you take her temperature?" She mumbled something about not being sure, and grabbed the machine and stuck the probe in my mouth. 102.4! She mumbled something else and left the room. A nurse practitioner stopped in and asked some questions. She looked curiously at my ankle and my hands and disappeared. The same doctor I had seen Thursday morning appeared. He seemed concerned to see me back and after seeing the spots on my hands and my ankle started ordering tests. I reminded everyone at that point that I was still in massive pain and the blessed morphine was brought hitherto... I was surprised that it didn't totally take the pain away but I was happy to be much more comfortable. I still had chills so they gave me 3 tablets of Tylenol. An hour later my temp was 103.2!! So Motrin was ordered. I took 800mg of Motrin and still my fever didn't come down for several more hours. The wise guy who drew my blood (VERY painfully!!!) cracked jokes and kept us entertained for quite sometime. The "this is non-emergent" nurse became nice as she could be as they made preparations to admit me for the next 48 hours for treatment. Other doctors and nurses were fascinated with my case and would stop by to stare at my legs. (heh, lovely... =\ ) More drugs for pain and nausea and I was back in lala land so I barely remember my trip up to the 11th floor where I would remain for the next 2 and a half days.
  
  Apparently Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever isn't really in this area yet. Our farm, being 2 hours South of KC, is a little closer to the edge of the known populations of infected ticks but still not considered to be an "at risk" area. The doctor they assigned to my case is a renound tick born disease specialist and he was just about hopping from foot to foot to find my case! lol! He's traveled all over studying ticks and the many kinds of infectious diseases they carry. He was so hoping I'd saved my tick for him to study! I laughed outright at this! Why in the world would I save a tick I pulled off my leg? We get them all the time! He laughed too and said he's saved every tick that has ever bitten him and then proudly opened his wallet to show off the tick that actually gave him Lyme disease!! He was a funny guy! He is in the middle of finishing up his book on the subject and eagerly asked if he could put pictures of my leg in his book!! =| I did agree but I hope I never see that book!!
  
  So round after round of extremely painful IV antibiotics and I'm home taking the pills now. My right arm, where they had the IV, is still very sore and swollen. I'm incredibly weak and still have no appetite. I get dizzy easily and still fight nausea but I'm so much better already. The pain is totally gone!
  
  And that's my crazy tick story! And pretty much all the news around here. I'll try to be more faithful here on Xanga. I have miss you all!!
  

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