After all the complications with Makayla's delivery and post delivery pre-eclampsia, I'm really really sick of hospitals, yet I found myself there again last night.
Unfortunately, my allergies haven't yet
subsided and I landed myself in the ER. Around 11:00 I
started getting really short of breath and my chest felt heavy. Matt
and I went to bed and then I woke up with Makayla around 2:00 AM. By
the time she had finished her bottle, I was pretty much gasping for air
and wheezing. I went to bed and quickly realized that lying down makes
it worse. I woke Matt up and he suggested taking a hot bath to get
things loosened up. It helped a tiny bit, but I was nervous. Matt
cannot call in sick this early into his new job. I guess he could, but I
don't want him to have to do that. So the soonest I could get to a
doctor was going to be this evening. Matt asked if I needed to go to
the hospital and when I started getting light headed, I decided that's
what I needed to do and that I couldn't risk waiting.
When
I got to the hospital my blood pressure was 160/106. They took me
straight back and evaluated me. They listened to my lungs and
determined that the wheezing is coming from the left side and the lower
portion of both my lungs isn't working at all. I had a chest X-Ray and the
good news is, it's not pneumonia. The bad news is, my lungs were
functioning at less than 50% of where they should have been. It was a
huge blessing I decided to go in!
They
gave me a breathing treatment and steroids and a monitor to use
throughout the days to make sure my lungs are OK or when to use my
inhaler or when to get my little fanny back into the ER. By the time they were done with me, my lung function went up to 75% and my blood pressure was totally normal. Since they gave me the steroids and treatment, the lowest my lung function has been is 60%. I used my inhaler and it went up to 95%! So I'm going to be juuuuuuust fine!
The doctor said it's probably not going to be the last time this happens, and because I don't have a cough or anything it's a little weird so that's not what is doing it, but my lungs are reacting to something like they would in someone who has asthma. I honestly think it was because I maybe sorta mighta washed some walls yesterday and the chemicals on top of the allergies really aggravated things, but the great news is that now I know how to handle it if/when it happens in the future! Hooray!
2 comments:
Um, that's a little bit scary! I'm glad you're breathing well again. :) POST pregnancy pre-clampsia?? And here I thought that delivery would guarantee that my rhinoceros legs shrink back to their original size... :/
Yes. Post pregnancy pre-eclampsia. It was hellish. The whole after delivery thing was hellish, but rest assured, it's pretty rare. I was actually kinda famous for a little while. Even my boys' pediatrician heard about what happened. I asked the doctor about the swelling before he sent me home and he told me to drink more and walk more, so I did, then I was discharged, but I had to board my room for a night because Makayla was still in the NICU. The next day, Makayla was sent home and when I got home the swelling was so bad that I was sitting on the couch and fluid settled on my spine where my back was unsupported from the cushions, and the top layers of my skin were tearing and I was getting the beginnings of stretch marks on my legs. I called the doctor and he told me to go to the ER. I did, my blood pressure was 180/110 and before even calling my doctor they got me right back and on magnesium because they thought I was going to have a seizure or a stroke and my blood tests showed my liver function was poor. I was admitted again to mother-baby only I couldn't have my baby with me because I was too sick but I could hear all the other babies crying all around me. :( Then the day I was supposed to come home, by insides started coming out my incision from getting my tubes tied (Which also failed, so the whole surgery was for NOTHING! i'm bitter...) So I had to sit there while my "guts" were coming out of my stomach and the head nurse didn't know what to do because she had never seen that before so she got a paper towel from the HOSPITAL BATHROOM and put it on my insides until the doctor got there and had to have another emergency surgery to fix that, so I was in the hospital on heavy duty IV antibiotics for 2 more days until I finally was able to come home! I didn't get to really spend any time with my baby until she was over a week old. :( But I was an extremely rare case so don't worry. There was a joke that I should buy a lotto ticket because crazy things kept happening.
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