Well, my hiatus from Hotel Northside lasted for exactly 10 days. Sunday night I began having stabbing pain in my upper back, just under my right shoulder blade. Every time I took a breath, the pain was horrifically unbearable. This made it totally impossible to breath normally, so I resorted to taking these short, shallow puffs of air because it hurt less.
I decided to play Dr. Kristi and diagnose myself .... afterall I'm practically halfway to my medical degree, right? Thinking I had a kidney infection, I ignored James' pleas to go to the Emergency Room and insisted that I just wait until the morning to see Dr. Garcia. I remember the last time I had a kidney infection I had the same pain in my back and deep breaths were painful, so this made perfect sense to me.
Apparently my medical skills aren't quite as sharp as I thought.
I went in to see Dr. Garcia first thing Monday morning, telling him I had a kidney infection. Roughly five seconds into the exam Dr. Garcia informed me that my kidneys are located nowhere near my upper back/ shoulder blade area. Furthermore, he said what I was experiencing was actually CHEST pain. I protested, because my chest did not hurt at all; the pain was in my upper back. Dr. Garcia then proceeded to give Dr. Kristi a quick anatomy lesson: the pain I was feeling in my upper back was inside my chest cavity. Sometimes chest pain is felt in the front, and sometimes it is felt in the back, he said.
Hmmm. Who knew??
He then spent the next two minutes YELLING AT ME because I hadn't gone to the emergency room as soon as the pain started. He actually raised his voice and wagged his finger at me! Defending myself, I explained that I truly thought it was just a kidney infection, and yes it hurt terribly but I didn't think pain would kill me. His eyes nearly popped out of his head and he snipped, "WELLLLL, if it's a pulmonary embolism, then yes actually that CAN kill you!!!!!"
OOPS.
Apparently chest pain + shortness of breath + pregnant girl with Protein S Deficiency = pulmonary embolism. Perhaps I should resign my medical license?
As it turned out, my faulty self-diagnosis didn't spare me a trip to the ER afterall. Dr. Garcia sent me straight there. I signed myself in and sheepishly explained to the triage nurse why I was there. She pulled up my name and social security number on the computer and quipped, "Oh my! You're a frequent flyer!"
Ummm, yes I am. Does this mean I get VIP status? Do I get bumped to the front of the line???
No such luck. After waiting 1.5 hrs, I was given a room and a really fantastic doctor named Dr. Funk. Her name was laughable but her medical skills were much better than mine! She was super thorough and openly offered a detailed explanation of everything she was thinking and why she wanted to order certain tests. My kind of girl.
Seeing that I was in terrible pain, Dr. Funk gave me a shot of morphine in my IV. Wow. It made my head super loopy, but sadly it only masked the pain for about 15 or 20 minutes. So I just went back to holding my breath again! About an hour or so later she suggested we try a dose of IV Dilauded. I did find that it helped the pain, and I could finally catch my breath. But again it wore off after about 20 minutes and then my pain level was back to being a 10+++. So after two tries with the Dilauded I decided to give up on the pain meds and just grit my teeth.
Dr. Funk's initial plan was to try and avoid exposing the baby to lots of radiation. Normally she would order a CT scan right off the bat, she told us, but since I was pregnant she wanted to try and rule out a pulmonary embolism using other means.
Two chest x-rays, an EKG, a renal ultrasound, 700 bottles of bloodwork and 8 hours later ......... we still had no answers. The x-rays and ultrasound came back normal, but my EKG was "suspicious" and my bloodwork showed elevated D-dimers, which could possibly indicate a clot. So Dr. Funk decided that we had no other choice but to do the CT scan of my lungs. Exposing the baby to the radiation is not ideal, she explained, but it's a matter of determining which is worse for the baby. Obviously if I have an undiagnosed pulmonary embolism and drop dead, that's far worse for the baby than the radiation he would receive from the CT scan. Seemed like a no-brainer to me! So I consented to the scan.
Incidentally, I had this exact same thing done 5 days after Jamin was born. In fact, when they got me down to the CT room I realized it was actually the exact same radiologist that had done my last CT scan roughly 18 months earlier. Gosh I've really spent way too much time in that hospital.
After prepping me with the contrast dye and getting me all situated inside the machine, Mr. Radiologist proceeds to pull out his clipboard and read aloud a two page long legal disclaimer. So I had to sit there and listen to him inform me of all the risks to my baby because of this radiation I'm about to receive ... birth defects, later development of cancer, up to and including death, blah blah blah. So I burst into tears, signed the stupid paper, and cried through the entire test.
I find it incredibly unfair that I should have to make such a decision. As if I don't already have enough things to worry about regarding my baby?!??
Thirty minutes later we were told the CT scan showed clear lungs! No clots! Dr. Funk decided I must have pleurisy. This is normally treated with anti-inflammatory drugs, but those are a no-no during pregnancy. So we would have to let my body fight the pleurisy on it's own, with pain medication to keep me comfortable in the mean time. I was given a prescription for Percocet and quickly discharged.
Since my return home I've been resting and recovering. Fortunately my pain is drastically improved, and so far I've only had to take 1/2 of one of the pain pills they gave me. So I'm considering myself lucky. A pulmonary embolism would've been a disaster, but pleurisy I can handle.
I decided to play Dr. Kristi and diagnose myself .... afterall I'm practically halfway to my medical degree, right? Thinking I had a kidney infection, I ignored James' pleas to go to the Emergency Room and insisted that I just wait until the morning to see Dr. Garcia. I remember the last time I had a kidney infection I had the same pain in my back and deep breaths were painful, so this made perfect sense to me.
Apparently my medical skills aren't quite as sharp as I thought.
I went in to see Dr. Garcia first thing Monday morning, telling him I had a kidney infection. Roughly five seconds into the exam Dr. Garcia informed me that my kidneys are located nowhere near my upper back/ shoulder blade area. Furthermore, he said what I was experiencing was actually CHEST pain. I protested, because my chest did not hurt at all; the pain was in my upper back. Dr. Garcia then proceeded to give Dr. Kristi a quick anatomy lesson: the pain I was feeling in my upper back was inside my chest cavity. Sometimes chest pain is felt in the front, and sometimes it is felt in the back, he said.
Hmmm. Who knew??
He then spent the next two minutes YELLING AT ME because I hadn't gone to the emergency room as soon as the pain started. He actually raised his voice and wagged his finger at me! Defending myself, I explained that I truly thought it was just a kidney infection, and yes it hurt terribly but I didn't think pain would kill me. His eyes nearly popped out of his head and he snipped, "WELLLLL, if it's a pulmonary embolism, then yes actually that CAN kill you!!!!!"
OOPS.
Apparently chest pain + shortness of breath + pregnant girl with Protein S Deficiency = pulmonary embolism. Perhaps I should resign my medical license?
As it turned out, my faulty self-diagnosis didn't spare me a trip to the ER afterall. Dr. Garcia sent me straight there. I signed myself in and sheepishly explained to the triage nurse why I was there. She pulled up my name and social security number on the computer and quipped, "Oh my! You're a frequent flyer!"
Ummm, yes I am. Does this mean I get VIP status? Do I get bumped to the front of the line???
No such luck. After waiting 1.5 hrs, I was given a room and a really fantastic doctor named Dr. Funk. Her name was laughable but her medical skills were much better than mine! She was super thorough and openly offered a detailed explanation of everything she was thinking and why she wanted to order certain tests. My kind of girl.
Seeing that I was in terrible pain, Dr. Funk gave me a shot of morphine in my IV. Wow. It made my head super loopy, but sadly it only masked the pain for about 15 or 20 minutes. So I just went back to holding my breath again! About an hour or so later she suggested we try a dose of IV Dilauded. I did find that it helped the pain, and I could finally catch my breath. But again it wore off after about 20 minutes and then my pain level was back to being a 10+++. So after two tries with the Dilauded I decided to give up on the pain meds and just grit my teeth.
Dr. Funk's initial plan was to try and avoid exposing the baby to lots of radiation. Normally she would order a CT scan right off the bat, she told us, but since I was pregnant she wanted to try and rule out a pulmonary embolism using other means.
Two chest x-rays, an EKG, a renal ultrasound, 700 bottles of bloodwork and 8 hours later ......... we still had no answers. The x-rays and ultrasound came back normal, but my EKG was "suspicious" and my bloodwork showed elevated D-dimers, which could possibly indicate a clot. So Dr. Funk decided that we had no other choice but to do the CT scan of my lungs. Exposing the baby to the radiation is not ideal, she explained, but it's a matter of determining which is worse for the baby. Obviously if I have an undiagnosed pulmonary embolism and drop dead, that's far worse for the baby than the radiation he would receive from the CT scan. Seemed like a no-brainer to me! So I consented to the scan.
Incidentally, I had this exact same thing done 5 days after Jamin was born. In fact, when they got me down to the CT room I realized it was actually the exact same radiologist that had done my last CT scan roughly 18 months earlier. Gosh I've really spent way too much time in that hospital.
After prepping me with the contrast dye and getting me all situated inside the machine, Mr. Radiologist proceeds to pull out his clipboard and read aloud a two page long legal disclaimer. So I had to sit there and listen to him inform me of all the risks to my baby because of this radiation I'm about to receive ... birth defects, later development of cancer, up to and including death, blah blah blah. So I burst into tears, signed the stupid paper, and cried through the entire test.
I find it incredibly unfair that I should have to make such a decision. As if I don't already have enough things to worry about regarding my baby?!??
Thirty minutes later we were told the CT scan showed clear lungs! No clots! Dr. Funk decided I must have pleurisy. This is normally treated with anti-inflammatory drugs, but those are a no-no during pregnancy. So we would have to let my body fight the pleurisy on it's own, with pain medication to keep me comfortable in the mean time. I was given a prescription for Percocet and quickly discharged.
Since my return home I've been resting and recovering. Fortunately my pain is drastically improved, and so far I've only had to take 1/2 of one of the pain pills they gave me. So I'm considering myself lucky. A pulmonary embolism would've been a disaster, but pleurisy I can handle.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment