I had an adventure of my own. Last Sunday evening, I started having terrible pain in my mid/lower back which radiated all the way around to the front. Now this has been happening since I've had Aidan, but each "episode" didn't last too long and it would always go away. I've also always related it to my epidural, because that seemed to be where the pain started. And the fact that they had to do it twice supported the idea that something was wrong. As time past, the pain got worse and the length of the episode grew. In the past 3 weeks it had happened 3 times and this time it wasn't going anywhere fast! So for about 2 hours I endured the pain until I could no longer. It was starting to affect my breathing and that's when I basically said to Tim, you gotta get me somewhere. The baby was already asleep, so we asked the neighbor(who happens to be an EMT) to come over and sit with him until Tim's parents arrived. He checked my blood pressure and pulse and basically said he thought it was a good idea to call the ambulance to take me to the hospital. I would get there faster and be seen quicker (or so I thought). So I've taken my first ride in an ambulance. It was quite embarassing having it pull up to your house, siren's on and w/ all of the nosey neighbors gawking at you. We were taken into the ER and the nurse came to check on me and said she would return with some pain medication....about 3 hours later when the doctor finally came in and the pain had subsided (w/ no pain medication ever making it to my veins) i described what had been going on. From what I explained the doc ruled it to be my gall bladder and ordered an ultrasound to verify. It was not an immediate surgery but it would have to be done. The ultrasound revealed not only was it my gall bladder, but my bloodwork showed I also had pancreatitis. So I had to be admitted and surgery would soon follow. That was 2 a.m. So off to my room I went, the whole time freaking out that I have a 10 month old to take care of! I will not write what terrible thoughts ran through my head! I'll cry if I even think about it! Monday morning came around after being poked and proded all night by nurses. I was visited by 3 doctors who all said I would be there for a few days until my enzyme levels went down. Finally around 5:00 that evening, the surgeon came in. Bless her heart, she went through all of the options, but the only one that I heard was there was no reason to do the surgery that night and that's what I opted for. I just wanted to get it over with and get home! So within a 1/2 hour, I was being wheeled to surgery. I remember going into the OR and the nurse saying she was going to give me some good drugs- and that she did. Next thing I know, I'm waking up to nurses talking to me. I don't even remember being wheeled back to my room or getting into bed (which I apparently did myself). I was able to go home the next afternoon and have been recuperating since. It was painful, but each day it got better and better. I'm not supposed to lift anything over 15 lbs. for 4 weeks, but that's really not happening considering I have a 25 lb kid! I just have to careful when I do pick him up. Unfortunately, I return to work tomorrow.
Which is another issue. Our lovely company policy is that you have to be out of the office for 5 consecutive days before short term disability kicks in...so they use your vacation and sick time for those five days, and since I just came back from a week's vacation, I didn't have too much left. So not only are all of my vacation and sick hours now used up, I ended up with 2 days of leave without pay. I'll never understand why that is a policy that is acceptable! An event that I cannot control and end up getting sucked dry for!
The good things that came out of this is hopefully my stomach issues will now be non-existent and we had great help with Aidan since Tim had to go back to work and I was unable to lift the baby. Tim's parents were able to help for a couple days, my dad brought my sister down from wed through friday and then from friday through sunday my mom and both sisters were here to help!
