Close Call

We got to the hospital and another miracle occurred. There was NO wait!!!! When does that EVER happen??? They got me in right away. They admitted me, got me hooked up to some IV’s and then the testing began. 

The doctors came in asking, “Is anyone else at home sick?” 

“No.”

“Have you been sick recently?”

“Not until yesterday.”

“Have you traveled outside of the country?”

“No.”

“Well it could just be a virus, we’ve seen a lot of this lately. We’ll get you hydrated and see how you do.”

They gave me 2-3 liters of IV’s before I even had the slightest urge to pee. That shows just how dehydrated I was!! 

My low back was hurting a lot. The doctor comes back in to check on me and asks, “Have you been on any antibiotics recently?”

“Yes, about a week ago I thought I had a UTI. The Physicians Asst. gave me a prescription to cover me until the lab got the results back. I had taken 6 of the 7 days before the office called to tell me it was negative.”

“Ok. Well we will need some more labs, we’ll do a CT to make sure you don’t have anything else going on in your stomach but I’m pretty sure you have something called Clostridium Difficile or C Diff. It’s a bacteria people can have and carry and never be symptomatic. Once they take antibiotics that they may not need or really strong antibiotics it kills off all the good flora and bacteria in your gut and leaves it wide open for the C Diff to grow and take over. It populates your gut with it’s poison/toxins and leaves only bad bacteria. It attacks the lining of your intestines and makes you severely ill.” 

I have NEVER heard of C Diff before that day!

The CT came back normal. I wasn’t really improving with the IV’s. They wanted to give me morphine for the pain but my pulse and blood pressure were so low they couldn’t. They gave me a little Tylenol because I’m allergic to Oxycodone. It didn’t help much. After several hours they decided they were going to go ahead and
treat me as though it was C Diff. They were so positive. My white blood
cell count was through the roof!! It was at 16,000!! However, the weird thing was they were going to let me
come home and then at the last minute the Dr asked me to stay overnight to be
monitored.  I wasn’t sure if it was necessary but he convinced me. He said my pulse/blood pressure were lower than he liked. 

So thankful for that cautious doctor. He probably saved my life. 

My mom and dad got to the hospital and Mom was a wreck. She doesn’t handle these things very well. She’s a worrier. It was nice to see family though. They
got me a regular room and I was there for maybe 30 minutes and they said I was
septic because of the regular complications of the illness but also the added low pulse
and low blood pressure. So they sped me up to ICU. I was there from Wed. June 1st- Sat. June 4th. It was miserable. 

C Diff is very contagious. Anyone who entered my room had to wear a gown, mask, gloves, and scrub their hands really well before they left. The antibacterial stuff like Germ-X does nothing to kill it. Soap and water is the best defense…and bleach!!!

Round the clock blood draws, blood sugar checks, antibiotics (Flagyl & Vancomycin), blood pressure/pulse checks, IV’s after IV’s, and my very favorite….shots in the stomach so I didn’t develop blood clots. My potassium levels were crazy low so I had to drink several doses of concentrated potassium to bring them up. That stuff isn’t pleasant! Steroids to help the heart and lots and lots of Zofran for the crazy nausea! Running to the bathroom constantly because that’s the nature of this illness…Infectious Disease Doctors, the Hospitalist, the Gastrointestinal Doctor, the Cardiologist. They don’t really let you get the rest you need to actually heal. I was on an all liquid diet for the 1st few days. I didn’t mind. I had NO appetite. 

Like I said before, they took me up to ICU because I was septic. My heart just wasn’t recovering. My body was shutting down. So at one point they decided to give me Dopamine. I would not wish that on anyone ever!!!!! My pulse was ranging between 34-50 and my pressure (top number is all I remember) was running 60-90. Very low. Dopamine is kind of like speed. It’s supposed to bring up your heart rate. As soon as the nurse put it into my IV I felt like I was dying!!! I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t focus, everything hurt, I wished someone would just come and kill me already. It was HORRIBLE!!! Taking my pulse from so low to so high so quickly was agony! I immediately began throwing up and shaking and crying. Thankfully they only tried it once. It had no lasting improvement on my heart. Just a “fun” little experiment I guess. 

Our friend’s the Esperson’s came to the hospital to help Jared give me a Priesthood Blessing. By the time they arrived I was beyond tired and out of it. I remember seeing them for a minute or so, Sis. Esperson smiled at me and all I could think was how I could hardly keep my eyes open. It was sweet that they came. Even though I couldn’t focus Bro. Esperson and Jared gave me the blessing. I don’t really remember much about it. However, I know the Spirit doesn’t always speak to us through words but feeling. That blessing helped me to feel  peace and like I was finally going to be able to rest, and that things were going to start improving now.  I remember a few other personal things…but I won’t share them here. It was just what I needed. I was so thankful! I have a testimony of the power of the Priesthood!

Over the course of being there I slowly started to improve. My symptoms were getting better and I could move around more on my own. My appetite very slowly started to come back and I could eat some softer things. Chicken broth and mashed potatoes tasted amazing… crazy I know. 😛

By Saturday I wanted to get out of there. I was feeling much better but still very weak. I was able to do things on my own again, and I just missed my kids so much! My heart rate and blood pressure were still really low. The doctor wanted to keep me another day but I just couldn’t take being there anymore. She called the Cardiologist in to give his opinion. If he felt comfortable discharging me then I was ok to go home. 

The Cardiologist was called in and he said I was ok to go home if I
could show my heart could get up to 70. They sent me for a walk with a portable
monitor. 1st lap didn’t work. He said I needed to go faster. I hadn’t really
been out of bed since Tuesday it was hard but I really wanted to come home so I
slow jogged and he said ok it is up to 70 now. But as soon as I was done it dropped right back
down to 50. It’s the craziest thing!

I was so happy to come home!! I cried as soon as we pulled up to the house. I missed my home, my babies, and just normal life. 

Once I was home I had crazy swelling all over. I look like
a huge marshmallow from head to toe. My stretchy clothes were skin tight. My socks and shoes were cutting off the blood to my feet. It was insane. They kept giving me fluids because of how severely dehydrated I had become and in hopes it would help my heart but it never did. It was really painful. It made me short of breath sort of  like I was drowning. 

The next day I was a little nervous I might have come home too soon. We debated if I needed to go back to the hospital… it was pretty scary.  I felt worse than I did the day before and some of the symptoms had come back. I got another Priesthood Blessing from Jared and Bro. Watt. It was absolutely beautiful. The Spirit was tangible. I felt such intense and complete love from my Heavenly Father and Savior. The words spoken were so specific and personal.  I’ve never had one quite like it before. I won’t share too much here about it. (I did journal about it.)  I won’t soon forget it though! Once I had the blessing I started to feel much better! 

The Infectious Disease doctor said I’m contagious until I finish 10
days of antibiotics (weird they give you antibiotics when that’s what caused
it). No one can use my bathroom. Bleach is the only way to kill
it. Washing hands is critical for me so I don’t pass it and others if they
touch anything where it could be living. It’s usually found in older people, nursing homes,  and people whose immune
systems are compromised like a cancer patients or other sick people.

Once you have it recurrence can happen. I have to be
super careful to not take any antibiotics I don’t actually HAVE to take. I have to tell every doctor I’ve had it now. Pretty overwhelming, not giving it to my family and not
getting it again myself.

Breathing was hard for almost 2 weeks. I couldn’t lay down flat or it felt like I was suffocating. I had x-rays done of my chest and belly they were clear. I had to lay propped up all the time so I could breathe but that caused my back to go out and shooting pain down my legs. My pressure/heart rate had been low up until this week. The cardiologist ordered me to drink protein shakes with every meal to help get my heart and body strong again. They helped a lot. He also had me wear a Holter monitor for 24 hours to see if that’s why I was having a hard time breathing and had me get an ultrasound of my heart as well. Both came back normal. (Other than showing I have PVC’s which I had already been diagnosed with about 4-5 yrs. ago. They are currently at 2.5%. We will continue to follow up yearly or if they become worse. At 15% they will require medication to treat.) I was also anemic when I left the hospital so I was craving red meat like crazy but had a hard time eating anything. I started taking supplements to help get my levels back up. 

As of today I’m doing much much better. I feel pretty much back to my old self. I need to build up my endurance but it will come back in time. My primary care doctor has cleared me, the cardiologist has cleared me, and so has the Gastroenterologist. I do have one more lab to do next week to make sure I’m totally clear of the C Diff. Once we get those results back I should be all good! 🙂 They recommend I take a good probiotic once I’m all clear to help build up the flora in my gut again. I can’t take them before I’m clear because the same thing can happen again.  I’m learning a lot about stomach health! 😛 

Sorry I keep jumping around….I keep remembering things and I don’t want to forget any of it. 

Another tender mercy I forgot to mention was that Jared had taken the week I was able to come home off from work already. He was supposed to go on a 50 mile hike with Eli and his scout troop. After a lot of discussion with Eli he expressed he didn’t want to go because he was worried about me and didn’t want to be far away from home if I had to go back into the hospital. Such a sweet and loving boy I have. He’s got a big heart! So that allowed Jared to be home with all of us helping to take care of me. I was so grateful he was home. I really needed his support and love and care-giving. He has been so amazing through all of this. I love him!

We also felt the Lord’s hand while I was still in the hospital. We got a text from the kids saying the house felt hot. Wouldn’t you know it….the A/C was dead! We frantically called a repairman to come out and help diagnose the problem. $700 to fix. The unit has given us issues every summer for the last 3-4 years. We were ready to replace it. I felt impressed to tell Jared to wait until the next morning (which was the day I was supposed to come home) so we could call a few other companies to get quotes etc. Mom & Dad picked up the kids for us and took them to their house so they didn’t have to sleep in a 115 degree house. Grateful for their help!

Jared posted on Facebook why does everything always happen at once? One of my cousins whom I don’t even know very well saw it. He said he’d be happy to come out and look at it. He came out and said it was definitely the motor. He had just pulled some units from some jobs and the motors were still good and he’d give us the part for a fraction of the cost and not charge us anything to do it! Angels walk among us!!!!! He had it all finished and fixed within a couple of hours and by the time I got home the house was cold!!! So grateful! <3 I was worried that they were going to discharge me and I wouldn’t have anywhere to go….. 

We had so much help from our Ward family. Meals were brought in daily for 2 weeks. Friends called and picked up kids to play/hangout. Countless prayers were offered in my behalf. I had lots of visits, phone calls, texts, emails from everyone letting me know I was being thought of. It was so humbling. My heart is so full of gratitude and thanks. My heart is brimming with love and appreciation for each and every person. Those prayers carried me through. It was touch and go for a while and I know because of their love and faith I’m here today.