the nitty-gritty....

alrighty, I'm finally cognizant enough to try and relay what I have been up to for this past week, though by the end of it I may be wishing to have just let it all go unrecorded- it's been quite a week.

The first surgery was on March 15th. I felt like I had made a quick recovery, but never reached fully recovered. I knew I wasn't back to %100. About a week and a half before the big symptoms arrived, I just felt heavy and yucky in my lower tummy. One day I actually remarked to Wade that it felt like I had rocks or barbed wire in my uterus, but I chalked it up to pre-menstrual yuckiness because I had been told that the first period after an ectopic pregnancy was a doozy. It didn't hurt, per say, just yucky. And I was tired all the time. Just could completely pass out any given moment, it seemed.

Well, on Sunday I started what I thought was a period. I was so relieved! Finally, I'm getting back to normal!!! and I started having a little diarrhea; hmmm, not completely out of the norm for me so I didn't pay it too much attention. Monday morning I woke up achy and crampy and just felt like I was wearing a suit of armor, I just felt heavy. Right off I drew myself a bath, thinking the warm water would sooth the cramps and sent Wade to the drugstore to get some Pamprin. Nothing was relieving them and they got worse. Front and back from belly button down, everything was cramping now. I could actually feel individual interior parts cramping separately from each other. The runny tummy got worse. I found myself in the bathroom every ten minutes and my cramps were so bad I couldn't even use a tampon. I took another bath and when I got out I didn't even have the strength to get dressed- I just stayed wrapped in my towel laying on the bathroom floor because I knew I shouldn't stray too far from that porcelain goddess. Then the vomiting came. Oh my, this food poisoning was going to kill me! I'm never going to eat another hot dog as long as I live! Then the blacking out started. A couple of hours passed in which I was stuck in a cycle of diarrhea, pass out, fall off the toilet, come too, vomit, repeat. I was finally at a point where I was just praying for the diarrhea to stop because I couldn't lift myself to the toilet anymore when I called my friend, Marsha, who is a RN and an energy worker to come check on me. I also called Wade to have him come home because I wasn't going to be able to make it to the door to let Marsha in (he was out teaching Gwen to ride on two wheels, a post on that will be coming). I am still so grateful that I had my phone in the bathroom... Marsha told me my blood pressure was really low and suggested going to the hospital. I resisted. I really thought all this was was just dehydration and food poisoning. I didn't want a $600 IV. I could make it... The pain finally wore me down, though. I asked Wade to take me. He lifts me up to help me put my robe on, I passed out. He's helping me out of the house, and I collapse in the living room. I was useless getting myself to the car. Wade hears the neighbor outside and runs to get his help, and they do that thing where they make a chair by holding elbows and get me to the car. We went to urgent care first, they sent us to the ER. Wade lifts me out of the car and sets me in a wheelchair and I totally blacked out. The next time I regained consciousness I was on a table in a back room with an IV in and tons of stickers being stuck to my chest and they were doing an ultra sound, there had to be 12 people working on me. The first thing I swear they tell is that they are going to put a catheter in now. Of course, I've been unconscious for how long and they happen to save THAT for when I'm conscious... the irony. I say ok... it was at this moment that it hit Wade how bad of shape I was in. He was just about to tell the nurse not to, that I was going to fight her on it, etc when I said ok and didn't flinch. He knew then and there that I was NOT well. I hear them say the pregnancy test had come back positive, the ultra sound was showing a lot of blood and a ruptured tube, I was going to have have to have surgery again. Then I'm out again and don't think I really came to until the next day- I remember bits and pieces but nothing coherent.

My blood pressure when I arrived at the hospital was something like 64 over 40. My hemoglobin was down to 6. They couldn't find a pulse at my neck and my heart had started to skip. I almost died. I ended up needing 6 units of blood to stabilize my blood pressure. It is all still surreal. I'm still in a lot of pain, but SOO much better than what it was. I go back in tomorrow to get some more blood tests. I've had to had a babysitter 24/7 since I've been home just in case I start to bleed again and pass out. Hopefully, my tests tomorrow are much improved and I'll be confirmed to be out of the danger zone. The saga's not quite over, yet, but I feel I've finally turned a corner. ...write more later...