Me...in the hospital?

Yes, I was in the hospital Thursday from 3pm until yesterday at 10:40am.

Thursday morning I woke up and did some editing work on Breanna Haddican's Miss Teen pictures. (Which are gorgeous by the way. If you have my mom on your facebook you can see them there.) My mom was having a client over at 1pm to have a consultation and so I had decided to help get things cleaned up while she was in the shower. I swept, cleaned the kitchen, picked up the toys, straightened up the pillows on all the couches, put misplaced papers away, etc. While I was cleaning I felt nauseous and I thought it was because I hadn't eaten anything yet that day. So I ate some toast with raspberry jam. I still didn't feel ok. I decided I should go lay down and since it was Ethan's nap time I figured I could probably get him to lay down with me. Ali was already down for her morning nap. He would not lay still but I did NOT have the energy to go chasing after him and my RIGHT side was killing me. My stomach and back were aching me so bad on the right side and I wanted to throw up. I kept running to the bathroom. I felt like I couldn't move or the pain would increase. I was even crawling on the floor from the toilet to the bed. I couldn't get anything up at first than I threw up. It was not fun. I talked to my dad over the phone and explained my symptoms. He said maybe my appendix or kidney stones, but said kidney stones aren't as common in people my age. I was scared if it was my appendix but also knew I did NOT want the pain anymore. I laid in bed for a while and decided I better take a shower in case I decided it was time to go to the ER. I took a shower and made it to my room where I immediately ran to the bathroom throwing up. It was then that I decided I better go. My mom had a doctor's appointment to get adjusted because her jaw was bugging her and my sister had to take her so I had Karissa help me get the kids in the yukon and had her drop me off at the ER. I didn't want to be alone, but also knew I couldn't deal with the pain or the throwing up on my own. They got me back right away. They did a urine test (and because I was on my monthly it showed blood) so they made me get a urine catheter to make it a clean sample. That was not fun. A PA named Chad saw me and explained that he thought it was kidney stones or appendix too. He said they would do a CT scan to help rule things out.

It took an hour to get the CT results back and they said I had a partial bowel obstruction. My thought immediately went to a family friend we have that had a complete bowel obstruction and had heard of the awful pain she went through. They said in order for it to be fine again I would need an NG tube down my nose into my stomach to relieve the pressure. The tube would suck everything out of my stomach and let the bowels be loosened. If it didn't work and if it were to get more serious I would have to have surgery. The sound of the tube just made me want to crawl into a ball, but I knew it was that or probably get worse so they put the tube in..is it fair to say it hurt worse than labor? Because it so did!! I was screaming and yelled and said "NO". Not fun!!! It takes a lot of me to say it hurt worse than labor since I had Ethan natural and he weighed 9lbs. I am telling you that hurt...but this was excruciating pain in my nose!! No one should have to feel pain like that!! At least not when they are awake!! I felt bad because I knew the nursing student who was helping the RN put the tube in and she did not want to do that to me. I knew it was her job though and was not mad at them...just mad at my body for doing this to me. I felt like a truck had hit me in the stomach...

The tube was in so it was time for me to get moved out of the ER because they had a lot more emergent patients that needed the area I was in. My mom had gotten to the hospital after I got the CT scan and my dad arrived just before they put the NG tube in so they got to witness me so mad and hurting. My mom was relieved my dad was there because he just talked me through it all. He kept telling me to take deep breaths and then when it was time to swallow the tube down coached me through that. I'm sure the nurses would've been louder about it if he hadn't been there but he'd done it to so many people all I could hear was his comforting voice. I felt like a baby!! After the tube was in I just cried. I was so happy Roger wasn't there to witness it all. He would not have been happy to see me like that. We told him to stay in Spokane because he had a test and a paper due the next day so we didn't want him to be here until we knew what was going to happen for sure.

That night Dr. Carter came in and saw me. She thought I didn't really need the tube but as long as I had it in I wasn't taking it out in fear that they'd have to put it back down again. My dad and my Poppy gave me an incredible blessing and I was feeling relieved, but still in pain. They kept me on some good drugs for the pain and gave me Zofran (which was my best friend during Ethan's pregnancy) for the nausea. The next morning Dr. Carter came in at 6:55am and I had already had my blood drawn by then, but no x-ray so they sent me down for an x-ray. Let me just say Moses Lake is so small....I knew the x-ray tech too....yay I get to see tons of people with this tube stickin' out of my nose like an elephant!! The nurse told me that the doctor would be back in at lunch to tell me the plans....lunch came and went...no doctor...no results...around 4pm the nurse said if she hadn't heard from the doctor she would call her and ask what the plan was...so she couldn't get a hold of her at 5pm so she got a hold of another on call doctor. He said he would be taking over and told her to take the tube out and if I could keep food down the next morning I could probably go home since the x-ray didn't show anything so they assumed everything is fine.

Friday night I had liquids and kept them down and then Saturday morning I ate some eggs and kept them down. I really didn't want to stay there any longer if it just meant I would just keep getting pain meds and nausea medicine because I could do that at home. Roger had made it there Friday afternoon and wasn't expecting to see me like that. He thought it was different. It was gross to see the food I had eaten coming out of my nose in liquid form and into a bucket.

They think I just had a virus and it caused my bowel to get obstructed when I got the CT scan because I've never had any surgeries in there anywhere. I still have crazy pain and am constantly nauseous so I don't know what is going to happen but for now I have medicine to help. Most importantly I got migraine medicine. It has helped quite a bit. The first night I was in the hospital I could NOT sleep. I was up all night staring at the wall hoping it would be morning for results...which never happened anyways. My migraine was pounding for three days.

I am happy to be home, but sad that my husband can't stay here in Moses Lake with me because he has to get back to school. I'm lucky that his job was understanding and let him off this weekend to come be with me.

I thought I better get this up because people keep asking me what happened so I thought it'd be easier to get written down to read. Thanks for all of the love.