Elijah was near the end of some kind of viral illness and ear infection; he hadn't had a fever in a day but I kept him home from church that Sunday morning (January 24) just to be safe. And wow, am I glad I did. While I was feeding him an early lunch, I started to have an excruciating pain in my left side. It was all I could do to clean him up and put him in his bed for naptime. Then I laid down on my bed, literally writhing in pain. (I had never truly experienced what is meant by that phrase, but I was continually moving, unable to find any comfortable position.)
Long story short: I had a kidney stone. I went to the ER that afternoon, was sent home with pain medication, and by midnight was BACK in the ER with the absolute worst pain I have experienced in my life. So bad that it made me puke. (Sorry for being so graphic.) The next day, they went in and got the kidney stone.
Another long story short: because of the stone "backing things up," I had an infection. Or maybe, I had an infection before the kidney stone ever happened. We won't ever really know. But they sent me home on Tuesday with antibiotics that were no match for the infection (we found out much later).
The symptoms I was having for the next day and a half ranged from the worst headache I had ever had, my entire abdomen swollen and in pain, strange dreams/hallucinations while I was sleeping, breathing difficulty, and a heart rate that dropped to around 40. And waking up frequently at night, gasping for breath, with my heart pounding. It was terrifying, and that is an understatement.
I went to the nearby urgent care clinic, which sent me to the ER because they thought I had a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in my lung).
I didn't have a PE. But after two more days, dozens of blood draws, multiple CT scans, ultrasounds, cardiac workup, exams, and more doctors than I could count (it's never a good sign when a doctor says "I've never seen anything like this"), they realized that an inflamed gallbladder was pressing on a nerve that was affecting my heart rate and respiration. And the gallbladder, along with everything else in my abdomen, was inflamed because of the infection that had "leaked" out everywhere.
The official diagnosis: sepsis. I made the mistake of Googling it. Scary. A doctor told me that if I had waited one more day before going back to the hospital, I would have landed in the Intensive Care Unit. I could have died. Including my first hospitalization, I was in there for 6 days.
It was really scary when they were trying to figure out what was wrong, and it was almost worse when I found out how serious of a diagnosis I had. Mentally and emotionally, this has been a rough road. When I got out of the hospital, I had to gradually re-enter my life, and all of my regular routines and places that I go. But I don't feel like the same person that I was before. It's been a lot to process, and not something that I feel like anyone else really understands.
Recovery: my doctor told me it could take a month (maybe more) to feel like I'm completely back to normal. This has been MUCH harder than recovering from my C-section. (Except that there's no surgical incision, so I don't have that pain.) I'm totally exhausted at the end of every day, and I've been home for a couple of weeks. Sometimes I don't feel like my brain is working very well---like my head is cloudy. And I'm not even taking any medication. :) So my answer to everyone who asks is, yes, I'm feeling better, but no, I'm not totally back to normal and I have no idea when that'll happen.
I have bursts of energy, and I have to take advantage of them to play with Elijah, clean the house, work (I am SO far behind on every deadline I can think of), organize papers, etc. It's been overwhelming in this sense, too, to have to re-enter life after it basically stopped for a few weeks.
I can't say enough about how thankful for everyone who prayed, helped with Elijah, brought meals, and sent encouraging words my way. I am walking away from this situation with profound gratitude for my family, friends, and church community. There truly are no words.
So that's the story, and I guess I'm back, sort of!
