This week has been a roller coaster ride. I was in the hospital Tuesday to Friday and lost a pound ever day I was there. Tuesday I was supposed to have a regular doctor's appointment, but I had felt sick all day. When we got there, they told us my doctor had to deliver a baby so it would be a while before I could have my appointment. The longer we sat in the waiting room, the worse I felt. I finally told Caleb that I needed to go to the hospital. We drove across the street and checked in to the waiting room. I wore a mask to try to prevent getting another illness since I knew my blood counts may be low, but that backfired. I ended up getting sick... if you know what I mean... in the middle of the waiting room, in the floor... while wearing a mask. I won't get too graphic, but it wasn't pretty! The nurse took me back to a room at that point. I guess that's one way of avoiding long waits in the ER! I spent the entire day in the hospital and very, very drugged. My nurse wasn't forgiving when I asked to stop getting medicine, so I ended up sleeping the day away. After being able to keep some applesauce down, the doctor said I can try to go home, but if anything changes to come back.
That night, I developed a fever of 102. I was still too drugged and tired to care, so I went back to sleep for a while before we went back to the ER. The doctor consulted about six other doctors and admitted me to the hospital. My white blood cell count had dropped from 11 to 3 overnight, and the CT scan showed that I had colitis (inflammation of the bowel). Just to be safe, they put me on really strong antibiotics. After that, the doctors wanted to check my blood levels again. When the phlebotomist was drawing my blood, my hand went numb. She immediately took the needle out and apologized because she said she hit a ligament. It's not bad, but my hand still goes numb when I touch where the blood was drawn or move my arm a certain way.
We found out that I had a viral infection, so my neutropenia wasn't as much of a concern as they originally thought. Since it was viral, the antibiotics weren't necessary, but we didn't find that out until it was time to leave. The antibiotics really upset my stomach, so they put me on isolation incase I developed CDIF. Since there was a risk, they said it could be deadly to give me anything to help my stomach. The lab came back and said that it was negative, though.
When they woke me up to take vitals the first night, my face was really swollen and I was itching. I had an allergic reaction to one of the antibiotics, so I had to stay awake the rest of the night to make sure I didn't have a second reaction to the replacement medication. It was honestly a little scary! I also had an allergic reaction to the tape they used, so apparently my body didn't like anything this week. I'm going to have to have a little talk with this body of mine...
Friday rolled around, and they finally said I could go home! I knew that I was getting out of there and the worst of it was over. I was wrong... there was one more thing. My nurse pushed my last medication too fast and caused bronchospasms. All of a sudden I couldn't breath right and I was coughing. It took about ten minutes for it to settle down.
My strength was tested this week, but my faith was not. I knew that God was with me the entire time. Even though it seemed like so many things went wrong, it still could have been worse. I'm not going to lie and say that I was never afraid, but every time I was scared, God comforted me. He sent people to be with me during my struggles. Caleb, my mom, and my dad were all with me and comforting me. They distracted me with laughter and held my hand. I was blessed with so many calls, texts, Facebook messages, and visits. Jesus was with me through you. He never left me. Thank you for all of the prayers and kind words.