THE STORY

Here I sit after waking up from a 5 hour nap which has given me more sleep than I got during the whole hospital stay and I thought I would try and get some of this down before going back to bed.

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Well, I was still sick with what I thought was the FLU Monday morning when I woke up and I knew I couldn't be off work ANOTHER day without a doctors note, so I said Damn, I gotta go in anyway. So I called the Doc's office and they told me to come on it and they would work me in quick as they could.

So I dressed and tried to wake Paulius but he was in a dead sleep, having been up very late that night/morning before. He's having a battle with his insomnia for the past few weeks again and grabs sleep when ever his body will co-operate. Anyway, It's just a 10 minute ride to my doc's office anyway so I thought...I can make it THAT far! So I wrote Paulius a note and off I drove....slowly, to be sure, but steadily.

So I arrived and went inside and signed in.
And sat there for 40 minutes. I hadn't been sitting up for more than 5 minutes at a time for a WEEK before going to Docs......I finally went up and asked could they PLEASE put me in back cause i felt like i was about to pass out and before I could turn around and sit down, I WAS out like a light.
Needless to say as soon as I came round I was IN the back.
Doc asked what was up and i told him I thought I have the flu- and since I was in there could he please check for a UTI as well since a couple weeks before, I had thought I was having a few symptoms, but they had went away just before i got sick with the flu. Me, I thought I was trying to get a two-fer since you usually had to make a separate appointment for each pain you had. But I have a FEW special privileges there and sometimes can get by with a freebie like that.
Good thing I did because with the FLU a urine specimen isn't a requirement and he wouldn't have caught the REAL problem without one. I would probably be dead now.

But he did and he sent me STRAIGHT to the hospital to be admitted for a couple days because he said I DEFINATELY had a UTI and IT was making me sick- not the FLU.

As soon as I got there in a room I was hooked up o an IV and then I had to drink this God-Awful drink they lovingly call "Crystal Lite". I think a more appropriate title would be PUTRIFIED ARSE-SWEAT.
But I drank it and was sick for HOURS after.
Anyway, it was the stuff you have to drink for a CT Scan. They did one on my abdominal area and THAT is the next mornings meeting the doctor and us had that you read about on Pauls blog.....

Hospital stay?....I was one VERY sick little girl, the food was horrible, they had nightmares trying to find veins to put the IV in and even then the veins kept collapsing and had to be changed again and again.......but the nurses were Divine taking care of me.

Then, Thursday morning....


My hospitalist came in and said my temp had been to normal for 24 hours and my blood work was still improving every day with the fluids and the meds I was getting, so another couple of days ought to have me looking good enough to go home....unless I felt like going home today.......(At this point he chuckled as if it were a joke) and the looked shocked when I asked... " Can I PLEASE? I would LOVE to go home today."

So he thought a minute and said are you sure you can handle it at home? and then he told me he would allow me to go home IF..1) I continued to take the oral version of the drugs I was getting there 2)I took it easy for the next two weeks til I was completely back up to speed and 3) if I developed a fever I would come right back in 4) he went to look at my vitals and meds that had been ordered and I was clear and looking good on those as well.

So I agreed and asked could I get a note for work for light duty for a week and he was about to call all bets off when I told him I was on A/B shift and I only had to work 2 days next week and with a light duty note I could EASILY handle that.

So he finally agreed and went off to do the paper work for my release and hen they came in to take my vitals TWICE while he was gone to do that. All it would have taken was a fever of more than a degree and it would have been a deal breaker...I was on pins and needles, let me tell you. I also had to get one more bag of antibiotics before I could leave.
Paul laughed at me- said he had never seen someone smile about being able to go HOME like I did.

I did have one scare while there tho......other than the instance where Doc said my Cat Scan was horrendous, that is........ I had a reaction to one of the IV antibiotics I was receiving and they had to rush in with IV Benadryl to keep me from going antiphylactic on them...... I was itching all over and burning and my lips swelled up so much I knew how Ms Jolie must feel every day. By the time they got there I was having problems breathing as well, So they RAN to get the Benadryl and got it in my quickly.

But thank God....I'm home now and will be glad when this week is done with and nothing but a bad memory.

I did have a couple of sweet moments that I have to tell you about tho.....this morning Paul and I was sitting in the hospital room and I got thinking and I asked Paulius, "WHY does all these bad things just KEEP happening to us?"
Then I just totally broke down and burst into tears. Paul was INSTANTLY across that room and had me in his arms and was holding me while I cried.
I felt so safe and secure there and finally calmed down a bit.
God, I love him so much! He's been my ROCK! My entire family has helped us remendously during this time- and many, many, many thanks and all my love to them all.

Anyway... I'm at the end of my strength now again y'all...so I'm off to bed again.

Later yall....