For those of you who arent friends with my moma, here is the brief run-down of the last week and a half.... Friday before last I had a regular wound care apt at which point the nurse said she was concerned that the infection has spread to my bone and we did an x-ray. I got a call that afternoon saying it is probably in the bone and to go to urgent care. My blood sugar had spiked waaaaaay up high so they admitted me to ICU at Overlake so they could put me on an insulin drip. No keytones so I was not acidotic or feeling sick, thank god. After one night in the ICU they moved me to the regular floor where I stayed for almost a week. During that time they started me on IV antibiotics and gave me a PICC line so I can give them at home. When you get a PICC line they insert a catheter in your arm that goes all the way to the entryway to your heart. They then do a chest x-ray to make sure it is placed correctly before removing the wire. Incidentally they noticed on the chest xray what looked like a mass in my stomach. This prompted a upper GI and endoscopy (which meant 2 nights of fasting for over 12 hours while very nauseated). They thought there was a polyp in my esophagus and a beazor (i.e. mass of food or other stuff that cant be digested) in my stomach. I guess one thing that can help that is drinking a massive amount of diet coke. So after the upper GI but before the endoscopy I had to drink 12 mini diet coke cans in 12 hours....no fun. And turned out not needed anyway. No beazor. No polyp. Just a whole lot of food taking its sweet time to digest... something I already knew. But at least now I have a formal diagnosis of gastroperesis (neuropathy in stomach which causes slow digestion) and not just a hunch. Then to make life even more fun I was discharged on Thursday and back in the urgent care with breathing problems on Friday. This happened once before after a hospital stay... pleural effusion (i.e. fluid around my lungs) which causes crackling when you breathe, shortness of breath, and chest tightness. They kept me 24 hours for observation and decided that since my oxygen levels had returned to normal I could go home. That night (i.e. Saturday night) PJ, our oldest dog, had a series of grand mal seizures that lead to us having to make the sad decision to let him go. Long time coming but still no fun at all. Then after another night of gasping for air while trying to sleep I returned to the urgent care on Sunday. They pretty much said we know you are sick but we cant help you so go home. Come back if it gets worse. So what I understand so far is that the pleural effusion is due to excess fluid retention during my hospital stay, that my heart is not doing its job to get rid of the fluid like it should. I had an echo done today on my heart and see the cardiologist tomorrow. I am reserving fear about heart failure until i hear what the doc says tomorrow, as i have been told once before that I had congestive heart failure when i had these symptoms and it turned out not to be true. I also see the ortho and infectious disease docs together on Thursday to follow up with the foot, which seems far less scary compared to the difficult breathing and possible heart problems. Still not sure if I will get to keep the toe or not (its the opposite foot than last time). Anyhow for those of you that actually read all this, thank you for listening to my long rant! I am in fairly good spirits right now and just doing what I need to do to get better. I plan on keeping my work schedule if at all possible, so that will help me feel normal and productive. They gave me this crazy boot for walking that has only a heel so you dont put pressure on your toes. Its difficult to balance but it should help the wound heal quicker. Will post an update after I talk to the cardiologist tomorrow! Love you all and thanks for your support and love :-)
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 04:34:07 +0000
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