Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Over and Done With

Dear Friends,
Boy has it been a roller coaster the past 20 hours or so. Last night I drank my contrast all over again like good girl, but right before I started I got horrible chills. And hour later I was burning up and in a cold sweat. My temperature had reached over 101 degrees. Just in case you didn't already know, the immune suppressing drugs I take make me not register fevers on a thermometer, so when it the thermometer registers a fever we're in trouble. Obviously, this infection inside this abscess was getting to me.
I woke up early in the morning with the migraine from hell. I couldn't stop throwing up, either. The nurses on the floor were having trouble getting my Imatrex for me, so I suffered for hours. The fever was still raging, too. When I got down to interventional radiology for my procedure (barfing all the way, I might add) the anesthesiologist said they wouldn't be able to do the procedure with me this sick. I could choke on my vomit, for one thing. So, they were able to assert their authority and at the last minute go me some Imatrex (which, thank you God, managed not to throw up). The anesthesiologist (a very, very sweet lady) also have me some pretty heavy narcotics and more Zofran, which took the edge off the pain and kept me from vomiting.
When I woke up my migraine was gone (woo hoo!) and the only pain I had to complain about was a dull throbbing on the right side of my rear. And apparently the procedure had lasted around 4 hours. For what reason I don't know, but I hear Rayne had a conniption and called my mom.
An external drain had been put in to drain the abscess. Now my chart says that the drain is in my lower back, but it lies because that thing is right in my, ahem, "sitting muscle". This is not cool. But, I'll do what it takes to end this abscess' reign of terror.
So here I am, feeling great because my migraine is gone and I've returned from my vacation in Barfopolis. Yeah, the drain hurts, but that will wear off soon. It's nothing compared to this morning's migraine. Nothing like the pain of a near aneurysm to put things in perspective, right? Right now I am actually waiting to go get some ultrasounds done. One of them is going to be painful, but I was promised morphine. And again, the perspective granted me by this morning's pain is doing me good.
Who knows what tomorrow will bring. Maybe I'll get to go home. I have no idea, but I'll be sure to keep you all updated.

Becca

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Well, sounds like you have been a busy girl! Glad you woke up pain free and I hope the drain gets to come before long. I'm sure it's not the most comfortable thing.