These are perilous days I am experiencing!
My morning started out well. Blake and I both slept in, surprisingly, til 10:45am! I woke with a slight headache but no pain otherwise. We had our typical morning routine and got ready to leave for Lodi. Mom arrived to pick us up at 2pm and I took some of my daily pills with a bit of juice and my sandwich.
By the time we drove across town, getting ready to hit the back roads, I was getting quite nauseated. Mom had to run into the store and I laid back in the truck with the air conditioner blowing cold onto my face. 10 minutes later, we were sitting at a stop light and we decided that I needed to go home because I was feeling so much worse: Major nausea and a growing headache. She made the left turn and turned directly into the gas station as she turned toward home. I motioned for her to roll down the window as we sat at the next red light. Within seconds of the window being all the way down, I completely lost my lunch, projecting it 2 feet into the next lane. {Thinking about this later, I realized I hadn't checked beforehand to see if there was a car there!}Luckily for any potential driver there was no one! The light turned green and 100 ft down the road, I went again! She turned back into the grocery parkinglot and parked as I hurled another time... My truck door on the outside was a disgusting mess. I continued to gag and heave with nothing else coming out. I wiped my face, we cancelled our trip to Lodi, and I took an antinausea and started munching on glucose tabs. Now we had to prepare for a low. I had 4 units of active insulin on board but no sugar for that to team up with. We started toward home once more. 2.5 miles down the road, my bloodsugar was at 60. Instead of just treating the low, I decided that mom would inject me with 1/3rd of a glucagon shot. We don't like to do the whole syrenge because of the extreme nausea and spike to the bloodsugar of between 300-400 points.
She then Flew down N.Orchard Ave at 50mph, slightly tailgating the person in front of her til they moved (wisely) out of our way =) She turned into the fire station by my house and ran inside. I checked my level again and was at 59blood sugar. I wanted the hospital because with all the insulin on board, I needed to make sure I had sugar in me and with that side effect of nausea, I feared that I wouldn't be able to keep anything down. This was a very dangerous situation. I was taken by ambulance to the hospital with Mom, Blake, Joseph and later Dad meeting me there. I was dealing with extreme nausea still and dizzyness from the low. My headache was building and my foot pain was beginning. In a fairly good amount of time, I was given the medications I needed for my headache. At this time, the headache was my 'main complaint', since at that time my bloodsugar was around 90 and they no longer considered me as being low. Blood was drawn, doctor came in and went out. Mom and Dad left with Blake to keep him for the night.
While waiting for my headache to leave, I checked my levels again and finally spiked to 175. My foot pain increased and we asked for ice packs to help. I expected the medication they gave me previously to kick in and help my foot without needing more. Finally I got to the point of moaning and groaning, writhing and nearly crying from the pain. Joseph went to ask for medication. We had been in the hospital for about 1 hour 30 minutes at this point. The ice packs didn't come for at least 30 minutes and the medication at least twice that time. By then, Joseph had gone out multiple times to bug the nurse and I was bawling and writhing all over the bed. This pain was immense and rubbing my leg only kept the throbbing from killing me completely. Another nurse came to help and gave me my second dose. She told me to try and relax to help the pain. I held my screaming and sarcastic reply at bay and kept my wet eyes shut as I continued to roll around the bed and move my leg up and down the sheet. That second dose didn't do a darn thing. 45 Minutes later I got a new nurse. He came in and as I was crying and rolling around, CLEARLY in tons of pain, he asked how I was feeling, if I was feeling any better. I told him my pain was at a level 15 and I needed more drugs. He went to ask the doctor. Joseph stood out in the hall after 15 minutes and couldn't see the guy anywhere. He finally came back after being gone 30 minutes and was able to get another dose in me 10 minutes after that. He stayed in the room and after a few minutes he said, "Is it not helping?" NO YOU NINCOMPOOP! I'm still moaning and groaning and moving all over the place unable to keep any kind of still OF COURSE it isn't helping. So he went out and after another 45 minutes of Joseph rubbing my leg best he could, the med finally took the pain out of my thigh. He came in a while later and said the doctor was ready to release me and that they would give me another dose before I left. I couldn't believe I was in this much pain, with medication that barely worked, and were going to send me home! Yes, Joseph and I were ready to go to the comforts of home, but my pain level was insisting otherwise. Another half hour passed and the fellow came in to give me my last dose of medication. He released me 15 minutes later. He took out the IV and put the gauze and tape on it. When I went to get into the wheelchair, my sleeve had a huge blood spot where the blood from the IV site had soaked through the gauze. We had the nurse come back and give me more gauze..
We drove to the nearest car wash to get the nasty off my truck. It wasn't super effective so Joseph used the windshield washer thingy to scrub my running boards and door. I was nauseated again because I wasn't given another dose of anti nausea to combat the side effect of the pain med so I took my own antinausea that I always keep on hand. We got home and I had a bowl of cereal since I was now at 95 after dropping from that previous number in the hospital of 175 and the nurse gave me a juice before leaving. Hopefully that bowl of cereal will be enough to get me up so I don't have to worry about lows tonight.
It has been a long day and 4 hours in the hospital was good enough.
4 doses of Dilauded in me and I feel the pain coming back now.
It is time for Tylenol, and early dose of Methadone, and ice packs.
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