OB Triage and the Antepartum Unit

That's where Babe and I have landed ourselves...

I mentioned my stomach bug in my last weekly update, and I'm sad to say it's still lingering.  This is day 5.

When I paged the on-call doctor over the weekend he told me it would be best to go to the hospital then; I, however, felt like things were improving and didn't want to waste a trip to the hospital.  I woke up on Monday feeling less lethargic and more optimistic, but still had to run to the bathroom within minutes of eating or drinking anything, and had no appetite or thirst.  Casey and my mom urged me to at least call my doctor; and she told me to go to the hospital for IV fluids.  So Grammy left work to take over Lucy Duty (since Monday is usually Mommy and Lulu Day), and Casey and I got to the hospital around noon.  We were taken back to OB Triage right away; they examined me, gave me Zofran and Immodium, listened to Babe for over an hour, gave me IV fluids, and took blood for labs.  You have no idea how hard it is to say the phrase, "I haven't really been able to urinate..." when asked to produce a urine sample.  The hospital doctor came in just before 5:00 pm to review my blood test results.  In addition to being dehydrated, my Potassium levels were extremely low.  He called Dr. O, and they decided to keep me overnight for a Potassium IV and monitoring.  Casey left to grab some clothes and tooth brushes, and I was moved to the Antepartum Unit.

The room was spacious and much more comfortable than Triage.  (Seriously, Scottsdale Healthcare > Banner Good Samaritan.)  My Potassium IV was started shortly after, and that's when I died.  Kind of.  The nurse warned me that Potassium is one of the most painful medications to administer via IV, and that it might "sting a little".  (Oral medication was not an option because it can cause nausea and vomiting.)  I felt the Potassium as soon as the IV was started.  Normally, I consider my pain tolerance to be pretty high, but that Potassium turned me into the most pathetic thing.  I couldn't move my hand, I couldn't think, I could barely speak, and I even started shaking.  And it really sucked because my cell phone was dead and Casey wasn't back yet, so I was completely alone with the TV stuck on the channel guide - because my hand was immobilized from the pain.  It felt like my arm was on fire and every bone was being crushed.  I paged the nurse after 6 whole minutes, and she tried three different combinations of drip speeds and dilutions before finding something that wasn't completely miserable.  The plan was to have four bags administered over four hours, and then a blood draw two hours after the last bag.  Casey got back around 8:00 pm, and we spent the night watching movies and eating broth, as I've been restricted to a clear liquid diet.  My last bag of Potassium ended at 11:30 pm, had my blood drawn at 1:30 am, and a visit from Dr. O shortly after (she was in the hospital for a delivery).  She said if my levels were normal in the morning, I could be discharged first thing.

We woke up early, at 5:00 am, because Casey had to leave for work, and I started getting sick at 5:30.  Which was unexpected.  Like, really unexpected.  I've been sick four more times, and now I'm just hanging.  No one really knows what to do with me.  They're running more tests, and gave me more Zofran and Immodium.  Now we wait and see what Dr. O wants to do.  There's a chance I'll be here another night, and there's a chance I'll get discharged.  Will be sure to keep everyone updated!