7w, 5d
I have emerged from the near dead. The super short version is that I have OHSS (ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome) and the babies are perfectly fine, measuring a couple days ahead of schedule. And the long version, which will definitely be a good story to tell these kids in a couple years, is below. Highlights include visiting three different hospitals in the matter of 14 hours, riding in an airplane, and being transported by ambulance.
Tuesday (June 22) - On vacation. Woke up feeling fine. Around 9:00 I started feeling this incredible pain in my lower right side. Thought maybe I was miscarrying but then thought from what I have heard that is more of a cramping thing and this was certainly way worse than any cramping, more localized, and more burning. Whatever it was I knew it wasn't right. My parents were on vacation with us so we left the kids with them and DH took me to the hospital. (I threw up right before we left.) Pain escalated at the hospital into the worse pain I have ever experienced in my life. They took me immediately, stuck in an IV, and gave me Demerol. A few minutes later I screamed out that their drugs sucked. They gave me morphine. I felt a mild bit of relief for about 2 minutes and then the pain returned. They took some blood. They sent me to get an u/s. I laid on the table and screamed during the entire u/s from the pain I was in. I stopped screaming long enough to hear that they were listening for heartbeats and found them. I told the tech to stop, that I needed more drugs. They told me they were giving me delotid, which I guess is the best of the best. Said it would give me a head rush so don't get scared. I felt the head rush and a few minutes later felt complete relief. Vacation hospital was tiny and only two OBs there, only one on call at a time. Dr. Oprah* was around so he was going to stop in to see me. All the nurses raved about what a great guy he was. The pain came back. I screamed bloody murder some more. DH kept opening the door to my room so everyone could hear me and help me. More delotid. Pain went away. Dr. Oprah came in. He told me he didn't want to give me anymore narcotics because it was bad for the babies. At some point I said I didn't care about the babies currently because I was in so much pain and didn't want to die from that. Dr. Oprah said I had OHSS and he was going to send me home with percocet. Ovaries are supposed to be about 1.5 cm x 3.5 cm. My left ovary was slightly enlarged but my right ovary measured 7.5 cm x 13.5 cm. There was concern that my ovary could turn on itself and cut off blood supply so that was checked (and turned out okay) during pretty much every u/s I had in the fast 5 days. I told Dr. Oprah he was crazy for wanting to send me home because the pain was so intense there was no way I could go home. He went off to write the prescription to give me for home and the pain came back. I screamed for awhile. I threw up because it hurt so bad. Dr. Oprah decided he would admit me for the night. DH went home and my mom came to see me. She got to business calling everyone she knew in the medical community (she is personal friends with one of the OBs in my town) and all my doctors from back home and in the city where my RE is. The doctor on call from my RE said that narcotics were fine for me since the only concern is that the babies will get addicted but since it was so early in the pregnancy that wasn't even a concern. Started getting the idea that Dr. Oprah was insane. Had several pain episodes throughout that day that resulted in me screaming in pain, nurses giving me Zofran and delotid through my IV, me throwing up right after the delotid, and the pain eventually easing.
Wednesday (June 23) - The other OB was on duty, Dr. Wire*. He turned into a saint, particularly the more I saw Dr. Oprah. He told me that my blood work the day before showed my kidney function was only at 80% and that right there was enough info to admit me to get that straightened out. Not only was I dehydrated, but my sodium was low so even if they just pumped me full of liquids, since my sodium was out of whack the dehydration problem wouldn't be fixed. Also, was still suffering from the UTI I was diagnosed with last week. (Had problems peeing all day Tuesday.) For eight hours he doubled the rate at which whatever was in my IV bag was dripping into me. They gave me Zofran through my IV. I had several more pain episodes that were treated with Delotid. I threw up everything I ate or drank, but somehow I did feel better than I did Tuesday. Whole family stopped in for about 5 minutes (both parents, kids) and I threw up the moment they walked in the door. DS1 was fascinated with the contents of my barf bucket. I think it was at some point during this day that I told DH that whether this pregnancy worked out or not, I was done. No way am I trying this again.
Thursday (June 24) - Saw Dr. Wire again in the morning. Things seemed to be going better with pain, having less frequent episodes of screaming --> Delotid --> puking --> relief. He wasn't going to let me leave though until I could function like a human and do human things like eat food and drink water. Managed to do a little of both. By evening, felt a lot better. Dr. Oprah came on call. He called the nurses and told them to send me home without even seeing me or talking to me. This was 6 at night. Was he just sitting around waiting to be put on call so he could send me home? Nurse came in and took out my IV. I had taken a walk around the halls a few minutes before that and had to come back because my pain was starting to increase. No more than 5 minutes after the IV was out, the pain hit me and I was screaming in pain again. Dr. Oprah had also ordered no more IV drugs. They gave me Percocet, which I promptly threw up. They called Dr. Oprah who gave the go ahead to give me another IV and more Delotid. The pain had gotten so bad through all this, about 15 minutes after the Delotid I screamed at the nurse wondering if they had actually even given me anything because I was still in horrendous pain. Relief did come. About 20 minutes after that I was feeling better and DH went back to the beach house to send my mom over for a bit. As soon as he left a nurse came in to tell me that they just talked to Dr. Oprah and he said to send me home. My response was something along the lines of, "Are you fucking serious?" I'm telling you, this man was insane. A nurse aid came in to help me get dressed and someone took out my IV. I told her as soon as she started moving me the pain would come back and I would be screaming. She said, "Scream then if you need to scream." WTF?? Did she really just say that? Real easy to say when you're not the one in pain. I got my clothes changed. I called my mom. She told me not to leave that hospital. She called my RE. The RE on call called me and told me to tell Dr. Oprah to call her. By now it was 10 o'clock and still Dr. Oprah was saying that I should go home. Who in the world discharges patients at 10 at night? Actually, I think those were the exact words of my RE. Dr. Oprah talked with my RE and decided to let me stay, but said that they were not giving me another IV, only two percocet and an Ambien and sending me to bed. (I wonder if I should have taken Ambien while pregnant...) Also, they sent me for another u/s. DH got to go with me for the first time and heard the heartbeats for the first time. U/S showed that overall my ovary had gotten slightly smaller but the biggest of the cysts had actually grown. Since they were pretty much deciding not to treat me anymore, I told DH that if I got struck with pain again, to check me out and then take me downstairs to the emergency room where at least I would get assigned to a different dr temporarily enough so they could give me good drugs. (The next closest hospital was 1.5 hours away.) Went to bed with my percocet and Ambien. Woke up to pee and was completely confused, wondering if my pillow was properly shaped like a Japanese home and if the nurses were getting enough vitamin E. Drugs are awesome. Barely remember the situation, but woke up again in the middle of the night screaming in pain. Nurses couldn't really do much since Dr. Oprah gave the orders of no more pain medicine AT ALL. One nurse commented that my screaming was going to scare the little boy in the next room. Like I could help it. DH yelled down the hall at the nurses at some point, "Quit worrying about sending her home and get her something for the pain!" Dr. Oprah was called and he allowed them to give me a shot of Delotid in my butt. Went back to sleep.
Friday (June 25) - Dr. Oprah was on duty. I hate him. A plan had been placed to get me sent back home from vacation ASAP so I was happy to be leaving that hospital and that dumb dr. I begged Dr. Oprah to give me something that would actually work for the pain orally, just enough for a couple hours to get me home. He reluctantly gave me a prescription for 5 Oxycontin pills. DH went to refill the prescription and go home and sent my mom in to visit. I had another pain episode. It was the first one my mom witnessed. I screamed and thrashed around and threw up. They had just given me percocet. Dr. Oprah of course refused to give me more Delotid. They gave me Oxycontin. I worked really hard at concentrating on my breathing and talking myself through it and eventually all the drugs set in and the pain subsided. Didn't know it during the time but apparently while I was flipping out over pain, my mom started having an anxiety attack and almost threw up herself. I heard the nurses asking if my mom was okay. They were trying to kick me out of the hospital at that point but I told them I was staying until my evacuation plan started. They said they weren't going to treat me at all after that, that I could stay there but was pretty much on my own if I didn't feel well. Yeah, great establishment they were running. DH gave me some percocet and then we got the hell out of there. Went to a neighboring island where there is a small airport. Sat in the car for about an hour and waited. Finally FIL (father-in-law) showed up in a plane being flown by his complete weirdo of a friend, D. Somehow it all worked out. D runs his own airplane sales business so he can pretty much take time off whenever. FIL just returned from a church mission trip and had taken the extra day off to recover before heading back to work on Monday so he was available. I've only ridden in a small plane once. FIL and DH both fly so it was all no big deal for them. Add in the fact that I was going to be in the air for 3 hours with FIL and some weird man I never met and there was a big possibility I could be overtaken by pain suddenly so extreme that I could start screaming and throwing up while several thousand feet above the earth... yeah, wasn't looking forward to this at all. The plane was SMALL too. It was a four seater but squishing a fourth person in there would have been insane. For the entire three hours I just kept thinking that it was so much better than 11+ hours in a car. I did my best to sleep. Kept my eyes closed just about every second so I could take my head off to some other place. About halfway through the flight I opened my eyes long enough to realize that this plane was REALLY small, I was really high up, it was rather claustrophobic, I could be struck with pain at any minute, and I could completely flip out and there was absolutely nothing anyone could do. Popped another percocet. Eyes shut again. Back to my happy place. We landed at the small airport in my town. MIL (mother-in-law) was waiting for us there. D flew off and MIL and FIL took me back to my house. Oh, and I still hadn't showered through all of this. It had been since Monday afternoon that I showered. Came home and laid in bed, thought I would rest a bit before I showered. Pain started coming again. I took two percocet. I laid back down and waited for them to kick in. Nothing was happening. Started thinking about the immediate future of me screaming in pain and throwing up and poor MIL and FIL being there to witness it all. Told MIL that I wanted to go to the hospital. Thankfully the percocet did work somewhat so I was able to direct them on how to get there since they don't live around here. Went back to the ER. The nurse dude back there had a tough time trying to figure out where to put an IV in since I had been so poked up. They called in the dr on call from my OB office. Despite the fact that both me and my mom had told the dr's at the vacation hospital to check my appendix just in case that was the real problem, no one decided to check it until the dr at my local hospital suggested it. They needed to do a CT Scan, the problem being that it was going to expose me to a large amount of radiation (like 10 x-rays worth). All dr's agreed that checking out my appendix was worth the risk to the babies. I wasn't completely down with it but didn't want to die of a burst appendix either. I gave them the go ahead. Shortly after, the dr said there would be a hold up because the radiologist refused to do the test on a pregnant lady so there had to be a meeting of dr's so everyone could plead their case before moving forward. I am sure it was midnight by then so on to Saturday.
Saturday (June 26) - After the dr's met, they decided not to do the CT Scan. Instead they were going to do an u/s and see if they could find the appendix there. Then they might have to follow that up with an MRI. Off to the most horrible u/s I ever experienced. I think that the appendix would show up hard on the u/s if it was screwed up. Whatever the reason, the tech had to push extremely hard with her little u/s paddle thing all over my belly and side. It was rather uncomfortable, made extremely uncomfortable anytime she pushed over top of that giant ovary of mine. After about an hour of pushing, she was speaking with the dr on the phone. Said she never did find the appendix but everything she found was moving (I guess an appendix in bad shape wouldn't move) and she was rather certain the pain was from my ovary since I clearly showed that I was in pain every time she came near it. That was enough for the dr to rule out appendicitis. The on call dr from my OB came back in my ER room and told me that he felt the best thing to do was send me to the hospital in the city where my RE is located since no one here has experience with OHSS. There is no stimulating of ovaries in this county, so no real knowledge of what to do when they get hyperstimulated. It would be a little bit before they arranged transportation. FIL went out to the car to get some sleep. MIL hung out with me and fell asleep in the chair. I tried to rest but it just wasn't happening. Finally around 4:30 am, two ambulance people showed up. They were scary people. MIL had said that she would just go back to my house with FIL so they could get rested and I could go in the ambulance alone and they would see me sometime in the morning at the other hospital. I wasn't crazy about riding alone with these two weird people but just went along with it. They strapped me to a gurney and loaded me into an ambulance. I started laughing to myself because the entire day was just so messed up. Stupid vacation hospital. Scary airplane ride. Off to my third hospital in 14 hours. And now I was being loaded into an ambulance?!?! It was like a movie because it obviously couldn't be my actual life. Then I got to enjoy the 45 minute ride to the other hospital while the driver (who had a slicked back mullet and huge mustache) blared his really awful country music. Finally at 5:30 am I was in my new hospital room and so ready to sleep. I slept for maybe 4 hours and kept getting interrupted by nurses and a doctor from my RE's office. The RE dr told me they were going to avoid giving me anymore fluids because I could start retaining fluids in other parts of my body and I seemed hydrated. Basically she told me to spend my day resting, trying to eat and drink as much as possible, and to take at least 3 walks. I ordered a high protein breakfast and ate a ton, probably because it was the first real meal I had had in five days. (Someone from the half a uterus message board I am on said their dr suggested a high protein diet if you have OHSS, and also heard it is good for cooking twins longer.) MIL and FIL showed up and then I promptly left for an u/s. Between waiting for the u/s tech and the actual u/s, it took over 2 hours. The tech couldn't figure out which was my right and which was my left ovary since my right was so large it squished into the left and made them look like one giant ovary. A dr had to come in and figure it out. Both babies looked fine. Heartbeats were fine, clocking in at 160 and 167. I got new pictures. Back at the room I was in pain and really sleepy. Got something for pain eventually but I think it was several hours later. I took a walk with MIL at some point. FIL and MIL went off to the cafeteria to get something to eat and let me rest. I slept and then they woke me up when they came back. I was a bit irritated over that, didn't feel well, was tired, and was kinda tired of feeling like I had to entertain my IL's. They said something about maybe going back to my house and I was too nice and didn't tell them to leave. They left anyway. Eventually I started feeling really good and FINALLY took my first shower in about a week. Heavenly. In the evening I tried to eat dinner but didn't do quite as good with that. I talked to my sister. My blind friend B came to visit me which was really nice. He took me on another walk. I noticed that my belly is getting quite big which is totally from my giant ovaries and not from being pregnant. Then I went to bed and slept for over 11 hours. Amazing. All during this DH, the kids, and my parents left vacation and made the super long drive home. They got home after 9 though so it wasn't like they were going to get a chance to visit me.
Sunday (June 27) - Two dr's from my RE visited me this morning. They said it was time to send me home. They prescribed me some different pain for meds since the one dr wasn't keen on giving percocet to a pregnant chick. DH came to the hospital and helped get me ready to go. I got home around noonish. DS2 was excited to see me and gave me a huge hug. DS1 cried when DH told him to hug me. Most excited was my pup who clung to my leg the moment I walked in and was just bursting with love that I came back. As soon as I sat on the couch, she jumped up on my lap. I am thinking a 65 lb dog on my lap is not good for recovery. Spent the day napping, eating, and trying not to lay down too much because I am paranoid about blood clots in my legs. I threw up this afternoon but it was somehow a welcome thing because I knew it was completely related to the fact that I am pregnant and have morning sickness and nothing else. Dr orders are to not do much of anything, but try not to stay in bed either to avoid blood clots. Best of all, I haven't taken a lick of pain meds today!
*names have been changed
Tuesday (June 22) - On vacation. Woke up feeling fine. Around 9:00 I started feeling this incredible pain in my lower right side. Thought maybe I was miscarrying but then thought from what I have heard that is more of a cramping thing and this was certainly way worse than any cramping, more localized, and more burning. Whatever it was I knew it wasn't right. My parents were on vacation with us so we left the kids with them and DH took me to the hospital. (I threw up right before we left.) Pain escalated at the hospital into the worse pain I have ever experienced in my life. They took me immediately, stuck in an IV, and gave me Demerol. A few minutes later I screamed out that their drugs sucked. They gave me morphine. I felt a mild bit of relief for about 2 minutes and then the pain returned. They took some blood. They sent me to get an u/s. I laid on the table and screamed during the entire u/s from the pain I was in. I stopped screaming long enough to hear that they were listening for heartbeats and found them. I told the tech to stop, that I needed more drugs. They told me they were giving me delotid, which I guess is the best of the best. Said it would give me a head rush so don't get scared. I felt the head rush and a few minutes later felt complete relief. Vacation hospital was tiny and only two OBs there, only one on call at a time. Dr. Oprah* was around so he was going to stop in to see me. All the nurses raved about what a great guy he was. The pain came back. I screamed bloody murder some more. DH kept opening the door to my room so everyone could hear me and help me. More delotid. Pain went away. Dr. Oprah came in. He told me he didn't want to give me anymore narcotics because it was bad for the babies. At some point I said I didn't care about the babies currently because I was in so much pain and didn't want to die from that. Dr. Oprah said I had OHSS and he was going to send me home with percocet. Ovaries are supposed to be about 1.5 cm x 3.5 cm. My left ovary was slightly enlarged but my right ovary measured 7.5 cm x 13.5 cm. There was concern that my ovary could turn on itself and cut off blood supply so that was checked (and turned out okay) during pretty much every u/s I had in the fast 5 days. I told Dr. Oprah he was crazy for wanting to send me home because the pain was so intense there was no way I could go home. He went off to write the prescription to give me for home and the pain came back. I screamed for awhile. I threw up because it hurt so bad. Dr. Oprah decided he would admit me for the night. DH went home and my mom came to see me. She got to business calling everyone she knew in the medical community (she is personal friends with one of the OBs in my town) and all my doctors from back home and in the city where my RE is. The doctor on call from my RE said that narcotics were fine for me since the only concern is that the babies will get addicted but since it was so early in the pregnancy that wasn't even a concern. Started getting the idea that Dr. Oprah was insane. Had several pain episodes throughout that day that resulted in me screaming in pain, nurses giving me Zofran and delotid through my IV, me throwing up right after the delotid, and the pain eventually easing.
Wednesday (June 23) - The other OB was on duty, Dr. Wire*. He turned into a saint, particularly the more I saw Dr. Oprah. He told me that my blood work the day before showed my kidney function was only at 80% and that right there was enough info to admit me to get that straightened out. Not only was I dehydrated, but my sodium was low so even if they just pumped me full of liquids, since my sodium was out of whack the dehydration problem wouldn't be fixed. Also, was still suffering from the UTI I was diagnosed with last week. (Had problems peeing all day Tuesday.) For eight hours he doubled the rate at which whatever was in my IV bag was dripping into me. They gave me Zofran through my IV. I had several more pain episodes that were treated with Delotid. I threw up everything I ate or drank, but somehow I did feel better than I did Tuesday. Whole family stopped in for about 5 minutes (both parents, kids) and I threw up the moment they walked in the door. DS1 was fascinated with the contents of my barf bucket. I think it was at some point during this day that I told DH that whether this pregnancy worked out or not, I was done. No way am I trying this again.
Thursday (June 24) - Saw Dr. Wire again in the morning. Things seemed to be going better with pain, having less frequent episodes of screaming --> Delotid --> puking --> relief. He wasn't going to let me leave though until I could function like a human and do human things like eat food and drink water. Managed to do a little of both. By evening, felt a lot better. Dr. Oprah came on call. He called the nurses and told them to send me home without even seeing me or talking to me. This was 6 at night. Was he just sitting around waiting to be put on call so he could send me home? Nurse came in and took out my IV. I had taken a walk around the halls a few minutes before that and had to come back because my pain was starting to increase. No more than 5 minutes after the IV was out, the pain hit me and I was screaming in pain again. Dr. Oprah had also ordered no more IV drugs. They gave me Percocet, which I promptly threw up. They called Dr. Oprah who gave the go ahead to give me another IV and more Delotid. The pain had gotten so bad through all this, about 15 minutes after the Delotid I screamed at the nurse wondering if they had actually even given me anything because I was still in horrendous pain. Relief did come. About 20 minutes after that I was feeling better and DH went back to the beach house to send my mom over for a bit. As soon as he left a nurse came in to tell me that they just talked to Dr. Oprah and he said to send me home. My response was something along the lines of, "Are you fucking serious?" I'm telling you, this man was insane. A nurse aid came in to help me get dressed and someone took out my IV. I told her as soon as she started moving me the pain would come back and I would be screaming. She said, "Scream then if you need to scream." WTF?? Did she really just say that? Real easy to say when you're not the one in pain. I got my clothes changed. I called my mom. She told me not to leave that hospital. She called my RE. The RE on call called me and told me to tell Dr. Oprah to call her. By now it was 10 o'clock and still Dr. Oprah was saying that I should go home. Who in the world discharges patients at 10 at night? Actually, I think those were the exact words of my RE. Dr. Oprah talked with my RE and decided to let me stay, but said that they were not giving me another IV, only two percocet and an Ambien and sending me to bed. (I wonder if I should have taken Ambien while pregnant...) Also, they sent me for another u/s. DH got to go with me for the first time and heard the heartbeats for the first time. U/S showed that overall my ovary had gotten slightly smaller but the biggest of the cysts had actually grown. Since they were pretty much deciding not to treat me anymore, I told DH that if I got struck with pain again, to check me out and then take me downstairs to the emergency room where at least I would get assigned to a different dr temporarily enough so they could give me good drugs. (The next closest hospital was 1.5 hours away.) Went to bed with my percocet and Ambien. Woke up to pee and was completely confused, wondering if my pillow was properly shaped like a Japanese home and if the nurses were getting enough vitamin E. Drugs are awesome. Barely remember the situation, but woke up again in the middle of the night screaming in pain. Nurses couldn't really do much since Dr. Oprah gave the orders of no more pain medicine AT ALL. One nurse commented that my screaming was going to scare the little boy in the next room. Like I could help it. DH yelled down the hall at the nurses at some point, "Quit worrying about sending her home and get her something for the pain!" Dr. Oprah was called and he allowed them to give me a shot of Delotid in my butt. Went back to sleep.
Friday (June 25) - Dr. Oprah was on duty. I hate him. A plan had been placed to get me sent back home from vacation ASAP so I was happy to be leaving that hospital and that dumb dr. I begged Dr. Oprah to give me something that would actually work for the pain orally, just enough for a couple hours to get me home. He reluctantly gave me a prescription for 5 Oxycontin pills. DH went to refill the prescription and go home and sent my mom in to visit. I had another pain episode. It was the first one my mom witnessed. I screamed and thrashed around and threw up. They had just given me percocet. Dr. Oprah of course refused to give me more Delotid. They gave me Oxycontin. I worked really hard at concentrating on my breathing and talking myself through it and eventually all the drugs set in and the pain subsided. Didn't know it during the time but apparently while I was flipping out over pain, my mom started having an anxiety attack and almost threw up herself. I heard the nurses asking if my mom was okay. They were trying to kick me out of the hospital at that point but I told them I was staying until my evacuation plan started. They said they weren't going to treat me at all after that, that I could stay there but was pretty much on my own if I didn't feel well. Yeah, great establishment they were running. DH gave me some percocet and then we got the hell out of there. Went to a neighboring island where there is a small airport. Sat in the car for about an hour and waited. Finally FIL (father-in-law) showed up in a plane being flown by his complete weirdo of a friend, D. Somehow it all worked out. D runs his own airplane sales business so he can pretty much take time off whenever. FIL just returned from a church mission trip and had taken the extra day off to recover before heading back to work on Monday so he was available. I've only ridden in a small plane once. FIL and DH both fly so it was all no big deal for them. Add in the fact that I was going to be in the air for 3 hours with FIL and some weird man I never met and there was a big possibility I could be overtaken by pain suddenly so extreme that I could start screaming and throwing up while several thousand feet above the earth... yeah, wasn't looking forward to this at all. The plane was SMALL too. It was a four seater but squishing a fourth person in there would have been insane. For the entire three hours I just kept thinking that it was so much better than 11+ hours in a car. I did my best to sleep. Kept my eyes closed just about every second so I could take my head off to some other place. About halfway through the flight I opened my eyes long enough to realize that this plane was REALLY small, I was really high up, it was rather claustrophobic, I could be struck with pain at any minute, and I could completely flip out and there was absolutely nothing anyone could do. Popped another percocet. Eyes shut again. Back to my happy place. We landed at the small airport in my town. MIL (mother-in-law) was waiting for us there. D flew off and MIL and FIL took me back to my house. Oh, and I still hadn't showered through all of this. It had been since Monday afternoon that I showered. Came home and laid in bed, thought I would rest a bit before I showered. Pain started coming again. I took two percocet. I laid back down and waited for them to kick in. Nothing was happening. Started thinking about the immediate future of me screaming in pain and throwing up and poor MIL and FIL being there to witness it all. Told MIL that I wanted to go to the hospital. Thankfully the percocet did work somewhat so I was able to direct them on how to get there since they don't live around here. Went back to the ER. The nurse dude back there had a tough time trying to figure out where to put an IV in since I had been so poked up. They called in the dr on call from my OB office. Despite the fact that both me and my mom had told the dr's at the vacation hospital to check my appendix just in case that was the real problem, no one decided to check it until the dr at my local hospital suggested it. They needed to do a CT Scan, the problem being that it was going to expose me to a large amount of radiation (like 10 x-rays worth). All dr's agreed that checking out my appendix was worth the risk to the babies. I wasn't completely down with it but didn't want to die of a burst appendix either. I gave them the go ahead. Shortly after, the dr said there would be a hold up because the radiologist refused to do the test on a pregnant lady so there had to be a meeting of dr's so everyone could plead their case before moving forward. I am sure it was midnight by then so on to Saturday.
Saturday (June 26) - After the dr's met, they decided not to do the CT Scan. Instead they were going to do an u/s and see if they could find the appendix there. Then they might have to follow that up with an MRI. Off to the most horrible u/s I ever experienced. I think that the appendix would show up hard on the u/s if it was screwed up. Whatever the reason, the tech had to push extremely hard with her little u/s paddle thing all over my belly and side. It was rather uncomfortable, made extremely uncomfortable anytime she pushed over top of that giant ovary of mine. After about an hour of pushing, she was speaking with the dr on the phone. Said she never did find the appendix but everything she found was moving (I guess an appendix in bad shape wouldn't move) and she was rather certain the pain was from my ovary since I clearly showed that I was in pain every time she came near it. That was enough for the dr to rule out appendicitis. The on call dr from my OB came back in my ER room and told me that he felt the best thing to do was send me to the hospital in the city where my RE is located since no one here has experience with OHSS. There is no stimulating of ovaries in this county, so no real knowledge of what to do when they get hyperstimulated. It would be a little bit before they arranged transportation. FIL went out to the car to get some sleep. MIL hung out with me and fell asleep in the chair. I tried to rest but it just wasn't happening. Finally around 4:30 am, two ambulance people showed up. They were scary people. MIL had said that she would just go back to my house with FIL so they could get rested and I could go in the ambulance alone and they would see me sometime in the morning at the other hospital. I wasn't crazy about riding alone with these two weird people but just went along with it. They strapped me to a gurney and loaded me into an ambulance. I started laughing to myself because the entire day was just so messed up. Stupid vacation hospital. Scary airplane ride. Off to my third hospital in 14 hours. And now I was being loaded into an ambulance?!?! It was like a movie because it obviously couldn't be my actual life. Then I got to enjoy the 45 minute ride to the other hospital while the driver (who had a slicked back mullet and huge mustache) blared his really awful country music. Finally at 5:30 am I was in my new hospital room and so ready to sleep. I slept for maybe 4 hours and kept getting interrupted by nurses and a doctor from my RE's office. The RE dr told me they were going to avoid giving me anymore fluids because I could start retaining fluids in other parts of my body and I seemed hydrated. Basically she told me to spend my day resting, trying to eat and drink as much as possible, and to take at least 3 walks. I ordered a high protein breakfast and ate a ton, probably because it was the first real meal I had had in five days. (Someone from the half a uterus message board I am on said their dr suggested a high protein diet if you have OHSS, and also heard it is good for cooking twins longer.) MIL and FIL showed up and then I promptly left for an u/s. Between waiting for the u/s tech and the actual u/s, it took over 2 hours. The tech couldn't figure out which was my right and which was my left ovary since my right was so large it squished into the left and made them look like one giant ovary. A dr had to come in and figure it out. Both babies looked fine. Heartbeats were fine, clocking in at 160 and 167. I got new pictures. Back at the room I was in pain and really sleepy. Got something for pain eventually but I think it was several hours later. I took a walk with MIL at some point. FIL and MIL went off to the cafeteria to get something to eat and let me rest. I slept and then they woke me up when they came back. I was a bit irritated over that, didn't feel well, was tired, and was kinda tired of feeling like I had to entertain my IL's. They said something about maybe going back to my house and I was too nice and didn't tell them to leave. They left anyway. Eventually I started feeling really good and FINALLY took my first shower in about a week. Heavenly. In the evening I tried to eat dinner but didn't do quite as good with that. I talked to my sister. My blind friend B came to visit me which was really nice. He took me on another walk. I noticed that my belly is getting quite big which is totally from my giant ovaries and not from being pregnant. Then I went to bed and slept for over 11 hours. Amazing. All during this DH, the kids, and my parents left vacation and made the super long drive home. They got home after 9 though so it wasn't like they were going to get a chance to visit me.
Sunday (June 27) - Two dr's from my RE visited me this morning. They said it was time to send me home. They prescribed me some different pain for meds since the one dr wasn't keen on giving percocet to a pregnant chick. DH came to the hospital and helped get me ready to go. I got home around noonish. DS2 was excited to see me and gave me a huge hug. DS1 cried when DH told him to hug me. Most excited was my pup who clung to my leg the moment I walked in and was just bursting with love that I came back. As soon as I sat on the couch, she jumped up on my lap. I am thinking a 65 lb dog on my lap is not good for recovery. Spent the day napping, eating, and trying not to lay down too much because I am paranoid about blood clots in my legs. I threw up this afternoon but it was somehow a welcome thing because I knew it was completely related to the fact that I am pregnant and have morning sickness and nothing else. Dr orders are to not do much of anything, but try not to stay in bed either to avoid blood clots. Best of all, I haven't taken a lick of pain meds today!
*names have been changed
Labels: Ambien, delotid, demerol, ectopic pregnancy, morphine, ovaran cysts, Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, oxycontin, Percocet, twins, unicornuate uterus, unicornuate uterus twin pregnancy, Zofran
posted by AM | 2:18 PM
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