infection

so, i'm back at the hospital. i started to have increasing pain around my drain site on monday. as the day progressed, the pain got worse. by about 6pm i was at my friend heather's house (the nurse) getting her opinion. she said she thought i should page my on-call doctor. so i did. it took about an hour, but the doctor did call back, and he said that he thought i'd be okay till morning. another friend suggested that kj circle the part that was red around my drain (about a 2 inch circle) so that we could decide if the infection was spreading. by 9:30pm i was in so much pain, and starting to shake/shiver, so amy took me to the ER.

since i had already talked to the on-call doc, i didn't have to suffer in the ER as long as everyone else. they saw me within an hour, and decided that i should start an oral antibiotic and go see my doctor in the office at 8am. so, amy took me to the pharmacy to fill my prescription and then took me back home. i was home about midnight. by this time i was in so much pain that i was crying, and took my oxycodone for the first time since a few days after surgery.

i had a crappy night of sleep, and amy took me to the doctor in the morning (mom took the girls). when we got to the doctor, he was in surgery, but his fabulous nurse that i love took a look at me. she called dr. hijjawi in surgery and they decided to admit me for iv antibiotics. amy brought me to the hospital and they had me in a room about 9:30am. in lots of pain.

i wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything in case they need to do surgery to clean out the infection. so i was quite dehydrated, and my pain meds had run out at 8am. since i had the bilateral mastectomy, they don't like to use my arms for iv's. so they spent the next couple of hours trying to get an iv in my foot. which they couldn't do because i was dehydrated. which they couldn't fix because they couldn't give me any fluids by mouth, and they couldn't get an iv in. it was a vicious circle. after 3 hours of ridiculous amounts of pain (waaaaay worse than surgery, since surgery involved an epidural and a pain pump), they finally got the okay to use my arm for an iv. that went very well. at the same time, dr. hijjawi decided that i would not be having surgery yet, and i could eat and drink. so as they were doing the iv, they were able to give me pain meds, and order lunch for me.

by yesterday afternoon, i was feeling fairly decent. the pain meds were working, and i was comfortable in the bed. i wasn't able to walk around at all, because every time i moved it burned like i was being struck by lightening, but sitting still was fine. i had a bit more pain in the evening, but they gave me lots of meds that helped me sleep comfortably, so that was good.

today i have a lot of pain, but they do think the infection is getting better. and it can take 24-48 hours to start feeling better. the doctors are pretty sure i'll be going home tomorrow. i have had a ton of visitors already which is so nice. i'm pretty much never alone :) my nurses are awesome, too, so i'm doing well :)

thanks so much for all the good vibes and well wishes... i'll keep you up to date :)