My Adventure in the Emergency Room

I apologize for not having written for the past couple of days… I’ve been a little sick.

Wednesday night was terribly exciting, as I got to spend it in the Emergency Room!  Now, I might be kind of weird… No one really likes going to the ER, but whenever I return home from it, I usually think “Wow!  That was exciting!!” and have a pretty good attitude about it.  I mean, what could be more fun than being pushed around a hospital on a rolling bed???  Nevermind the pain, you’re getting a free ride!!  Well, not really free.  Hospital visits are expensive as (insert bad word).  So it wasn’t a completely horrible experience (as the hospital I went to is very nice), but I am very glad it’s over.

So, in order for me to tell the whole story, I’ll have to give you a little bit of history.  I’m hoping that sharing this will help those of you who may have had similar situations, or know someone who has.  

It all started last fall when I became pregnant.  My pregnancy progressed normally, with classic morning sickness, bloating, food aversions, food cravings, etc, etc.  There was a little concern about my blood-type being Rh-negative (where my blood could potentially attack my baby’s blood if the baby’s blood is Rh-positive), and the need for a rhogam shot (which would prevent my blood from attacking baby).  So my pregnancy was going along just fine, until around week 15 when I started spotting.  My doctor sent me to the Emergency Room in Riverside to get a Rhogam shot (just in case) and an ultra-sound (my first one) in order to figure out what was going on.  It turned out that I had a blighted ovum…. essentially I was pregnant, but with no baby.  The embryo never started developing, but my body continued to think it was pregnant.  I was pretty upset about it, because normally blighted ovums are diagnosed around 6-8 weeks.  I was 15 weeks.  

It took me about a month of bleeding/spotting before it was over.  I did regular blood tests to make sure my HCG levels dropped normally.  Then, about 2 months after everything was back to normal, I took another pregnancy test which came out positive.  I called a NEW doctor that had been recommended to me, explained my situation to them, and they got me in immediately.  They did an ultra-sound right away, and it turned out I had a blighted ovum AGAIN.  *sigh*  At this point, I wasn’t upset.  I think I just rolled my eyes and said “Not again….”  

They gave me a couple of weeks to see if I would pass all the tissue inside me naturally.  I did not, so they gave me some medication that would help my body expel it.  They also prescribed me vicodin, warning me that the cramps might get pretty bad.   So for the next week and a half, I had, basically, a really intense period.  The cramping didn’t get too bad… Just one or two nights of what I would describe as “the worst menstrual cramps I’ve ever had.” But they were bearable ….That is until a couple of days ago…. (Wednesday night)

Wednesday started off a very normal day.  Went to work, no problems.  Came home around 8:30p, relaxed, watched TV, played cards with my husband, David.  Then around 11pm, I started having some really bad lower back pain.  It felt almost like constipation or gas until the pain started spreading to my abdomen.  By 11:10, I took 2 of the prescribed vicodin, but it didn’t help.  I thought it probably had something to do with my blighted-ovum situation, but I wanted to make sure.  I called the on-call doctor (which I felt really badly about doing, because he had obviously been asleep), and he agreed with me… That this was to be expected from the medication I took.  He said I could go to the ER if I wanted to, but all they could do for me was pain management.  I was satisfied with that, and felt a little better after talking to the doctor, knowing it wasn’t really anything to worry about.  However, the pain kept getting worse.  It was so intense, that it was making me nauseous and causing me to throw up.  I’ve NEVER thrown up due to pain.

At that point, I decided to go next door to my parents, wake them up, and see if my mom had any stronger pain medication she could give me.  This was a very challenging endeavor because A) I could barely walk; and B) I HATE waking people up.  But I did it.  My mom gave me some medicine, along with an anti-nausea pill… Both of which, I of course, threw up immediately.  My dad suggested that if I was in that much pain, I should probably just go to the ER.  

So David and my mom drove to the ER at Loma Linda Murrieta with me curled up in the back seat.  We checked in at 1:05a, and waited for a while… It seemed a long time, but I honestly had no concept of time after that.  They eventually got me into a bed, and hooked me up to an IV for some blood draws (ouch).  They wheeled me in my bed (whee! yeah… that part was actually kind of fun) over to another room to do an ultra-sound to check up on my insides.  Things looked like they were progressing as they should (though apparently I had a small ovarian cyst?  They didn’t even mention it to me, I just noticed it on my discharge papers…. so hopefully not that big of an issue).  They brought me back to my room, where David and my mom were staying with me, and gave me some morphine for the pain.  It didn’t help the pain at all.  So they gave me another dose.  Yeah.  Morphine does jack-squat for me.  All it did was put funny images in my head (like, I think I remember a clown-face made completely out of yarn…).  So they gave me a different medication, dilaudid.  That worked.  They let me rest for a little while longer, and sent me home around 4:30am.  I went to bed, and woke up later that morning feeling very groggy/drugged, but very little pain.  I felt really badly about calling in for work that day, but I had no idea how I was going to be feeling later, plus I was exhausted!  Thankfully, the office assistant at work is awesome and completely understood.  

So I spent most of yesterday sleeping, taking a lovely (and partly drug-induced) 6-hour nap!  And today, I am feeling almost normal!  Hooray!  Just a little sleepy, but that’s what Starbucks is for, right?  🙂

Yeah!  So that was my exciting adventure in the Emergency Room.  It was a very nice hospital, and the staff was awesome.  Despite the pain I was in, I felt very well taken care of and very comfortable.  There was a lot of waiting, I guess, but I was so out of it, that I couldn’t really tell….

I kind of wish I had some kind of funny video to post of my silly drug-induced statements.  But from what my mom and David reported to me, the only funny thing I said was “Oh no!  The ballerina fell down the rabbit hole!”  David assured me that she was okay and that she was going to become good friends with Alice.  That made me feel much better.  Apparently, I was also very lovey…. Whenever David asked me something like “How are you feeling?”  I would respond with a sleepy “I love yooouuu!”  

Anyways, for any of you who have gone through a miscarriage, a blighted-ovum, or any other pregnancy difficulties, you are not alone!  Your experience will probably be crazy and emotional, but it will pass!  It may take some patience, so just hang in there.  Surround yourselves with people who love you, and try to take pleasure in the small things in life.  Like Starbucks.  Or flowers.  Or music. Or TV….  Or Starbucks.  🙂