We thought things couldn't get worse...we were wrong. I've placed my photo at the end of this posting for your sake. I suggest that if you don't have a strong stomach, you do not look at it. If you do, you're welcome.
After having the fluid removed this past Wednesday we noticed I wasn't breathing very well. Friday night started the nightmare of this weekend. As I was going to sleep we noticed a crackling in my breathing. Every time I took a breath in, we could hear a bubbling type noise. My husband was so concerned he did not sleep all night. He just stared at me and researched fluid issues on line with regards to Hyper Stimulation. What he found was incredibly scary. During that evening, Dr. Google (aka Hubby), had diagnosed that I had fluid in my lungs and that I was basically drowning. He continually moved me all night and when I woke up we were off to the local doctor to get a chest X-ray. They couldn't take us right away so we decided to get me out for a walk so I wasn't sitting anymore. We went to the local farmers market, looking back, this is a little funny.
After some painful pressing on my abdomen and a listen to my lungs I was brought to the X-ray machine. As we were walking out of the room after the technician had done the test, he said "I'll be able to make you a copy of this for the hospital in 15 mins." We knew things did not go well. Turns out there was fluid in there for sure. Doctor handed us the X-rays and said "get to the ER now".
The rest of this story gets very scary and it includes 3 days at the hospital but I will try to give it to you quick. We get to the hospital (Cedar Sinai Medical Center - aka "that place that saved my life") and I'm brought right back to the room. Luckily we have a guardian angel at this hospital because a good friend of ours is a doctor there and he has called ahead for us. Blood is drawn and my D-dimer level is a whopping 5500. This is an incredibly scary number mainly because if your level is 500 or above it causes huge alarm that there could be a blood clot somewhere. My level is astronomical (you know me and my overachieving numbers) and at that point, I become an "important" patient. Let me tell you, this is not a list you want to be on in an ER.
The doctors and nurses went into action...a lot of movement most of which I do not remember. A nurse looks me straight in the eyes and tells me I MUST keep calm because the last thing they want is my blood pumping harder. This is a massive internal struggle as I have heard the words "pulmonary embolism" on TV and it is never ever a good thing. In fact, this is usually what they kill actors off with.
I'm brought in for a CT angiogram and after having a little trouble with getting the iodine thru my veins, the blood clot in my lung was ruled out. They decided this is the perfect moment to let me know that blood clots are the silent killer in the ER, cue massive anxiety attack. What I did have was pleural effusion, basically a fancy way of saying, I had fluids crushing my right lung. At this point we are very happy that I am not going to die...little did I know...they had to get this fluid out of me.
Upstairs I go. Over the next 3 days I'm watched carefully, blood thinners go in (I could still get a clot at this point and they want to take all precautions), my legs get checked for clots carefully with an ultrasound, all good there....and then....they remove the fluid. Let me start by saying that I am kept awake for this procedure. I never want to be awake for it ever again. I'm sure there is some horrible video you can find on youtube that will show you what they do. It includes a 3-4 inch needle that pokes thru my back into my lung cavity, and then things happen.... like some pumping to get the fluid out. This made me feel like someone was stealing the gasoline out of my car, only this was my body, and the man behind me was the fluid whisperer. (Side note: this doctor was amazing, probably the best guy in the nation at this specific procedure. We stayed in the hospital an extra day to have this guy do it.) My hubby, Dr. Google, was fascinated by this and took the picture below. I look incredibly sad, don't you think? Fluid out, tests come back normal, X-ray, I leave the hospital 9 hours after the procedure. Battle wounds: hole in back, massive bruises from the 4 attempts at putting an IV in, 5th ones a charm, mentally deflated.
The amazing news: we have 9 extremely healthy embryos chilling away on their Christmas vacation. This was all worth it - I can say this now because I'm alive thanks to Dr. Google.
WARNING***WARNING***WARNING
Potential vomit inducing pic below...enjoy:)
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