Hey everyone, thanks for all the well-wishings over on Facebook, through emails, and over the phone. Here's a short version of what's going on... I'm pregnant.
Okay, kidding aside, I woke up last Saturday and coughed up blood a few times. However, I felt fine so I hope it was just a fluke. You know, like peeing out of your ears, or inhaling through your thumb.
I went to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books Saturday morning and attended a couple of panels, and around 1:30pm I just felt generally uncomfortable, so I headed home and got some lunch.
After I ate, I started feeling really short of breath, and so I called a friend to take me to the hospital. I thought I'd just drive myself, but I just had a tire fixed and the car had been feeling wobbly on the way back home from UCLA.
Once we got to the hospital, it took about an hour to see a doctor in the ER, another hour to get checked out and have an xray, and then another hour in the waiting room while they checked things over. They finally called me back and put me in a room with about four other beds, each separated by curtains. A doctor visits me, I get a shot for the pain (thankfully) and they tell me that they're going to do an EKG and a cat-scan, but that they're pretty sure I have a blood clot on my lung.
Okay, what?!
Anyhow, I get the tests done, which takes a couple of hours, have a breathing treatment where I breathe this white fog stuff (one of my lungs had become partially deflated) and then they told me yes, the cat-scan confirmed blood clots. On both of my lungs.
So, they admitted me to the hospital, and I was checked into an extremely dingy, narrow room so they could run more tests. Since Saturday I've had blood drawn at least 20 times, had a chest x-ray each morning, had several ultrasounds, and three breathing treatments each day. Oh, plus I am hooked up to oxygen, a heart monitor, and two IVs with drips containing antibiotics, blood thinners, and saline.
Also, they have me on several meds; a painkiller (which I can request every 2 hours, wahoo), anti-nausea meds (because of the painkillers), and some sort of stomach meds because of all the other meds. Oh, and an oral blood thinner in addition to the one I have via IV.
Fun, right? Anyhow, I've been confined to bed and unable to get up. Which also means unable to shower. Which means I got a sponge bath the other day. I wish I could say they had a celebrity lingerie model charity sponge bath service here, but they don't.
I've been hearing from doctors (4 or 5) the whole time, and no, they don't know how they all formed. They all kept asking if I'd flown anytime recently, because you can develop blood clots on long flights, but I had only taken a short flight to Austin in March. Then they thought I might have a genetic history of blood clots, which I don't, nor does my immediate family.
Which is why I've been getting tons of blood tests. They're trying to rule out the genetic factor. If they do, I only have to take blood thinners for six months. If they don't, I might have to take them the rest of my life. Yikes. We've heard back from some of the genetic tests, and so far they've all been negative, which is good.
Now, I told them I'm a writer, and sometimes I'm in the same position for long periods of time. They said that could definitely have caused it, so for everyone else out there in one position each day, remember to break it up with walks and stretches! I tended not to do that because of all the freelancing I'm doing. Aye carumba.
Anyhow, on Wednesday morning I had my oxygen tube off, and they asked if I took it off for discomfort, and I said no, I had just wanted to rub my face. The doctor happened to come by then too, and they checked my blood/oxygen levels, which were good. So, they decided to take me off oxygen. Later, they took me off all my IVs and the heart monitor as well. I was free! The first thing I did was take a long shower because I looked like a vagrant who had stumbled in from a mental ward.
Wednesday night, they told me they'd be moving me to another room, and seriously it's been like moving from The Fleabag Motor Inn to The Ritz, because my new room is so much nicer. Let's just say it's a plus that I don't have to listen to the man in the room next to me moan, or hear 48 beeping IV alarms. I'm still on the pain shots every now and then, and I get blood thinner shots in my stomach (ouch) twice a day now. But, they've told me it looks like I'll be going home in a couple of days.
So keep me in your thoughts and prayers. At this point, I'd love to get home to get over all of this and not see a hospital until I develop super powers or something. My Mom and Dad both flew out (despite my warnings of "I'll be fine!" and "Don't worry about me!") and they literally made this week a billion times more bearable. Several of you have come to visit me, and I thank you immensely for that. The hospital is a depressing place, and it's been great to see all of your faces.
I'll post an update as soon as I have one. Thanks again, everyone.
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