Tuesday December 15th was just a normal day for me, or so I thought. I woke up and got hubby off to work and proceeded to the computer to watch some videos, check Facebook you know the usual stuff. I was killing time till my Tellehealth appointment with my ENT because I had yet another sinus infection. Right before my appointment I went to the bathroom and realized I was a little short of breath but thought nothing off it as I always get that way with sinus infections. My appointment happens I make mention of the shortness of breath to the doctor and he also doesn't seem to worried about it as it happens to me every sinus infection I get meds sent to the pharmacy and continue on about my day. I started a new knitting project while sitting at the desk watching Netflix feeling fine just congested from the sinus infection. Hubby comes home from work we talk nothing out of the normal and THEN I decided to walk from the Computer desk to our couch which is all of maybe 3 feet apart to sit down and knit, that's where it all went wrong.
I sit down on the couch and I feel like an asthmatic who ran the Boston Marathon I can't catch my breath at all, my chest is hurting and burning, I look over to my husband and ask him to get my inhaler so I can try and get this shit under control it did nothing! didn't touch it at all so my next move while still breathing really hard is calling my mom up, she's a retired nurse and my go to for medical advice. She tells me to calm down, take nice deep breaths and it isn't working so she suggests going and sitting in the bathroom with the shower running and sitting in steam for a few to see if it helps and to call her back after I'm done. I go sit in the bathroom with steam and its not helping in fact I have now thrown up a little so back out I go to the couch still gasping for air. At this point I look at my husband and tell him to call mom cause I cant talk very well. She tells us that if I can't get this under control then we need to decided if I go to the ER or not. We hang up with her look at each other and talk for a few seconds and decide to go to the ER.
It takes me a good 5-10 minutes to walk to our truck and then off to the ER we go. When we get there hubby goes and gets a wheelchair for me and wheels me in and has to speak for me, they rush me back to do an EKG on me to make sure I'm not actively having an heart attack. I'm not but they can see that I'm having problems breathing and whisk me off to the back to be taken care of. I have so many people around me trying to help me, I don't even remember how I got out of my shirt and into the hospital gown but it happens, I get COVID tested, somewhere in there they start an IV, I get inhaler treatments, my blood pressure is through the roof my pulse is through the roof and no matter how calm I am I can't breathe. I get an ultrasound of my heart and then a ct scan and then another ultrasound of my heart and one of my legs. They have taken blood from me giving me meds and all I can do is lay on that gurney and try not to cry because my husband can't be with me because of COVID. I'm then told I will be admitted to the hospital for at least 72 hours and that I have blood clots on both sides of my lungs and one of them is massive and pressing on my heart. They start me on blood thinners while in the ER waiting for a room to open up for me in the PCU.
I spent the night in the ER and then was finally admitted up to PCU in the morning. I am hardly eating anything because I'm nauseas and everything takes a lot of effort. I get winded just walking the very short distance to the bathroom with the help of my nurses. I'm given anxiety meds and anti nausea meds.
Friday December 18th it's 4am and they are doing their rounds of getting vitals and drawing blood and a nurse or a Tech comes in asking me that before I lay back down to let them weigh me so I say ok lets do this. She goes and gets the scale, I stand up every thing is fine, I step on the scale everything is still fine, then I sit on the edge of the bed to catch my breath before getting back into and the room starts to spin on me. There are a bunch of nurses checking on my roommate and I very politely go "Excuse me I don't mean to interrupt but the room is spinning." and then I passed out. The next thing I know I'm laying flat on my back at an angle in the bed and a nurse is telling me to wake up. I come to and am looking up at at least 5 faces looking down at me. It turns out the Tech that weighed me stayed right in front of me and when I passed out I pitched forward and was going to fall off the bed and she shoved me back onto the bed. I'm put on bedrest, I can't leave the bed at all and an xray is ordered. That was the most painful xray I have ever had done, I couldn't roll myself from side to side so they had to do it for me and I almost puked on the floor and was in tears.
My Doctor comes in and checks on me and then later that evening comes back to talk to me and tell me that he is going to move me into the ICU for 24 hrs as I need to get a does of meds to help break up the blood clots as I'm not going into obstructive shock. I have him talk to my mom and she agrees that it's the best thing for me so I agree to go. I'm scared and alone and all I can think about is telling 2 of my friends to please keep an eye on my husband as I was about to tell him the news of me going into the ICU for 24hrs and I wanted to make sure he was ok.
Friday night to Saturday night I spend my time in the ICU and start feeling better, the meds worked! I still get a little winded walking to the bathroom but it was nothing like before. My apatite comes back and I am readmitted to the PCU. I'm there until Monday night when I am finally released to come home, which in itself is a whole other story for a different time.
I'm on blood thinners for at least 6 months, so I now have to be careful, I can lo longer use my razor and have to use an electric one, I can't fall or hit my head, and I have to be careful because I will now bruise super easy. I also need to continue losing weight. But I'm ok with all of this, why? because I almost died!! It's a real eye opener. I will now have many doctors appointments in my future for awhile I do believe.
OH yeah and before I forget I suppose I should tell you what caused me to get said blood clots, it was my birth control that I was put on to help with my PCOS. I am no longer allowed to take any hormonal birth control. I never thought in a million years that deciding to finally take care of myself and figure out what was wrong with me was going to damn near kill me. I was only on the pills for just shy of 2 months. But there it is, there is the story of how I almost died. I am very lucky and grateful to be sitting here today a week later writing this down. I also had an amazing outpouring of love and prayers from family and friends and complete strangers helping me get through this and to them I am forever grateful.
