Finally Home...

Hello Everyone :-) Yes, I am here and I am alive. Though I did wonder for a bit just how things would turn out. I wanted to pop in here and let you all know what happened and why I've been absent for so long...

My last blog post marked the release of my latest shawl pattern Ferryn on April 30th. I carefully planned to release it on the 30th as I was having surgery on May 1st. I had an incisional hernia that needed repairing. Surgery went well. Post op was not so good. About 6 days post op I noticed my breathing to be very labored and painful and it was only getting worse. By Friday morning the 9th of May I knew that I needed to be seen in the ER dept at my hospital which was only about 5 minutes away. I packed a bag and my CPAP machine as I just had this feeling that I would not be going home. Mom and I got to the hospital and thankfully the director of the ER was in and taking patients first hand early Friday morning. What does that say that I know who our ER director is??!! I have been seen by him several times before as had my ex-husband. At any rate, he began a battery of tests to find out exactly what was wrong with me. For starters my white cell count was over 40k (normal range is between 4-11k). My body was certainly fighting a serious infection. CT and XRays were done. I had a bad case of pneumonia and pleural effusion that was only getting worse. They started me out on antibiotics and pain meds immediately. By about 1:00pm I had been admitted and was moved to the ICU for careful monitoring. Those first few days in the ICU were very rough. At some point on day 3 while I in the ICU my heart went into v-tach. This is not good. This is when a very rapid heart beat starts in the ventricles of your heart which is potentially life-threatening. I was put on a heart medication to regulate my heart rate better and took it until discharge. I was in the ICU from Friday through the following Wednesday when I was downgraded to a regular room. On Wednesday my surgeon came to see me and he did an aspiration of fluid from around my surgical site to ensure that there was no infection building up. I was on 3 different very high powered antibiotics and my doctor did not suspect that any culture would grow but they would see. Nothing grew. This was a good thing. I was in my regular room from Wednesday through the following Monday. Every other day I would have chest XRays done to see what changes, if any, had occurred. My blood counts were being monitored daily. My white cells would go up then down, up then down, then down. I had a CT scan done on Sunday to look at things again. When my doctor came to see me on Monday it was not good news. I had developed 3-4 abdominal abscesses and the fluid in my lungs needed to be dealt with and drained. This all meant that I would be transferred to the big hospital downtown to have these procedures done. By Monday evening I was in another new room at the big hospital. Tuesday I had an incision and drainage done in Interventional Radiology from the surgical site again. Though the first aspiration grew nothing, my surgeon now needed to feel a little better about things and have a more focused drainage done to prove there was no infection. He felt the other abscesses were fairly benign or I would be a lot sicker than I was. Wednesday had me back in Interventional Radiology for a thoracentisis. This was NOT a fun procedure at all. Guided by CT, a large needle was placed into my lungs to drain fluid that had built up there. They drained about 1/2 liter so this was a good thing. Recovering from the thoracentisis has not been great fun either. They warned me about how I might feel and the symptoms I might have. From Wednesday through Saturday I was monitored as the antibiotics and pain meds continued. I was finally discharged home Saturday afternoon after over 2 very long weeks in the hospital. I could not have been happier to be coming home.

Somehow being in your own environment makes healing and getting better a little easier to do. I have my folks, my cat, my clothes, my TV, and above all, my shower and bathroom back. You may be asking, but no, I didn't do any knitting at all while I was in the hospital. I was very sick and just basically didn't feel like it. There were so many tubes, and wires and monitors and stuff that somehow adding yarn and needles to that mix didn't seem wise. Even if I did feel like knitting. I have returned to knitting slowly. I have some work to do that's for sure, but its taking me a little time to get back in the saddle so to speak. My right lungs are still recovering and getting used to the air flowing through them once again. My breathing is painful but not near as bad as it used to be. I didn't want to do the thoracentisis, at all, and fought against it with my doctor. But I knew I had to do it because things were not getting any better and they wouldn't until it was done. My doctors think that, because of the timing, I likely aspirated some fluid either while being intubated or extubated during surgery.

Miss Audrey is so happy to have me back. She literally curled up in my left arm this evening and stayed until I moved her when I got thirsty! So, I'll leave you with a picture of her for now. Allow me a little time to get really back with it and I'll be back to regular blog posts soon. For those of you who knew my situation, thank you for your prayers and good thoughts for my recovery. It means a great deal to me to know I had so many people pulling for me.


Until next time....Knit On!

Comments

  1. So glad you are home! I hope you now heal quickly and find your energy back soon.
    Hugs.

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