So... with the chest pains and breathing issues, I think I finally figured out what's wrong: pneumonia. There's a likely chance that I got fluid in my lungs during my surgery and now months waiting to see if these pains and breathings will go away, it has now became an infection... so in other words, pneumonia. I have the nausea, bowel issues, the fever, the weakness, the shaking (at times), breathing and swallowing issues, fast heart rate, and chest pains, especially when I breath in. I was suppose to go to the hospital yesterday, but since Justin's final for school was yesterday, we had to wait until he was done... then his mom took the car to go to work herself. I had to wait until today to go, so now I'm waiting for him to wake up... take a shower and then we can leave.
Well.. since I never got to finish this post when I originally started it... I'm just going to continue on from here. I'm now back from the hospital (I went there around 1pm and left at 3:30pm on Thursday) and they found nothing wrong. We did blood work and a CT scan and with those it showed I had no blood clot and no pneumonia, which I figured I had. The only thing that did show up was that I had a very small area in the upper part of my left lung, but they said it shouldn't be what's causing my issues. So what is? I have to follow up with my family care doctor in four days (actually in five since in four days would be Christmas) and I have no clue what else we are going to do. I'm at a lost. I love how the paper they gave me when I was leaving said to get immediate care if I'm having shortness of breath and I'm already dealing with it. I also wasn't too happy when they gave me the paper and let me go... I wasn't able to read it before I got released and the doctor didn't let me know this information either, for the next few days I'm suppose to avoid doing any physical activities that causes my chest pain to get worse. I work at Sam's Club as a cashier! Everything I do will cause it to be worse... I needed a real doctor's note to give to work to excuse me from being absent.
I already called off four days this month.... to note, I only can work two days a week right now, so I have been scheduled five days so far not counting this Saturday. I can't miss anymore days, but if I go to work I'm afraid I will collapse at work from the chest pain and not being able to breath. So I don't what to do and I feel like crying. I went to bed around 9:30-ish and woke up at 4am with feeling hungry and having horrible chest pains, but since I was hungry I had to eat something so decided on some chips. With opening up the bag, it brought tears to my eyes from the pain and then eating somehow made it worse and also made my stomach sick. I haven't been able to eat much this week because I keep getting sick to my stomach and then my chest starts hurting too.
I want my life back!
Showing posts with label hospital. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hospital. Show all posts
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Monday, December 3, 2012
Surgery Day
The morning of my surgery we were supposed to leave at 6:00am, but left 15 minutes late. We still should have gotten to the hospital in time, but there was an accident on the highway. We eventually got to the hospital and then got lost in the building and had to ask for directions to where I needed to go. I finally got to the area I needed to fill out paperwork and that's when my parents got there. After that I went to, if I remember correctly, One Day Surgery area, and got my waiting room and my gown.
Most of the day is now hazy because of the drugs, stress, and nervousness. I remember them taking my blood and giving me stuff through an IV. Justin held my hand throughout all of that. The next thing I remember is being pushed down a hallway to my surgery for a minute and then falling back to sleep and then waking up for a few minutes when they pushed my bed into the surgical room.
My surgery was three hours long and after it I woke up from what felt like someone tugging on the nose oxygen tube around my ears. Since my throat was so dry I asked for something to drink, but the only thing I could have at the time was ice cubes. I was so out of it that my boyfriend feed me the ice cubes with a spoon and from what my family told me I was being demanding on the sizes of the cubes. I vaguely remember people telling me to go back to sleep if I'm so tired, but I kept saying I wanted to stay up and talk to everyone. I guess, I'm very stubborn when I still have the effects of anesthesia.
They told my parents and boyfriend to go to my overnight room and they'll bring me upstairs. It seemed they forgot about me since it took them hours to get someone to take me to my room. Eventually they got me to my room and I was met with my parents and Justin. His parents were in the waiting room as only so many people can stay in the room. It was weird sitting up in a bed for me, especially with this HUGE wrapping around my neck and a tube with a plastic bag attached to it coming out from underneath the wrapping that was collecting blood and stuff from inside in my neck. I had to sleepover night with this thing, which was weird.
I talked to everyone and then they left around 9:00pm as visiting hours were over. Most of the night was fine for me as my roommate was nice and quiet. It was funny since the nurses kept coming in for her since they needed to move her, so they were getting all prepared for it... the roommate was all concern about them waking me up. The one nurse said she was sorry for waking me up and I told her it was okay. At some point they moved her to her new room on a different floor and I was alone for like an hour or two. I took this time to call my mom and Justin and figure out what time everyone was coming.
The woman in the room next to me would not stop yelling and causing problems... walking in the hall making noise, not caring if she's waking up other patients. In the morning Justin told me that she was doing that a lot while he was visiting me. She just would not shut up and kept going on and on about what her doctor said this and that,who did not work at that hospital and was not seeing what the doctors and interns where seeing.
Anyways, in the morning some interns came in to take the huge wrapping off of my neck, it seemed the one was showing some of them how to go about it, and the one unwrapping it seemed happy that I had short hair. I purposely got my hair cut for my surgery since I didn't want my hair get stuck in stitches. They also had to take the tubing out, which oddly didn't hurt, but it felt so weird. It turned out they super glued my neck closed instead of using stitches.
Justin came to the hospital first and was able to order my breakfast since it was still hard for me to talk. My nurse came in and told us they will call for someone to get me a wheelchair, so I can leave. Shortly after that my mom came to the room, but my dad was on the phone interviewing someone for a job, which had been scheduled in advance, so he got stuck with it. My parents had gotten me a candle from Bath and Body Works that was scent specially for stress relief and then a nice, fake bamboo plant. We waited and waited for a wheelchair for about an hour to two, but no one came with one. My dad was leaving that day to go back to Texas, which meant he had to drop my mom off at my sister's and then get to the airport, so they had to leave.
Eventually the main nurse that was dealing with me walked passed my room and noticed I was still there, she seemed upset I was still there too. She said she will ask again for someone to get me a wheelchair and help me out, but a nurse behind her said she could do it since I had been waiting for so long. The nurse was nice enough to push me to the parking garage, but not in the garage... I'm not sure if this is normal or not, oh well. Justin was able to help me walk into the garage and to the car, it wasn't that hard or at least I didn't think so.
I thought maybe the hard part was over with and that now with my new medication it would get me back to normal, but now I'm noticing this is only the beginning.
Most of the day is now hazy because of the drugs, stress, and nervousness. I remember them taking my blood and giving me stuff through an IV. Justin held my hand throughout all of that. The next thing I remember is being pushed down a hallway to my surgery for a minute and then falling back to sleep and then waking up for a few minutes when they pushed my bed into the surgical room.
My surgery was three hours long and after it I woke up from what felt like someone tugging on the nose oxygen tube around my ears. Since my throat was so dry I asked for something to drink, but the only thing I could have at the time was ice cubes. I was so out of it that my boyfriend feed me the ice cubes with a spoon and from what my family told me I was being demanding on the sizes of the cubes. I vaguely remember people telling me to go back to sleep if I'm so tired, but I kept saying I wanted to stay up and talk to everyone. I guess, I'm very stubborn when I still have the effects of anesthesia.
They told my parents and boyfriend to go to my overnight room and they'll bring me upstairs. It seemed they forgot about me since it took them hours to get someone to take me to my room. Eventually they got me to my room and I was met with my parents and Justin. His parents were in the waiting room as only so many people can stay in the room. It was weird sitting up in a bed for me, especially with this HUGE wrapping around my neck and a tube with a plastic bag attached to it coming out from underneath the wrapping that was collecting blood and stuff from inside in my neck. I had to sleepover night with this thing, which was weird.
I talked to everyone and then they left around 9:00pm as visiting hours were over. Most of the night was fine for me as my roommate was nice and quiet. It was funny since the nurses kept coming in for her since they needed to move her, so they were getting all prepared for it... the roommate was all concern about them waking me up. The one nurse said she was sorry for waking me up and I told her it was okay. At some point they moved her to her new room on a different floor and I was alone for like an hour or two. I took this time to call my mom and Justin and figure out what time everyone was coming.
The woman in the room next to me would not stop yelling and causing problems... walking in the hall making noise, not caring if she's waking up other patients. In the morning Justin told me that she was doing that a lot while he was visiting me. She just would not shut up and kept going on and on about what her doctor said this and that,who did not work at that hospital and was not seeing what the doctors and interns where seeing.
Anyways, in the morning some interns came in to take the huge wrapping off of my neck, it seemed the one was showing some of them how to go about it, and the one unwrapping it seemed happy that I had short hair. I purposely got my hair cut for my surgery since I didn't want my hair get stuck in stitches. They also had to take the tubing out, which oddly didn't hurt, but it felt so weird. It turned out they super glued my neck closed instead of using stitches.
Justin came to the hospital first and was able to order my breakfast since it was still hard for me to talk. My nurse came in and told us they will call for someone to get me a wheelchair, so I can leave. Shortly after that my mom came to the room, but my dad was on the phone interviewing someone for a job, which had been scheduled in advance, so he got stuck with it. My parents had gotten me a candle from Bath and Body Works that was scent specially for stress relief and then a nice, fake bamboo plant. We waited and waited for a wheelchair for about an hour to two, but no one came with one. My dad was leaving that day to go back to Texas, which meant he had to drop my mom off at my sister's and then get to the airport, so they had to leave.
Eventually the main nurse that was dealing with me walked passed my room and noticed I was still there, she seemed upset I was still there too. She said she will ask again for someone to get me a wheelchair and help me out, but a nurse behind her said she could do it since I had been waiting for so long. The nurse was nice enough to push me to the parking garage, but not in the garage... I'm not sure if this is normal or not, oh well. Justin was able to help me walk into the garage and to the car, it wasn't that hard or at least I didn't think so.
I thought maybe the hard part was over with and that now with my new medication it would get me back to normal, but now I'm noticing this is only the beginning.
Saturday, December 1, 2012
... and the News
After getting the news and scheduling my appointment, I tried to call my mom, but couldn't get a hold of her. This was understandable since she was on medicine that made her sleep most of the day. I then tried to call my dad and again I failed. It was 9:15am their time, so he was at work. Justin decided to take me to the Jack-in-the-Box that just opened in our state (and happened to be the first one in Ohio) that very day. This was a big deal to me since I used to live in Texas and been missing it for a long time. This was his way of calming me down, though I was calm, but also I was still in shock.
Sometime after ordering my food and sat down at a booth my dad returned my call. It was painful to tell my dad I had cancer. I wish there was a right way, a true right way to explain over the phone that you have cancer to your parent. I told my dad when my appointment was and he said he would look into plane tickets, hotel room, and talk to my sister about picking up my mom from the airport. I expressed to my dad how I wanted him to come up as well and thought it would be best for my mom if he came. For those that don't know me, I always put others before me, especially when I'm dealing with a major issue myself.
Most of the day is a blur to me now. I remember we went home and told Justin's parents the news with his dad's reaction of yelling "OH MY GOD!" I eventually told my mom, my siblings, and after getting to tell them I posted it on Facebook and Plurk so the rest of the family and friends can see the news.
When I was on the phone with my mom I learned that my dad was able to come, but was leaving the day after my surgery since he had to work. This was fine to me until the next day when I got an email from my ENT's secretary asking to move my appointment a week earlier. I quickly replied asking why we need to move it and explain my parents already bought their tickets to fly up from Texas. It turned out that someone had the cancer far worse than me and needed a 12 hour surgery and she asked me if we could move it back a day. I was not going to block someone from having surgery, especially someone that needed it more than me and I said I was fine with moving my surgery back a day.
My parents were coming up on Monday, my dad was leaving the Wednesday which is now my surgery date and my mom was leaving Friday. I told my parents the news and my dad went to see about changing his leave date to Thursday, but was going to cost too much. My parents are dealing with a lot of money issues from their move, so I understood, so no judging people.
The next week and a half was spent with Justin and me preparing for the surgery... getting me clothes that would be easier for me to put on afterwards, food to eat, a couch pillow with arms, and probably other things that I needed. I also spent a lot of time on the internet on support group sites reading about other people's experience and talking to them. Throughout this week I was mostly fine, but it wasn't until the week of that I started getting nervous.
Sometime after ordering my food and sat down at a booth my dad returned my call. It was painful to tell my dad I had cancer. I wish there was a right way, a true right way to explain over the phone that you have cancer to your parent. I told my dad when my appointment was and he said he would look into plane tickets, hotel room, and talk to my sister about picking up my mom from the airport. I expressed to my dad how I wanted him to come up as well and thought it would be best for my mom if he came. For those that don't know me, I always put others before me, especially when I'm dealing with a major issue myself.
Most of the day is a blur to me now. I remember we went home and told Justin's parents the news with his dad's reaction of yelling "OH MY GOD!" I eventually told my mom, my siblings, and after getting to tell them I posted it on Facebook and Plurk so the rest of the family and friends can see the news.
When I was on the phone with my mom I learned that my dad was able to come, but was leaving the day after my surgery since he had to work. This was fine to me until the next day when I got an email from my ENT's secretary asking to move my appointment a week earlier. I quickly replied asking why we need to move it and explain my parents already bought their tickets to fly up from Texas. It turned out that someone had the cancer far worse than me and needed a 12 hour surgery and she asked me if we could move it back a day. I was not going to block someone from having surgery, especially someone that needed it more than me and I said I was fine with moving my surgery back a day.
My parents were coming up on Monday, my dad was leaving the Wednesday which is now my surgery date and my mom was leaving Friday. I told my parents the news and my dad went to see about changing his leave date to Thursday, but was going to cost too much. My parents are dealing with a lot of money issues from their move, so I understood, so no judging people.
The next week and a half was spent with Justin and me preparing for the surgery... getting me clothes that would be easier for me to put on afterwards, food to eat, a couch pillow with arms, and probably other things that I needed. I also spent a lot of time on the internet on support group sites reading about other people's experience and talking to them. Throughout this week I was mostly fine, but it wasn't until the week of that I started getting nervous.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
The First Appointment
After getting my results from the ultrasound, my doctor told me to find myself an ENT (Ears, Nose, and Throat) doctor also known as Otolaryngology to find out what the next stop was, though I would soon find out that would take awhile. Originally my family doctor told me to go to one ENT group from the area, but I had gone to them a year prior, but was not impressed by them. So I went to search for a new one and I never knew how hard it would be to find a decent specialist in my area. I also learned it would be hard to get in fast until now.
I spent at least two full days searching online for an ENT nearby that had good reviews. I didn't want to find another doctor that didn't listen to me and told me nothing was wrong (I had this happen to me many times including a time when I had a cyst the size of a softball in my back). I called UC Hospital for an appointment with one of their ENTs, but sadly my first choice would have been a two month wait. I told the one over the phone I couldn't wait since I was having issues breathing, swallowing, four nodules, and a slightly enlarged thyroid. Luckily I was able to get an appointment with my second choice three weeks later on August 27th.
For three weeks I kept researching online what could be wrong with me... I have an aunt with Hashimoto's and we thought maybe I had that, so I kept cross referencing with her symptoms and mine as well as what I found on the internet. I don't know why, but I had a feeling to look into Thyroid Cancer and their symptoms, it just kept drawing me in. My family and my boyfriend all told me that it's probably not that and not to worry about it too much. Though eventually my mom and I agreed it wouldn't hurt to know to just prepare myself. I didn't wanna go dramatic if my doctor told me the news and I could think straight to ask him any questions I had.
The first day I went to see my doctor I was surprised how young he was, probably a few years older than me. He asked what was going on and I told him, I also had the ultrasound report with me. Of course, he asked if there were any thyroid issues in the family and I told him about my aunt. Then he asked about cancer of the gland and the answer was no, but I did warn him that anyone that cancer in my family are the first ones of that type. He did a fine-needle biopsy on the largest nodule stabbing my neck four times, the last two being the worse. He also wanted to run blood tests on me to see what my levels were like and then do a barium swallow test and an endoscopy because of my swallowing issue. I've been having the issue with the swallowing most of my life, so he thought this could be something different from the nodules and the breathing issue.
Now began the waiting game and the testing phase of this whole thing...
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Something's Wrong
My journey all started when the last weekend of July 2012 when I was having difficulty breathing for the first time in my life. It was hard to describe as I knew it wasn't a chest/lung issue, but something blocking in my neck. Also I was having more difficulties with swallowing food and liquids, but I've had that issue more of my life. Well actually the difficulty with liquids, even water, started about five years ago and anytime I experience it, it felt like the liquid in question formed into a marble, which made me refer to it now as the "marble effect".
Anyways, the breathing issue was driving me insane... like drowning and trying to swim to the surface, but unable to since *thinks* a log has trapped your leg. You are fighting to breathe, but unable to push the log off, so you can get free. I finally decided to call my doctor, but wasn't able to get in until later in the week and the breathing got worse as time went on that day, so my boyfriend took me to the hospital. They checked my chest by listening to it, ran blood test claiming they were checking my thyroid with the testing as well, and then x-ray my neck since I found a large lump on my neck (I noticed this while we were driving to the hospital). At first the one doctor said that might be normal for me, but I told him it wasn't and that it was new. They gave me a breathe therapy treatment where you breathe in this vapors from a hose connected to a machine... yeah, it didn't help at all. They said everything came back fine, but I should ask my family doctor to order an ultrasound on my neck.
I ended up getting an appointment with my family doctor on August 3rd, 2012 in the morning and told her what happened at the hospital and what I was dealing with. She gave me two options: one, to do the ultrasound or two, to see if my esophagus needed to be widen. I, of course, voted for the ultrasound and was able to go to the town over to get it done the same day. A week later I got the email from my doctor that the left side of my thyroid was enlarged with a nodule that was an inch in size and three smaller (5mm, 7mm, and 9mm) nodules on the right with all different makes.
Now let me tell you, 90% of people have nodules and most are not noticeable and aren't cancerous (and not all will become cancerous). But if you have one that's 1 cm in size, you need to get an ENT to do a fine-needle biopsy. Also if you have a nodule, even if it's small, get it checked every once in a while... like every six months (you can get your family doctor to order the ultrasound for you... it's cheaper that way). If it gets bigger in size get an ENT to look at it. To note, my largest nodule was 2.5 cm when I found it.
This was just the beginning of a major change in my life.
Anyways, the breathing issue was driving me insane... like drowning and trying to swim to the surface, but unable to since *thinks* a log has trapped your leg. You are fighting to breathe, but unable to push the log off, so you can get free. I finally decided to call my doctor, but wasn't able to get in until later in the week and the breathing got worse as time went on that day, so my boyfriend took me to the hospital. They checked my chest by listening to it, ran blood test claiming they were checking my thyroid with the testing as well, and then x-ray my neck since I found a large lump on my neck (I noticed this while we were driving to the hospital). At first the one doctor said that might be normal for me, but I told him it wasn't and that it was new. They gave me a breathe therapy treatment where you breathe in this vapors from a hose connected to a machine... yeah, it didn't help at all. They said everything came back fine, but I should ask my family doctor to order an ultrasound on my neck.
I ended up getting an appointment with my family doctor on August 3rd, 2012 in the morning and told her what happened at the hospital and what I was dealing with. She gave me two options: one, to do the ultrasound or two, to see if my esophagus needed to be widen. I, of course, voted for the ultrasound and was able to go to the town over to get it done the same day. A week later I got the email from my doctor that the left side of my thyroid was enlarged with a nodule that was an inch in size and three smaller (5mm, 7mm, and 9mm) nodules on the right with all different makes.
Now let me tell you, 90% of people have nodules and most are not noticeable and aren't cancerous (and not all will become cancerous). But if you have one that's 1 cm in size, you need to get an ENT to do a fine-needle biopsy. Also if you have a nodule, even if it's small, get it checked every once in a while... like every six months (you can get your family doctor to order the ultrasound for you... it's cheaper that way). If it gets bigger in size get an ENT to look at it. To note, my largest nodule was 2.5 cm when I found it.
This was just the beginning of a major change in my life.
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