Turkey Day Gone Totally Wrong.
It is the end of 2009. During this year, I have gotten married, discovered I have endometriosis, recovered from my laparoscopic procedure, dealt with a crazy economy where I had to learn to live on a budget, and Jeff and I have just purchased our first home together. It was a life changing year for the two of us, to say the least.
It is late November and we have just settled in our new home, and we start thinking about "Baby Ridlen". We decide the best month to start is January, after the holidays.
For Thanksgiving, we head off to see our grandparents in Abilene for the day with my mom, sister, brother-in-law, and my brother. I love Thanksgiving...you get to eat your face off and nobody judges (well not totally). My grandmother has the table beautifully set, the kitchen smells wonderful, everyone is getting ready to say the prayer, and I suddenly become super sick.
Side note: I always get made fun of because I always overeat at family meals because my mom's cooking is unreal and get sick later...it is my trademark. But, to get sick before the meal?!?! Not fair. Seriously. This is not shocking to anyone in my family, and probably to most of you reading, because if you have known me for more than a minute, you know I get stomach aches ALOT.
I go in one of the bedrooms and curl up into a ball. The pain is super intense and I take a ton of Alleve, but nothing works. I finally pass out and sleep through all Thanksgiving lunch. I wake up and I feel ok. And so we head back to Dallas that night. I think that this must be my endometriosis acting up again, and it was just really bad cramps.
Saturday, we decide to put up our Christmas tree. I am so excited because although Thanksgiving was a let-down, I will make it up with Christmas. I have the Christmas music blaring, and I begin to get out the ornaments. Halfway into my decorating, Jeff says he is going to Costco. I love trips to Costco, so I put the decorations down to go find some "good deals" with him. It is about 2:30.
We decide to go to the closest Costco to our house, which is always so crowded and it takes a year to find a parking space. Anyways, we finally find a parking spot, get a cart and start filling up the cart, and all the sudden I double over in pain. This was literally the worst pain I have ever experienced. I tell Jeff I have to go the car and we need to go now. I am doubled over walking to Jeff's car and lay in the backseat waiting for him. Jeff is rushing to put up our awesome steaks and our wine steals...he knows this must be bad if I insist on rushing out on all of our Costco goodies.
The best I can describe the pain is this: it was on my right side, similar to Thanksgiving, but it was more intense. I also had severe pain in my back. I could not get comfortable no matter what position I was in. The pain was so intense that it made me nauseous and I started throwing up. I was thinking this would make me feel better. Not so much! It only made me sicker, and I could not stop throwing up, while I felt zero relief. In the meantime, Jeff did not know what to do and ran up to the drugstore. He brought me back a bunch of medicine which I tried, and nothing worked.
Poor Jeff had no idea what to do, so he finally called my mom, and she told us to go to an emergency clinic. By this time, it was late Saturday afternoon. The wait to see a doctor was one hour. I was so uncomfortable and I kept running to the bathroom vomiting. After what seemed like an eternity, the doctor finally saw me and did an X-ray on me and blood work. They had no clue. AWESOME...now we get to go the ER and wait. In the meantime, it was about 9:00. I beg the doc in the box to please give me a shot to kill the pain. Nothing. I feel no relief.
We race to the ER which I wanted to avoid since it was a Saturday night and the wait was going to be terrible. At this point, I am bawling my eyes out, dry heaving, and still feel like someone is stabbing me nonstop. Luckily, they get me to the back quickly. I am BEGGING for pain relief. They finally get me hooked up to an IV with the good stuff. Finally, some relief after over 6 hours of being in miserable pain! The bad news is that after all my blood work nobody knows what is going on. They are thinking gallstones or appendicitis. So, I get my first cat scan. After that, they rule out appendicitis. In the meantime, while waiting for the sonogram specialist, my dad shows up. All the sudden, my dad notices that I am turning gray and the machines all start beeping. My blood pressure was plummeting. I am so freaked out at this point. What the heck is going on?!?! Doctors and nurses rush in and do their magic, and I am steady again.
The sonogram specialists finally arrive, and I pass out for most of the examination. To their surprise, they discover that I had multiple overly large ovarian cysts that were rupturing. They can see evidence of one that ruptured a couple of days prior (Thanksgiving...see there was a point to that part of my story). And, apparently, one of the cysts had ruptured inside my ovary. Hence, why I was in so much pain.
Moral of this story: if you are ever doubled over because of pain, go to the ER. Do not wait until you are completely dehydrated and endure this type of pain 6 hours without a doctor.
I finally get released from the hospital at 6:00 a.m. with a ton of prescriptions for pain killers, and strict instructions to contact my doctor first thing to see if he wants to operate on the ovary that is the size of a grapefruit. In the meantime, I still have a couple of cysts left on my ovary that may/may not explode. I am so exhausted, that I have not even processed what has happened, and I just want to go home and sleep.
More on the next post...have a wonderful day!
PS: Thanks to all who have reached out to me via comments, Facebook, emails, and messages. Your encouragement (uplifting words and scripture) means so much to me and Jeff. It helps us girls who are in the "thick" of infertility know that we are not alone in this journey...and most importantly, that we should talk about this. This blog to date has been so therapeutic for me recovering from my recent failed IVF cycle. God has given me so much hope...I finally got up the courage to go see my doctor again for next steps (please keep us in your prayers). More on this later. It is so exciting to see what He has in store for all of us!!! XOXO
It is late November and we have just settled in our new home, and we start thinking about "Baby Ridlen". We decide the best month to start is January, after the holidays.
For Thanksgiving, we head off to see our grandparents in Abilene for the day with my mom, sister, brother-in-law, and my brother. I love Thanksgiving...you get to eat your face off and nobody judges (well not totally). My grandmother has the table beautifully set, the kitchen smells wonderful, everyone is getting ready to say the prayer, and I suddenly become super sick.
Side note: I always get made fun of because I always overeat at family meals because my mom's cooking is unreal and get sick later...it is my trademark. But, to get sick before the meal?!?! Not fair. Seriously. This is not shocking to anyone in my family, and probably to most of you reading, because if you have known me for more than a minute, you know I get stomach aches ALOT.
I go in one of the bedrooms and curl up into a ball. The pain is super intense and I take a ton of Alleve, but nothing works. I finally pass out and sleep through all Thanksgiving lunch. I wake up and I feel ok. And so we head back to Dallas that night. I think that this must be my endometriosis acting up again, and it was just really bad cramps.
Saturday, we decide to put up our Christmas tree. I am so excited because although Thanksgiving was a let-down, I will make it up with Christmas. I have the Christmas music blaring, and I begin to get out the ornaments. Halfway into my decorating, Jeff says he is going to Costco. I love trips to Costco, so I put the decorations down to go find some "good deals" with him. It is about 2:30.
We decide to go to the closest Costco to our house, which is always so crowded and it takes a year to find a parking space. Anyways, we finally find a parking spot, get a cart and start filling up the cart, and all the sudden I double over in pain. This was literally the worst pain I have ever experienced. I tell Jeff I have to go the car and we need to go now. I am doubled over walking to Jeff's car and lay in the backseat waiting for him. Jeff is rushing to put up our awesome steaks and our wine steals...he knows this must be bad if I insist on rushing out on all of our Costco goodies.
The best I can describe the pain is this: it was on my right side, similar to Thanksgiving, but it was more intense. I also had severe pain in my back. I could not get comfortable no matter what position I was in. The pain was so intense that it made me nauseous and I started throwing up. I was thinking this would make me feel better. Not so much! It only made me sicker, and I could not stop throwing up, while I felt zero relief. In the meantime, Jeff did not know what to do and ran up to the drugstore. He brought me back a bunch of medicine which I tried, and nothing worked.
Poor Jeff had no idea what to do, so he finally called my mom, and she told us to go to an emergency clinic. By this time, it was late Saturday afternoon. The wait to see a doctor was one hour. I was so uncomfortable and I kept running to the bathroom vomiting. After what seemed like an eternity, the doctor finally saw me and did an X-ray on me and blood work. They had no clue. AWESOME...now we get to go the ER and wait. In the meantime, it was about 9:00. I beg the doc in the box to please give me a shot to kill the pain. Nothing. I feel no relief.
We race to the ER which I wanted to avoid since it was a Saturday night and the wait was going to be terrible. At this point, I am bawling my eyes out, dry heaving, and still feel like someone is stabbing me nonstop. Luckily, they get me to the back quickly. I am BEGGING for pain relief. They finally get me hooked up to an IV with the good stuff. Finally, some relief after over 6 hours of being in miserable pain! The bad news is that after all my blood work nobody knows what is going on. They are thinking gallstones or appendicitis. So, I get my first cat scan. After that, they rule out appendicitis. In the meantime, while waiting for the sonogram specialist, my dad shows up. All the sudden, my dad notices that I am turning gray and the machines all start beeping. My blood pressure was plummeting. I am so freaked out at this point. What the heck is going on?!?! Doctors and nurses rush in and do their magic, and I am steady again.
The sonogram specialists finally arrive, and I pass out for most of the examination. To their surprise, they discover that I had multiple overly large ovarian cysts that were rupturing. They can see evidence of one that ruptured a couple of days prior (Thanksgiving...see there was a point to that part of my story). And, apparently, one of the cysts had ruptured inside my ovary. Hence, why I was in so much pain.
Moral of this story: if you are ever doubled over because of pain, go to the ER. Do not wait until you are completely dehydrated and endure this type of pain 6 hours without a doctor.
I finally get released from the hospital at 6:00 a.m. with a ton of prescriptions for pain killers, and strict instructions to contact my doctor first thing to see if he wants to operate on the ovary that is the size of a grapefruit. In the meantime, I still have a couple of cysts left on my ovary that may/may not explode. I am so exhausted, that I have not even processed what has happened, and I just want to go home and sleep.
More on the next post...have a wonderful day!
PS: Thanks to all who have reached out to me via comments, Facebook, emails, and messages. Your encouragement (uplifting words and scripture) means so much to me and Jeff. It helps us girls who are in the "thick" of infertility know that we are not alone in this journey...and most importantly, that we should talk about this. This blog to date has been so therapeutic for me recovering from my recent failed IVF cycle. God has given me so much hope...I finally got up the courage to go see my doctor again for next steps (please keep us in your prayers). More on this later. It is so exciting to see what He has in store for all of us!!! XOXO
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