Mom’s Blast Email about my latest hospital trials & tribulations.

“Lauren started having horrible abdominal pain at 2 pm yesterday – “worst pain of her life” – so we went to the ER last night as things were not getting any better with time. After checking for all kinds of reasons for the pain, CT scan for kidney stone (neg) and pelvic sonogram, it was determined that she had an orange sized cyst on her left ovary that had twisted around from the added weight and cut off its blood supply. Very rare, called ovarian torsion (google it – nasty). They wanted to get in quickly BUT they couldn’t since she is anticoagulated for the heart valve. So, they had to do a few things to get her back to normal clotting times (risky in her case) to do the surgery, which finally took place around 8:30 this morning. She did well and the photos from the laporoscope are unbelievable in terms of the color of that mass – black as pitch, deader than a doornail. I think they got it out before it ruptured or bled. She is in cardiac ICU being monitored closely and getting anticoagulated again, starting at 9pm tonight. I’m worried about her clotting time being close to normal all day. That’s it from my end. Other than missing a night’s sleep, I am fine and she is resting. Hopefully she will be able to come home tomorrow if her clotting time is where it needs to be. Will keep you posted.”

Advertisements

Health(y) Update

Ok let’s make one thing very clear. I never ever thought I would have to blog about my health of all things but alas here I am.

It all started back in Sunday. God love him, my friend Rickett is here from Hong Kong and invited me to the Nats game with his daughter Hadyn, her husband Dennis and their Christmas born son Soren for his first nationals park outing!  Pics to follow!

Something just came over me and I felt AWFUL quickly as soon as we got there.

It was hot.  They tied it up.  We left before it was over, I was that bad.  Clearly not my usual self to bolt from a baseball game, but off we went.

Just a few short hours later which seemed like days my mom, a fabulous nurse, agreed to take me to the ER.  How much fun could it possibly be on the Sunday night of a holiday weekend?  Oh…REALLY Fun!!!

We arrived around 9:30.  Triage nurse said “How’s your pain on a scale of 1-10?”  An 8!  All night, it was an 8.  Two morphine shots into my IV, still an 8.  Felt the morphine hit every vein in my body but not my abdomen.  Horrible.

Had a CT scan.  Shortest one ever!  Nothing.  Had a pelvic exam (GROSS) then an ultrasound and…BAM!  We have found the culprit!

I will upload pics, but a quick search on google images under the term “ovarian torsion” should do it for ya!  Look if you dare.  Mine is more real and pretty personally foul if you ask me.  I can only imagine my mother’s face when this doc came into her in the OR Waiting room and showed her.

But wait…that’s getting ahead of myself.

Handsome doc comes in, complete set of scrubs and a Syracuse baseball hat all casual like he’s not bothered  at all that it’s 3:15 a.m. on a holiday weekend and he just got called in to THIS nightmare.  ”It’s pretty serious…we need to get to this right away”

PAUSE!!!  Um….no doc!  I’m on coumadin and you can’t just go slicin’ and dicin’ into me!”  Oh man, so I had to call my cardiologist AT HOME at 3:15 a.m. and have her walk and talk him thru how to do this to me.  Not pretty and very complicated.

I had to come down off of coumadin which I just took earlier that morning and it’s more complicated than you think.  I had to have two transfusions of fresh frozen plasma to go “sub therapeutic” so that they could operate.  Time was of the essence.

By 6:30 a.m. I am being wheeled to the OR prep room.  The anesthesiologist says we’re going to do this this and this…next thing I know I’m here in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit.  I am in the first room closest to the door.  I see all of the comings and goings.  And…I am by centuries the youngest patient here, people are probably thinking they’ve walked into pediatrics!

OK that’s enough.  Off to upload some photos now….stay tuned.  There may be more to report.  Feel free to ask follow up questions, clearly I have no problems sharing.

Most importantly, tho, before I go…thank you ALL for your care, concern, “likes” and photo comments thus far on “the book.”  It means a lot.