I'm trying to think of a way to document what happened in a succinct, orderly manner.
So many things happened so fast.
Pain, confusion, fainting, MIRACLES, complete loss of embarrassment (hey, when you're in that kind of pain, you don't care who sees what), disgustingness (is that a word?)
I thought of breaking it up into different posts, but I know I'll do part one and then never get back to it.
I am, however, going to document the emergency hospital visit and the vacation separately.
There is no need to combine the best time ever with the worst experience of my life.
(Note: I am a fairly open person. I don't mind sharing details of my life--good or bad--this might get gross. Just thought I should warn you.)
Here goes:
We were on day 7 of Disneyland.
I am so glad that all of this happened at the end of the trip and not the beginning. Jeff left to fly home on a Tuesday morning to work. He just started a new job and didn't feel like he could take a full week off. He flew back to us on Friday afternoon.
It was just me and the kids for most of the week.
This picture was taken on the Friday that it all happened.
MIRACLE #1:
(You may call them coincidences--I choose to believe they were miracles.)
On Wednesday, I had sudden, severe pain that I mistook for "need-to-go-to-the-bathroom cramps." It lasted 3 hours and I spent that entire time in the bathroom in the Disneyland park. Thankfully, my brother and family were still there vacationing with us, so they were able to take the kids on rides. I remember saying a prayer and telling Heavenly Father that I cannot have anything happen to me while Jeff was gone.
The pain immediately stopped.
It didn't come back, AT ALL, for 2 full days........right until the exact hour that Jeff was flying back to us.
Now, I'm no doctor or anything, but I've never heard of a cyst rupturing and then magically stopping for a full 48 hours. Divine intervention I tell you! Literally. Believe it.
This was right before it began.
I was feeling perfectly fine. Nothing out of the ordinary.
MIRACLE #2:
The ONLY day we came home for naps was that Friday. The pain started again while we were in the hotel, and it was a good thing because there is NO WAY I could have walked from the park back to the hotel.
It started at 5:00 p.m. and it was much worse than before.
I was sobbing and screaming.
It scared my kids.
I could not walk or move.
Jeff returned to us about 90 minutes later.
I took four ibuprofen and insisted he take the kids back to the park. He had missed a lot of the trip and I wanted him to go have fun.
About this time I began to feel a fullness in my abdomen that hurt when I breathed. I thought it was gas. I took some antacids.
I stood up to use the bathroom and passed out on the floor.
I am a nervous, anxious person, so I just assumed that I was panicking and that's what caused the fainting.
(Dumb thinking. I have never passed out before--even during the most severe panic attack.)
I called Jeff when I came to.
He came back, we said a family prayer, and I tried to sleep.
I woke up two hours later and I KNEW I had to go to the hospital. I was nauseous, lightheaded, and in an incredible amount of pain.
It was 1:00 in the morning and we had to leave the kids in the hotel room. (Josh is almost 14 so we felt okay about it, but as soon as we knew I would be in the hospital for a while, we called my sister who lives about 30 minutes away to come stay with them.)
Jeff half carried me down the hallway. At one point he had to set me down because he forgot something, and I was literally crawling along the floor to the elevator.
Jeff picked me back up and I managed to half-walk until we got to the lobby where I passed out again.
It was a long way to the car, so Jeff had to lay me on a bench while he ran to get the car.
I heard voices passing me and I couldn't believe that no one was offering to help.
They took me right in to a room in the ER.
They gave me morphine for the pain.
Within 90 seconds I vomited all over--mostly in a bin, but it splattered all over Jeff. Poor man.
They performed a CT which was the most excruciating part of it all.
Because most of the pain was in my rectum and lower abdomen, they had to look down there--and that involved some massive probes, balloons, and liquid. I positively yelped and bawled from the pain.
This picture was after that was all done.
Lovely, I know.
Then they did an ultrasound and blood tests.
I hate how they are all secretive about what they are seeing.
The nurse and ultrasound technician were talking back and forth and I knew it was fairly serious but they wouldn't answer my questions.
I knew there was a cyst somewhere and I knew there was a hemorrhage somewhere. That's all.
They admitted me to the hospital at 8:30 in the morning so all of that took 7 hours.
*Dare I note that after the CT scan I had to use the bathroom every 5 minutes and there was a toilet in my ER room but absolutely no privacy and no fewer than 4 doctors and nurses walked in on me while I was going? I guess I just did.
I was so miserable I didn't even care.
I finally got my own hospital room with a private bathroom and it's a good thing because the diarrhea attacks went on for 12 hours (courtesy of the lovely CT scan test).
A second blood test showed I was losing blood.
Finally, at 1:30 p.m. I saw a doctor (an OBGYN) who told me I had an ovarian cyst which had burst.
That, alone, is very painful, but not cause for much worry.
But mine was very large and on a vessel and I was hemorrhaging into my abdomen.
I would need surgery.
I was on the schedule for 5:00 p.m. on Saturday night.
My sister's husband drove down to help Jeff give me a blessing.
MIRACLE #3:
I was absolutely calm.
Me. Amy. Calm?
This never happens. I was going in for emergency surgery and felt no panic or anxiety whatsoever. I felt God's spirit with me. It was very real.
I made Jeff go home to try to sleep (neither of us had slept in about 36 hours)
He came back just as they were wheeling me into the OR.
I had the cutest, sweetest anesthesiologist who put me right at ease by talking to me about my kids and Disneyland (my two favorite subjects!)
I swear, she looked just like Mother Goose with her gray hair and spectacles.
Going under anesthesia is a piece of cake.
Coming out of it is a nightmare!
I felt like a was suffocating. I was strapped down with a mask over my face.
My brain struggled forever trying to come to the surface of coherent thought. Where was I? What is happening? Why does it hurt? It seriously felt like drowning!
My first semi-lucid thought was "...something about Disneyland....holy crap! Were we in Disneyland???"
Then I remember thrashing around a bit and yelling, "It hurts! It hurts!"
Then I needed to cough but I couldn't because my stomach hurt so bad.
Then I started to feel a heavy feeling and the pain started to go away. Demerol (with a heavy dose of anti-nausea so I wouldn't puke). Ahhhhhh....
The procedure normally only takes 30 minutes. Mine lasted 2 1/2 hours because the cyst was so large and wrapped all around my ovary. They also drained 700 cc of blood from my abdomen. That is just under a quart! (Hence, the fainting and fullness in my abdomen.)
Doc said it was the biggest cyst he had ever seen and they needed to keep me in the hospital for two more nights to monitor for more blood loss.
MIRACLE #4:
I know I was blessed with a great doctor who took the time and care to carefully cut away at the cyst and save my ovary. He didn't have to. He had good reason to just cut it out. The cyst was very large, I already have four kids, it was a Saturday night, he didn't know me, he would never see me again, and the surgery went on much longer than he had planned.
Jeff stayed with me for the rest of the night before he went back to the hotel.
He came back in the morning, but then I insisted he take the kids back to Disneyland.
He extended our hotel stay and the hotel clerk said,
"Wow! You guys must be having a great time!"
Haha. If he only knew.
Jeff sent me this picture of the kids on Splash Mountain.
They were so cute saying things like, "I feel bad riding rides when mom is in the hospital." or "I miss mom. It's not as fun without her."
On Monday morning I checked out of the hospital.
I wasn't well enough to drive home so we went to my sister's house.
Bless her heart, she took all six of us in and let us sleep in her beds and on the floor. I will forever be so grateful for how much she and her family helped us. She waited on me hand and foot.
I snapped this picture of her darling twin boys who kept me company.
I really wasn't very recovered but we HAD to get home to Utah.
Jeff needed to get back to work and the kids needed to get back to school.
MIRACLES #5 and 6:
I was so weak and in pain Tuesday morning that I didn't know how I would survive the drive home. (I lost a lot a blood and they didn't transfuse me). We said another family prayer.
Also, there was a massive storm predicted for southern and central Utah. I made the drive just fine, and there wasn't a drop of snow on the entire drive. The storm split and was much weaker than predicted.
I hadn't showered or washed my hair in a week.
Jeff made me wear his hat when I had to get out to use the bathroom. It was THAT bad.
The drive was extended by 90 miserable minutes because Jake came down with a fever, nausea, sore throat and a terrible headache. We had to stop and look for an InstaCare in Cedar City and then fill a prescription because he had Strep throat.
I totally cried from relief to be in my own home and my own bed.
My recovery is going pretty well.
I was in bed all day for 4 days after returning home, but I'm slowly getting my strength back.
Yesterday I had a shower, and today I cleaned the kitchen.
Major progress!
Jeff and I spent Valentines Day (also our 17th engagement anniversary) making that drive home from California.
He saw me in the most deplorable (i.e. gross, disgusting) of conditions AND I puked all over him.
He still loves me. I think.
And thanks to everyone for all the Facebook messages, texts, phone calls, meals, and help with carpooling and babysitting.
I'm just glad it's all over.
I'm already so homesick for Disneyland and we are planning a do-over ASAP.
(Thank goodness we got season passes!)
