lucky once again

August 01st, I am cleared.  I am told I can go back to regularly scheduled programming (although still, take it easy)  We celebrated by going on a trip to the Sand Dunes.  I had been wanting to go there since the previous spring.  The last time we went Ryan was just a baby and I had to carry her thru all the sand.  

It was a great trip.  We got there on a thursday and instantly went for a hike in the sand.  I was hoping to pace myself and make it to the top - but I barely made it up the first hill.  I had to sit and wait for John to go ahead and then come back to get me on the way down.  I was pretty bummed that I didn't have the stamina  that I thought I had.  

After our first hike we went to our campground.  We stayed at a KOA with friends who have an RV.  We slept in cabin number 2. (which was a tuff shed with 2 beds and a fan in it)  I slept on the little padded matress against the log frame.  In the morning I woke up and felt very out of whack.  We went back to the Sand Dunes and this time I had it much further.  Not to the top, but we still hiked steep hills of sand for about 2 hours before we stopped to take in the view and then turn around and go back down.  Then we hit a second hike with rocky terrain up to a waterfall.  I was beat and my side continued to hurt.  I thought the entire time that it was from sleeping on that little mattress against the log frame.

We got home from our trip and a week later I was back to see Gina (my physical therapist)  This time instead of working on my neck - I asked her to work on my lower ribs.  (left side)  She could tell I was out of whack (which i am sure in addition to my other ailments, I was)  I felt much better when I left, but it was short lived.  That night I couldn't sleep and felt like I couldn't breath. I couldn't lay flat or on my left side.  The next day I went back to PT but had to see a different person.  I told her that i was in serious pain.  Like on a scale of 1-10, I was a constant 6.  While she was working on me I had such pain that I was begging her to help me.  I was at a 9.  I couldn't open my eyes and felt like I was going to pass out.  When I left I remember being tingly and short of breath. She told me that it was skeletal and muscular and that if I went to the DRs office they would say I was having a heart attack, when I wasn't.   

Thru the day I sat in bed and i alternated heat and ice.  I have had friends that have had their backs go out and I figured this is what you had to do. Rest, be still - relax. Later that day I had places to go and things to do.  We had 2 soccer practices to get the girls to and a Back to School night for the parents to attend.  I tried to get thru the routine, but by about 6 I couldn't barely stand.  I had to lay down.  John got it all done and went up to the school.  We got take out - ate and then put the girls to bed.  I sat on my computer for a bit looking up anatomy so I could try to tell where I hurt and what it could be.  It was about 10PM when I stood up to get back in bed and I couldn't breath.  I had to bend sideways and lift my head to get a breath.  I texted John.  something like "please come help me"    (he was in the basement)

He came up - assessed.  I told him i HAD to go to the ER.  I had to see a DR. i couldn't breath.  We didn't even feel like we had time to call friends or parents.  John woke up the girls and I started walking to the car.  Down the hall, down 14 stairs and out to the garage took me about 10 minutes.  I must have looked like Tim Conway from the Carol Burnet Show, shuffling my way to the car while holding my back and trying to catch a breath.  We went to Skyridge.  For those of you in Denver - I highly recommend it.  I waited for about 5 minutes before I was getting checked in and had an IV started.  They were ON it.

Lots of tests, lots of waiting (they were busy with ambulances coming in)  My girls got picked up by Hooie, Johns mom and taken back to her house for the night.  We waited some more and around midnight they started talking about a blood clot.  They were waiting for a DR to sign off on a CT Scan.  My blood work came back as elevated and so I did get a scan.  Around 2 AM they came to tell me that I did in fact have a blood clot in my lung.  The doctor came in to explain that.  He told me that he was surprised I came in to the ER conscious.  I guess I didn't realize how serious it could have been.  I had told the nurses that I had called my midwife in May after being on BC pills for a month - complaining of pain in my calves.  She told me it was all in my head and to call her back if i saw streaking, of it my calves were warm to the touch or swollen red.  None of that ever happened, so i continued to tell myself that pain I felt was not a big deal.  Turns out that was bad advice and a disservice to me.  I had gone off of the BC pill at the end of July after telling my regular doctor about my leg pain. BUT, in August I had started another kind that had less hormones. (to continue regulating my cycle/mood since my surgery)

This was a long to do of a post.  All still very fresh in my head.  I feel like I was once again very lucky to have had it played out as it did.  A close call for sure.  I am really so lucky that nothing happened to me while I was in the middle of nowhere in all of that sand.  I can't imagine how you would even get help (cell phones don't work out there)  Also glad it stuck in my lung and not my heart or brain.  

i see the best sunrises while in the hospital.  Maybe those are the only sunrises I really see, since I am not a morning person.