I will be so happy if I never see the inside of an emergency room again. Three times in one week, four times in two is four times too many. Just after dinner this evening, I was sitting out and felt a sudden twinge of pain in my chest. It was right above my breast, so my first reaction was that it was one of the sharp pins I’d been experiencing all week in my breasts. Only issue is, those pains have been mostly centered around the incision sites and this one was above the nipple. Then I breathed in and felt the all too familiar triangle of pain that I had experienced Sunday night and beyond. I looked at John and told him what was happening. I wanted to watch it for a bit to see if it got better or worse.
It was getting close to bedtime for the kids, so I had contingency plans running through my head. Who would I call to bring me to the ER? Or would we drop the kids off? All the while, with every breath, it felt like my back and my ribs needed to be adjusted by my chiropractor. The pain was sharp, not dull, and it felt like I had pulled a muscle in my shoulder. It was exactly how it started on Sunday night.
I sat down on the couch, proclaimed how fucking ridiculous this all was, and then laid back. The pain got worse. I started thinking through my options. Do I go in? The pain wasn’t horrible yet. But did I want it to be? What would happen if we didn’t go in? Pulmonary Embolisms can be fatal. But I was already on blood thinners, there wasn’t really much they could do. Unless the pain continued to get worse.
When the pain sharpened with lying back, I told John that we should probably go in. We swept up the kiddos, dropped them off with Grandma and Grandpa and made our way there. On the way, I started having second thoughts. I mean, I really didn’t want to be in the ER for the third time this week. I kept breathing deep, monitoring the pain, and then having to remind myself not to do that because it was making me dizzy. I tried calling a nurse line, but got put on hold for way too long.
We got to the ER and the pain was feeling a little better until I got out of the car to walk. This reaffirmed my decision as the pain once again spread throughout my back and shoulder. I checked in, and was brought back to triage. I answered the questions, had a nice sharp pain when I sat down, my blood pressure was ridiculously high, like 158/128. And then just as suddenly as it all started…it stopped. All the pain was gone. I took a deep breath. Nothing. UGH! Of course I was glad that this was probably a trip for nothing, but damnit, we were here and there was no backing out at this point.
We got back to the room, I felt embarrassed explaining everything to the doc with the fact that the pain had just suddenly disappeared, and I got an extremely uncomfortable IV put in my arm. My poor arm. I don’t think it has anything left to give. They still wanted to check me out for any complications. I got a chest x-ray, an EKG and some bloodwork done.
While we waited for results to be returned, I remembered having seen ads on Facebook earlier in the day for Mary Poppins on ABC. So, we turned it on and waited. Everything came back normal. INR still not therapeutic. The doc basically said that it could have been another clot, or it could have just been some irritation in my lungs. Personally, based on the sudden start and stop, I think something was moving around in there. I don’t know if the pain comes on suddenly when a clot gets lodged, but it stopped suddenly as though it was pushed through and no longer causing issues. Perhaps since my blood is thinner it was just easier for my body to move it through quickly, unlike Monday’s episode.
So, we were discharged, picked up and kids and just got home. Tomorrow’s excitement may include a doctor visit for Magnus. No rest for the weary.
No Comments