Two nights ago I can't find medicine for my gut and I know it's in the house. I turn the house upside down and can't find it. Finally I figure out it's in the car, so I head out in the evening to check the car (in my slippers and bathrobe) only to find out it's raining. Naturally I parked the car outside instead of in the garage. I get in the car and start searching. I lean over the armrest to dig in the back seat and I hear this loud "pop". I don't move and think (insert favorite expletive) "omg, I've cracked a rib!" I trudge back thru the rain (without medicine) into the house, where I have to share the news with husband who is busily packing for a business trip, the one I swore he could go on because "everything was good". So now I tell him, yes, I may have cracked a rib, but still, everything is good. I show him on the internet (multiple sites) that the treatment for a cracked rib is just otc pills or prescription pain pills (which I already have) and there's no need for the hospital because I can breathe just fine, he doesn't leave til morning so if there are changes, blah, blah, blah, I'll call my doc the next day, etc.
So, no changes, just same pain, so I send him off. I call my doctor's office the next day, late morning and leave a message, They get back to me and say, hold tight, we'll talk to the doc. Eventually they call and the doc says get to the clinic NOW and have this bloodwork and set of xrays done. I'm like "sure, as soon as my daughter and I finish lunch" because she happens to have the day off. She sighs because this is yet another day ruined due to mom's illness. I swear to her it will be quick and it was. we head back home and resume our day (she's painting) when we get a call from my doc freaking out because my d-dimer is off the charts (crp isn't back yet). Get to hospital now, suspected clot. I'm like, what about the cracked rib? Forget the rib!
Well as those of you with children know, there is no NOW. 2 hours later I'm in the hospital emergency room, after packing my daughter for an overnight, making her lunch for the next day because she has dietary issues, and finding a place to dump her for the night. I get to the hospital, park in the wrong place, go into the wrong doors, can't find the emergency part, end up having to go back out, find my car, drive to the emergency front doors and park (I'm blaming gabapentin for this stupidity, though topamax may have had a share of it). They take me right away even though it's busy and I spend the next hour filling out forms and trying to explain why my doc thought it was so important that I come to the emergency room. Eventually, after I've paid (yes, this is America) , they decide to run the same tests plus some more, a CT scan, etc. The only obstacle is that i have no veins. 4 different attempts to find a place to put in an IV fail (IV for CT scan has to be above wrist). They stick one in the hand to get blood for the bloodwork and then give up, telling the doc she'll have to run a different type of CT scan (apparently more expensive and longer). I tell them to keep trying, I'm game, so they send in Troy, who finally finds a vein in my forearm that works. Oh the bruises! meanwhile I finally get my IV and CT scan. More delay (thank goodness I brought a book and embroidery).
Of course, husband knows nothing of this. I figure, why worry him when there isn't anything to tell him? I'll wait til there's news. I was going to tell him when he called between plane flights but that's when he shared with me that a friend called. One of this best friends from college has been given a diagnosis of malignant brain cancer and has been given a few months to live. Nope, I figure my news can wait.
Eventually the doctors come back in and share with me the news. Apparently I'm suffering from a "chronic PE," one that's been there for who knows how long, but it didn't develop overnight. Prescription is LMWH in mega dose 2x a day, see my GP and hematologist (and I have one because i have Factor V leiden!). They didn't feel I needed to be hospitalized, thank goodness, because I was breathing just fine, ECG was good, etc and everyone wants to save money. Eventually they let me go, and I'm due to see my GP the minute she gets into the office this a.m. Best part, ER thinks I did crack a rib but it's not showing up on the xray (after all that calcium/vit d/magnesium I've been taking too).
Hilarious note: the entire time I'm in the ER, the nurses blamed Prednisone for everything. No vein? Pred. Fractured rib? Pred. Possible PE? Pred. and Factor V leiden. Now these are all legit, but it was just so comforting to hear someone else say it :D.
So now I'll probably be on anticoagulants for life, and given the choice between coumadin, a very crappy drug I've already tried and after 6 long months they couldn't get me stable on, or one of the new drugs, which are just that,and there are already lawsuits. Oh the fun. Meanwhile, it's all Prednisone's fault 
. And I have to break the news to husband at some point. The longer I wait, the angrier he'll be that didn't tell him right away, but really, what could he do but worry about nothing? And maybe help me pull of these annoying krazy glued on ECG stickers. I keep finding them all over my body. And by the time he gets home I'm going to be a mass of bruises due to the IV attempts and anticoagulant, thus looking even worse than it all is. *sigh* And here I was trying to be a good corporate wife and letting him go on a business trip, first one since all this crap happened.
And I still can't find the medicine for my gut. It's not in the car.