So last night felt good to sleep in my own bed, and not have to be awaken and 2 am and 5 am for my vitals. I spent that last 8 days in the hospital. Here's why:
It starts Father's Day weekend, when Clint and I went camping with a friend at the lake. Of course getting ready for camping involves shaving your legs and arm pits (no hairy pits or legs right!) Well, I must have nicked myself under my left arm and didn't realize it at the time. Enjoyed our time at the lake, even though it was bloody hot that weekend. Came home and realized that I had some red bumps under my left armpit, they itched so I assumed that they were bug bites. These bumps went away, but my arm started to get somewhat stiff and a cyst appeared below the crease of my arm. I read up on cysts, and found out that they will naturally dissolve on their own, no biggie.
As it got closer to the 4th of July, my arm started to swell, and became very painful. It was getting really hard to sleep and get comfortable whenever I was sitting or lying down. We had just found out I was pregnant shortly before this, and after dealing with the pain for a few days I went to an Urgent Care place here in the city (This was Saturday June 30th). That doctor put me on Amoxicillin to get the infection to go away. Said that it was safe for the a baby, and sent me home. We went down to Knob for the weekend after that for Clint's family's 4th of July thing. I still was feeling very icky. By the time Sunday night rolled around I had barely any energy to do anything but lay in bed in pain.
Monday and Tuesday were about the same, however now I was not able to keep anything down, my fever was rising and falling. Basically I was just plain miserable. On the 4th, I decided to go to my mom's for a few days to give Clint a break from the pregnant woman. We thought that me feeling icky like this was the pregnancy. Wednesday night I barely slept because of the constant pain in my arm. Think sharp needles being pushed in every time you moved.
Thursday morning, my mom said that I needed to go back to the doctor. I was still convinced that the meds I had gotten from the Urgent Care doctor were working, this was just the pregnancy. However, I went anyway. At the doctors office I could barely get my shirt off without crying in pain. By this time my left upper arm was swollen and burning hot(from the infection). The Doctor took one look at it and said that I had to be in the hospital now, with IV drugs being pumped into my system. It was then I realized that it was not the pregnancy, and that the baby could be at serious risk.
I checked into the hospital about 5 or so that night, and once the IV drugs were started the swelling began to go down. The wound opened on it's own on Friday night and began to drain. It was then that they found out that I had a nasty Staph infection. On top of that, one that was resistant to most IV antibiotics. So I was started on a high powered oral antibiotic (that was safe for baby.) Monday they took me for have an ultra-sound to see how far along I was. If i was 12 weeks, then they could do surgery and knock me out because it would be okay for the baby. However, I was only 7 weeks, which means that I had to be awake and they would do a local. (Due Date: 2.25.08)
Wednesday around noon I had my surgery, it took about 5 minutes for Dr. Pia (she was awesome). It was nice to see a friendly face in the OR room. Chandra, a girl I went to school with, was one of the surgical nurses. I immediately felt a wave of relief come over me when I returned to the room.
Thursday involved the first unpacking of my wound.(Unpacking and Repacking involves wetting a 4x4 piece of gauze in saline solution and then placing it into the open wound). It's not that deep (thank God!) however it's about the size of a walnut in circumference. I took my pain pills, however it still hurt like none other. After the pain of the unpacking and repacking took place, I wasn't in any pain for the rest of the day.
Yesterday morning's unpacking went better. I knew what to expect. I actually unpacked it, however because of it's location I was not able to repack it. The doctor was able to set up to have a home nurse come in once a day for a few weeks to help me with this, because it has to be changed daily.
It's starting to itch now, which is a good thing, because that means that it is healing. I have to stay out of the heat as much as possible to make sure sweat doesn't get into there, or I could end up back in the hospital. I'm glad to be home, but I am now more aware of the dangers of shaving and then swimming in a lake.
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