Melissa’s Painful Hospital Saga (All the details)

As most of you know, I was admitted to the hospital on Saturday night, following a day fretted with extreme stomach pain which robbed me of having fun at Landin and Ryder’s soccer games in the morning, Tawnya’s Baby Shower in the afternoon, and Jennifer and Jason’s Costume Party that night. After driving home from the Halloween party I laid in bed for several hours trying to make the pain stop so I could get some much needed rest. But it wouldn’t stop – It just kept getting worse.

Those of you who know me well know my high tolerance for pain. I’ve given birth to 3 children without any pain medication whatsoever – but this, I couldn’t handle. I tried getting comfortable; I couldn’t. I tried breathing through the pain; I couldn’t. The hardest part about the pain was that it was constant. Never let up. With contractions, at least you know there is a break coming after a few minutes. This was just steady pain; with no break; no rest for the weary. I was worried about the baby, but was convinced that this was just a passing stomach ache, normal with pregnancy. At 12:30am I decided I was wrong. This wasn’t normal pain.

I called my OB and filled her in on my pain. She recommended I go straight to the Emergency Room. I already had on my PJs so I hobbled down to the car, and drove to the ER in town.

When I opened the door to the ER I was practically doubled-over in pain. The nurse was expecting me (a call from my OB had her ready and waiting for me) so she took my hand and led me straight to a room where they laid me down and got out the equipment to listen to the baby. I explained what I was feeling and answered their questions. They found the baby’s heartbeat right away, and it sounded great – a HUGE relief. The next order of business was relieving the pain (thankfully). Hey hit me with 6mg of Morphine, which removed the pain, and relaxed my muscles for the first time in more than 24-hours. They poked me to assess whether or not it was my appendix that was causing the pain. Hard to tell. They took me in for an in-depth ultrasound (3-hours) examining the baby and all my major organs.

One of the big concerns was that I fell down the stairs 10-days prior and had been in the Dr.’s office following the fall to check on the baby. Baby was fine, so they sent me home. What they were worried about now was the possibility that I had damaged an internal organ in the fall – and that it was just now manifesting itself. By 5am, the morphine was wearing off and the pain was coming back. The ultrasound results came back and showed that all my organs looked as they should, and that baby was happy and healthy wiggling around actively.

Without knowing what was wrong, but sure there was something abnormal going on, they checked me into the hospital for the night. One more dose of Morphine, and I was off to sleep for a few hours.

I woke-up starving (the extreme stomach pain had masked any hunger pains, and made me too nauseated to eat the day prior) but still feeling the ache in my tummy. I felt reassured that baby was okay, but frustrated that we were no closer to knowing what was causing the pain.

They ran a series of blood tests and we watched and waited, trying to see what would happen next. My blood work came back looking perfect – I was as healthy as a horse. With left us with a couple of options – The wait and see (while I withered in pain); another more specific Sonogram; the MRI (an imaging test using magnets that has no known side effects for baby, but could show the appendix and other organs in more detail than the ultrasound), the CAT scan (not a viable option given the danger of radiation to the baby) or a laparoscopy (a surgical procedure where they blow up the belly with gas, go in with a light and a camera and look at the appendix and other organs, and then conduct surgery to remove the appendix if necessary).

That night (Sunday) while I lay in bed in pain, I took a red pen out of my purse and with my eyes closed I used the pen to circle on my skin the spot where the pain was the most pronounced. I had been trying to pinpoint it all day but when I sat up and tried to double over to look underneath my growing pregnant belly at the spot, it would shift and I would feel the pain more broadly from being bent over. The next morning I showed the nurses the spot and explained that was where the pain was centered. The spot I had circled was right around where my appendix would be.

So on Monday morning, they opted for a second in-depth ultrasound/sonogram focusing on the appendix and the baby, and looking for any abnormalities. The ultrasound went well, baby looked wonderful, but they were not able to see my appendix in the images. This was reassuring, as they would expect that if it was inflamed it would show-up… but it wasn’t, so it didn’t. I was wheeled back to my hospital room, in even more pain after being poked and prodded again, and with no new information to speak of.

One of the other serious symptoms I was experiencing was extreme fatigue and shortness of breath. I would get tired getting up to go to the restroom, and would be short of breath just sitting up to eat.

The Morphine had made me nauseated that morning so on Monday night, we tried switching to a different pain medication that afternoon to allow me to sleep. They gave me a Vicoden equivalent, which didn’t seem to work, and I had a fitful couple of hours in and out of sleep marred by sharp pain and aches. The last conversation I had with the Dr. on Monday late in the evening revealed they were baffled, but that they were leaning towards the laparoscopy (surgery) option. This freaked me out because it meant full sedation (and if I’m knocked out, so is baby). I wasn’t excited about this option.

I woke on Tuesday morning feeling a little better. They had switched me over to a different pain med late in the night, and I finished off the night into the early morning with a good solid rest. The Dr. was encouraged by my feeling better, but I wasn’t 100% by any stretch, and we were all still eager to figure out what was going on. One of the most interesting developments on Tuesday, was that my pain had really shifted to the other side of my stomach and underneath my belly, which would be inconsistent with appendicitis. Given this, and the fact that I was rested enough by Tuesday to cope with the pain better, they put off the thought of surgery and opted for the MRI.

I went in on Tuesday afternoon for the MRI, which took around 2 ½ hours to do. I had to lay flat on my back, perfectly still, the entire time. It was really hot, super uncomfortable, and exaggerated the pain I was trying so hard to cope with already without pain medicine. When I got back to my room following the MRI, I was knocked out, sore, and ready for sleep. I was still hopeful I would go home that night, and was trying my best to get through to the end of the day without pain meds. I waited until after 6pm to get the MRI results. When my Dr. finally came to discuss the results I was curled up in a ball on the bed, ready for pain medication. One of the lessons I’ve learned through this process (there are many) is that it’s not a sign of personal weakness to ask for pain relief. I was in a lot of pain (still am) and the pain medication is not doing anything but helping me to cope with it. Still…. UG!

So my Dr. tells explains that the MRI results showed that my appendix looked normal (as far as they could see). What looked abnormal was my intestines. Based on the images from the MRI it appeared that my intestines weren’t functioning correctly, and were tweaked in several spots where there were pockets of gas and solids build-up. Based on my blood test that morning, which showed an abnormally low white blood cell count, they believed that I had a virus that was attacking my intestinal track. This would explain how the pain had moved around my belly, my fatigue level and shortness of breath, and the extreme pain I was feeling. They likened the virus to the Mono virus that we are all pretty familiar with (note: I do NOT have mono), but what I have is similar in that its sucked all my energy dry and made me feel listless and always out of breath. On top of the exhaustion, my lame virus added a gnarly pain element to the mix – lucky me. Adding mayhem to misery, apparently there are lymph nodes or adenoids located in the mesenteric layer of the bowel, just like we have in our neck, that become swollen when your body is infected with a virus. Mine were swollen, and were also adding to the pain I was experiencing (as if I needed yet another pain causing ailment). They call this Mesenteric Adenitis.

So in a nutshell, I’m facing a rare intestine-attacking virus, coupled with Mesenteric Adenitis.

They are running more tests to see if they can pin down the strain of the virus, and most importantly ensure that it is not a virus known to cause any harm to an unborn fetus.

I’ve was sent home today (Wednesday), and put on strict bedrest. Keep in mind that you cannot kill a virus with antibiotics (they are only able to attack bacteria), so the only course of action is to let the virus run its course – while treating the symptoms. So I am on bedrest for at least the next 2-weeks (and for what could be a month or more) until the virus is gone and with it go my pain and fatigue.

You all know how hard bedrest will be for a person like me. What the #@%*!

And poor Brice. The man is a Saint. He brought the kids to visit me everyday in the hospital, got them all off to school and their various activities each day, and is still holding down the fort. Now he is stuck with me at home, unable to help with the kids, or cook, or clean, or run errands… and he’s taken it all with the grace of a saint. He deserves better. When I’m all better and this is all behind us, I’ll take him somewhere nice to let him know how very much I appreciate all that he does, and how wonderful it is to have someone like him I can count on for EVERYTHING.

In the meantime, I need to rest