ERs and 5 star hospital rooms

Well, just when I think there can't be any more surprises another one comes.  I went to the ER yesterday at about 3pm since I had been really sick for a couple of days - dizzy, lightheaded, diarrhea, chills, vomiting, and such.  All the fun stuff you know?  We had gotten to a family reunion in the mountains Thursday evening and I felt normal, at least what had become my normal these last two months. Then Friday I spent most of the day laying in the tent or in a zero gravity chair because I felt so crappy and didn't feel up to doing anything.  Saturday I made a rebound and felt surprisingly well compared to the previous day.  We were able to walk around the campground a couple of times, played some games, and took our son to throw rocks in the river. I was so glad that I felt as good as I did and kept telling people God must know how much I love being in the mountains so He was letting me enjoy it.

That night I still felt pretty good when we turned in for the night only to wake up vomiting first thing early in the morning on Sunday.  After 4 or 5 hours of vomiting just stomach acid and getting ridiculously hot and sweaty every time I decided something was definitely not normal at all. So, I was sent to lay down in my grandparents trailer while my parents and Cliff packed up all of our stuff and we were on the road by about 11:30am.  We were about a 2 hour drive away from my parents house so we stopped there to leave what we didn't want left in our car if we ended up staying at the hospital overnight.  We both took quick showers not knowing for sure what would happen from then on and we were back on the road to drive into an ER not too far from the Huntsman Institute - the hospital where I had my last surgery and where my next one will be - in hopes that if I did end up there that my husband could drive us from the ER versus having to use an ambulance.

They got me right into a room at the ER after hearing how long I'd had nausea, loss of appetite, and had diarrhea.  The first thing they did was get my medical history - it's a bit entertaining seeing how some nurses and doctors react when they realize how unusual my cyst is - and then the doctor there jumped right into to getting some tests done.  They did an EKG since my heart rate was so fast but that looked fine.  Then they did blood work and found that my white blood cell count was very high - it was 79 with normal being below 10.  Then they had me get another CT as well but they added a chest scan to my usual abdomen and pelvis scans since I was short of breath and I'm going on about a month now of having had a cough.

The scan showed that it looks like my masses are either causing my small intestine to twist or that they are putting so much pressure on it that it is now causing obstructions there.  After that the ER doctor made the decision that he didn't want to do anything more to me there if it wasn't absolutely necessary because of my masses.  So, he called up to the Huntsman to see if they could get me in that night and in the end we ended up pulling into the parking lot there around 9pm.

Since being here they have run a lot more tests on my blood.  My white blood cell count has come down a bit but is still chilling around 70-72.  They also found out that I am very anemic right now so they'll keep a close eye on my iron levels.  Otherwise I've been being given a lot of fluids through an IV and they've mainly been focused on managing my pain, nausea, and making sure I'm hydrated since I was dehydrated when I got to the ER yesterday.  They did run a smear to check for leukemia since a high white blood cell can be an indicator of that bit thankfully that test came back negative. Their best bet is that the high count is due to me having some sort of infection and/or a lot of swelling happening in my abdomen since it is pretty distended.

Being a state holiday today nothing more than some more blood work will be done at all. Then tomorrow there will be multiple doctors who will look at all of my tests and scans that have been done since yesterday to decide what needs to happen next. My parents and our son were able to come in to visit for a while and seeing him was better than any medicine they could give me.  Although I will say that the anti-nausea and pain meds do help a lot.  So, we'll likely be here for at least a couple more days one way or the other and it sounds like a surgery will be in my very near future.  It's basically just a matter of which doctors will be doing it and when. Thankfully the new patient rooms here are a pretty sweet setup so we don't feel like we're in a closet.  Even then I was nice getting out of the room and sitting out in the waiting room for a while today just for a change of scenery.

I still fully believe that everything will work out and that God continues to be with me at every turn. However, at this point it would be kind of awesome if the surprises stopped happening 😅

That's all I have for now but will update again when we know more and I feel up to writing it.