My first full week of January

Wow! A lot has been going on in my life these past two weeks. People have been emailing and asking how I'm doing so I'm going to devote one blog to everything that has happened. So, if you're not that interested in everything (and I don't blame you!) or if you don't have time to read this long post....it's ok. Just skip this one. And to be honest...I'm writing this assuming it's mostly girls (except you Calculus Dave) that read my blog so some of this stuff is a little graphic. Just a warning! :) Here's what's been going on in my life....

November/December 2008: I have been bleeding for a while (lovely way to start this off...i know!) I'm not sure what's going on and have already been to my dr twice already. My doctor tells me that he thinks he just needs to change my birth control because it may be a little too strong (how do I tell him that strong is good!! we are not trying to have any kids at this time!) We travel to GA to celebrate Christmas with my family and on the way back, I start feeling sick. I ask Darin to stop at a gas station thinking I was just sick at my stomach or something. Once inside, I start getting lightheaded. I can't even make it back out to the car. The clerk behind the counter had to go get Darin and he had to come inside and help me back out to the car. I was afraid I was going to pass out. Darin assures me that it really was extremely hot in the gas station. We are in-the-middle-of-no-where, TN so I decide to skip taking me to the hospital and to just sleep it off on the way home. Once we're home, I feel a little weak, but am fine. Darin is still concerned. I really hate going to the doctor (see previous posts) but I know something is wrong. I'm still bleeding and we have no idea why. I have joked with my dr about being a hypochondriac and he hasn't really done anything to assure me that I'm not. I ask him about maybe drawing blood but he assures me that I'm young and healthy so it's really probably my birth control that needs to be changed. The nurse asked me if I could be pregnant (why they never had me take a pregnancy test, I'll never know!) but I tell her no since I'm bleeding. She accepts this answer and moves on.

Monday, January 5: It's our first day back at school after the holidays. Darin and I take half a day off because at this point, I wanted him to see that my dr really wasn't concerned. My dr does an ultrasound where they find some cysts on one of my ovaries and also find a big mass. They are not sure where this mass came from or why it is there. My husband and I assure ourselves that it could be anything and to not worry! I have myself convinced that it is seriously nothing. My dr decides that a CT scan needs to be done just to see where this mass is coming from and we schedule one for that Thursday. My biggest question is: "Is this going to hurt?"

Wednesday, January 6: I'm getting a little nervous about my test tomorrow. It's the little things like that fact that I can't just go to my dr's office...I have to go to Baptist hospital in Nashville. I know it's not going to hurt. All I will have to do it just drink some thick mix of something...and they MIGHT have to put an IV in my arm. This all comes from my mother who is not laughing at me despite the fact that her 29 year old daughter is as scared as a little kid about going to the hospital. Gotta love mom's!!! Wednesday afternoon I get a call from the hospital saying that my insurance has no recognition of a Kate Plumlee. I tell them that I got married last summer but that everything is changed over from Lovelace to Plumlee. They can find a Kate Lovelace but not Kate Plumlee. I inform the nice man on the phone that "I am looking directly at my insurance card that says Kathleen Plumlee. I KNOW I have insurance!!" He says that's fine but if your insurance company can't prove that you have insurance then you will be responsible for the entire bill for your test. Ugh! Thanks Cigna!! I get on the phone with Cigna who informs me that they do have me down as a member and that the hospital does not need to have pre-approval to run this test. You know...they really need to think about the mental state of people before they call them informing them that they have no insurance!! (Ok...maybe I was overreacting but seriously people...I was stressed!!) The hospital calls me back and informs me that everything is taken care of. Things are looking up...

Thursday MORNING, January 8: Darin and I get to Baptist hospital at 7:45. Since we have one of the first appointments, I'm sure that it won't take long. We sit for about 15 minutes in the (first) waiting room. I fill out the appropriate forms, etc and they call us back to the (second) waiting room. Seriously...why so many waiting rooms? A nurse comes in and gives me and another woman sitting there a HUGE bottle of stuff that is described as a "Vanilla Creme Smoothie." Let me just tell you, it was not!! I looked at the lady beside me and ask her if she wants to just pretend that it's a big frozen margarita. She laughs and says ok. Darin tells me to quit talking to EVERYONE. Have i mentioned that this is a nervous habit for me? If I'm talking, then I don't think about the test for too long. Once I finish, the nurse comes back in and tells me that it will be another hour before they can do the test. They have to give the liquid enough time to travel down. I should have come prepared. I'm reading magazines that are in the room but am seriously getting fidgety. Finally she comes back in and takes me to the room where the CT machine is. I lay down on the table. No big deal. They shoot a few pics of me and I'm sliding in and out of this machine...holding my breath when they tell me to. Then the tech comes in and says "I'm going to put this IV in your arm now." My first response is "Is this going to hurt?" I'm not kidding. Luckily, I have "GREAT" veins and everything is fine. The test seriously lasted about 15 minutes and we were out of there. Since we had already taken the whole day off from school, Darin and I go out to lunch and then to our local gym to work out. Gotta loose those extra holiday pounds that have found my hips!!

Thursday 4:00 pm, January 8: Have I mentioned that I'm working part time as the front desk clerk at a local hotel? I started doing this during the summer for some extra money while we were out of school and pick it up during the holidays and stuff. I work a few nights during the week just to pick up some hours...it's super easy and we get great discounts when we travel!! So, I'm scheduled to work tonight. I show up around 4. We have several important people meeting with my boss, so I'm just trying to stay out of the way. Around 4:20ish I start feeling sick again. It's the same feeling I had at that gas station on our way back from Georgia. I call Darin and tell him that I'm sick. I don't have time to tell him anything else because I feel like I need to get to the bathroom. (I don't feel sick at my stomach but there's something about just getting a bathroom when you feel sick...i don't know...). I go to put the sign on the front counter telling customers that I will be right back and the next thing I know, my boss and one of the VIP's that was with him are standing over me asking me if I'm all right. I have passed out and am laying on the floor. I tell him to get my phone and call Darin. Darin comes right over and picks me up. I assure him that I need to just go home and rest. He thinks I need to go to the hospital, but we compromise and I call my dr's office. My doctor has now left for his two week vacation. He will be in Hawaii with his family until the 18th. I inform the nurse of everything that happened and she tells me that the emergency room can't do any other tests that they haven't already run. She tells me just to go home and rest and to call her tomorrow. Darin doesn't like that idea, but I promise him that I am fine and that it is ok for him to take Austin to wrestling practice. Erin is at home with me and I will call him if I need anything. Darin and Austin leave and Erin and I just lounge around watching TV. I call my mom and inform her of everything. She works at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta and tells the nurses there what has happened. She really encourages me to just go to the hospital, but I tell her that I'm just going to wait and see how I feel until Darin gets home.

6:30 pm: I'm starting to have trouble breathing. Darin's sister stops by the house and I tell her and her boyfriend about everything. I'm thinking I may have cracked a rib or something when I fell. I hope it's not puncturing a lung or anything. I call my mom back and tell her about my newest ailment. She is adamant this time that I get myself to the ER. I know she just loves living 300 miles from me at this point. I tell her ok and calmly call Darin and tell him not to rush home, but once practice is over that I think we need to head to the hospital. I tell him that it's not an emergency really but that we just need to get my ribs checked out. Darin's mom comes over to get the kids once Darin and Austin get home. Darin realizes that it's about 8:30 now and that we may want to pack a bag. I have perfect timing with all of this since the National Championship Game is on and I know Darin would much rather be watching it than driving me to the ER. There are several hospital choices along the way, but we decide to go back to Baptist Hospital where I had my CT scan done. They already have all of my information in their computer system, plus, they may be able to go ahead and get the results from my test from earlier in the day. My famous last words before getting to the hospital was when I looked at Darin and said "I think there's going to be lots of needles tonight." He said "Yep...there's going to be lots of them..."

9:45: We walk into the ER (Good news!! The game is on all 5 of the TVs in the waiting room) We only waited about 20 minutes before they called us back. I go through triage and they run an EKG test on me. Everything's fine. My blood pressure is good too! I'm starting to think I have over reacted. They put me back in a room and a nurse comes to draw blood. I tell Darin to call my mom just so she knows that we were there. The next thing I know, a dr is at my door and he tell us that they are going to go ahead and admit me for the night. Just where I wanted to spend my Thursday night. We wait while a (really nice) nurse comes in to start an IV. At this point I'm thinking just get some pain medicine in me so I can breathe normal again! The next time the dr comes in I can tell it's not good. He closes and door and asks Darin to turn the volume down. Yes, we're still watching the end of the game. He tells us that the blood that they took showed that I was pregnant. Darin and I look at each other in shock. We had no idea. Before we could say anything, he said that he went and got my CT scan from that morning. The baby never made it out of my fallopian tube and at this point, my tube on the right side has ruptured. The pain that I'm feeling is not coming from a broken rib, it's coming from the fact that I'm bleeding on the inside. A lot! Remember the big mass that they found doing the ultrasound? It was a big pool of blood. Nice. He tells me that he's calling in a surgeon who is in the same practice as my dr (remember him? He's in Hawaii right now...) and that we will need to go into surgery pronto. He leaves and we try to process all of this information. I want to cry but every time I start to get upset, I can't breathe. Darin and I decide not to call any parents at this point because we knew that we would wake them up and that they would worry all night long! We wait for the surgeon to arrive. They decide to take me up for one more ultrasound. Darin gets a little teary eyed but he is trying to stay strong for me. I'm not saying much of anything. I'm still in a lot of pain and I'm not looking forward to surgery! The first thing we hear is a heartbeat. I'm thinking to myself "could this baby still be alive?" I have no idea of what to expect. I've never been through anything like this. What we heard was my heartbeat, though. They wheel me back down and the surgeon has arrived. They take Darin and me to the pre-op room. It's cold in there!! They allow Darin to be with me while we talk to the surgeon. He tells us that it is a risky surgery and everything that it's going to entail. At the end of his speech I ask him if I am in any danger. He looks directly at me and says "We have to go now! We have no time to wait." I look at Darin and tell him that he better just go ahead and call our parents since it's risky. The dr tells him that it's time for him to leave and he kisses me and tells me to be strong. There are tears rolling down my face at this point...I realize that I'm either waking up here or in heaven. I have never been more glad to know for certain of my fate after this life. I pray and pray and pray....

2:00 am: They wheel me into the operating room. Why they don't just go ahead and put me to sleep i'll never know. A nice nurse named Liz held my hand throughout the entire process while I was awake. I ask them to just go ahead and put me to sleep since I was really getting nervous....and they agree.

3:45 am: The next thing I know I'm waking up in recovery. I have tubes in my nose which I can't wait to get out! But the good news is...I'm ok! I want to see Darin but they say they can't get in touch with him. He's supposed to be in my room waiting on me. After about an hour they wheel me up to my room. Darin is in the waiting room pacing. They wouldn't let him in my room until I was up there. His eyes are red and I know he's been crying. I tell him that it's ok, that I made it out fine and he tells me that the dr went up to see him after the surgery. Things were worse than they expected once they got in. I lost a lot of blood. The reason that I couldn't breathe earlier in the night was because my stomach and lungs were filling up with blood. I was drowning in my own blood. The dr looked at Darin and told him that if we hadn't of come in Thursday night, that I would have bled to death. I am one lucky girl. I have three little incisions in me, and my stomach is hurting a lot....but again, I'm alive! We try to get a little sleep but can't really get any. It's about 5:30 at this point and around 7:00 people started calling to check on us. Of course Darin called our parents after I came out of surgery, but we left it to them to call the rest of the family. My mom and sister decide to head up from Atlanta. The dr comes in while he's making his rounds and tells me everything that he had told Darin. He says that I will get to leave that afternoon which thrills me. I can't wait to get home to my own bed. A few more nurses come in and out and I finally break down and tell them that I need more pain medicine. This consists of a shot and when I said my famous words "Is this going to hurt?" the nurse laughed and said "oh yeah." Great....

I did get to go home that afternoon. I spent the whole weekend recovering and trying to figure out how to walk without using many stomach muscles. I loved the fact that my mom was there...especially since we were still dealing with the fact that in the middle of all of this, we lost a baby. My mom and Meredith left on Saturday night and on Sunday, Jessica and Jeremy came up to stay for the night. I was very well taken care of. I took all last week off from school just to rest and try to build up some of my strength. My body had to work hard to rebuild my blood supply. I went to back to the dr who did my surgery this past Friday and he said that everything was healing nicely. We will still be able to have children of our own he thinks. It will be a little harder since we are down to only one side (he had to remove the entire tube since it had ruptured) and also since my ovary on my "good" side does have the two cysts on it still. He's thinking they are "functional cysts" and that they will not cause any harm. We're just going to take it one day at a time for right now.

Whew!! It's been a whirlwind of a week. I am so thankful to be alive, and for my husband and family who stood by my side. I know it was just as hard if not harder for Darin since he's the one who had to make all the phone calls to family and stuff. I'm so lucky to be married to such a great man.

This week it's back to work as usual. I know my students have been worried since Darin came home last week saying that a lot of my students were asking him how I was doing. They know I had emergency surgery but that's about it. My co-workers have been awesome and have been giving up their planning periods to teach my classes so that they don't get behind. One of my co-workers even came over and took me to get a manicure!! I couldn't ask for better help than that!

The pics from Christmas are still coming. Maybe I can have them up by Easter....ha, ha! I just wanted to let you all know what was going on at the Plumlee household. I hope that this is no indication of the year to come....on the other hand...it's brought our family closer than ever. So maybe in the midst of this horrible night...good things have come from it after all!