Stressed out, yet so lucky

I was going to start this post with a focus on stress, however, after a few minutes thinking about why I am even posting the events of this WEEK...I have realized that stress was huge but that I feel most lucky for the people that were by my side. Sunday night I began to have very bad abdominal pain, I ignored it and went to bed. The next morning it was not only not gone, but worse and made it impossible for me to stand up straight, take deep breathes, talk, and even eat or drink all that much. It was pain I had never felt before and could hardly explain. As ridiculous as it sounds, I had went into work but was smart enough to leave early to go straight to the emergency room. It was horrible.

Courtesy of Jason's boredom and playing with settings on our tablet

My mom came soon after for support and I suffered (I hate needles) through an IV, blood tests (couldn't find veins first time, so I got stuck twice!), and then an ultra sound that was the worst pain ever because laying down and on my side made the pain a 10. We find out that urine, blood, ultra sound...totally clean and everything looks great. No answer, just pain. This is when I finally get some morphine (thank heavens!) and the next step is a CAT scan. This is when my sister decided she'd drive down there to be with me as well, which is always comforting being that she is our Registered Nurse of the family. I get the insane amount of (nasty tasting) liquid I need to drink in order to start the 90 minute wait for CT Scan...This bucket of liquid entertained my loving husband....therefore more pictures...

Listening to directions

Working on the medicinal Big Gulp...

Jason is good at making the best out of every situation. He was making me laugh even when I was telling him to stop because it made the pain worse. I'm thankful for that. Jason, Mom, Ashley, and I sat and waited, then I had the scan, then more waiting. 8 hours and all those tests later and the doctor comes in to tell us that everything looks perfectly fine. Still no answer. The only thing they can suggest is that I follow up with a GI specialist, however since the GI cocktail they gave me didn't make the pain better, they didn't think it is GI related. So, I am perfectly healthy but in excruciating pain? It was frustrating. The frustration came out my eyeballs and all I could do was cry. I was to go home with medications and Percocet and hopes for pain relief. But here is where I continued to be lucky and extremely blessed....at this point Ashley makes sure I get another dose of morphine to go home on and gets feisty with the nurses as they are taking their sweet time to get me out of there. My sister wasn't messing around and I appreciate that a lot. She gets that from my mom...good stuff. Jason goes and picks up Aiden at Tricia's where he has been watched and having fun for 9 hours so that my family could be with me. Tricia also was nice enough to go and buy me flowers to come home to. Too sweet. My mom headed to the 24 hour pharmacy so that I can get my meds right away and didn't care it was way out of the way. My sister was able to take me by to get food (I hadn't eaten anything just in case something was wrong and I needed surgery or something) and then take me home. We got home, I ate a little bit and then I got in bed. My mom and Jason entertained the little man before putting him to sleep and my sister just laid in bed with me and watched TV as I fell asleep. I remember waking up from dosing off to have her still watching TV by my side. Doesn't sound all that amazing, but to me, meant the world. They all could have easily sent me off into my medicated slumber and headed back home, but they didn't. They stuck around even after all the hours in an ER. Every single one of them, Tricia, Jason, Ashley, and my mom....made a seemingly rough day and night so much easier to go through.

I took the following day off to rest. After talking all this out and a conversation with my Dad, I was coming to the realization that this may be stress related and that my body may be telling me to slow down. By the end of Tuesday the stomach pain was almost non existent and I felt like I could go back to work.

Yeah right. Wednesday morning I wake up with chest pain...are you serious? The deeper the breath, the worse the pain...and mostly on my left side. It was scary. I have to leave school AGAIN and this time I decide to just go see my doctor on base. They requested all my tests from Monday's ER visit...but the weird thing was, totally different symptoms. They ordered a chest xray and an EKG only to find out I was again completely healthy via the tests and there was no answer. I cried and cried, the more I cried the more the chest pain, hence the more I cried. It was horrible. So then I hear the question, "Do you suffer from anxiety?" I don't know. I've felt stressed but never had ever been physically effected. The doctor says there is also a chance that I have an inflamed chest wall but that there isn't a test to confirm that. Weird. She says that I need to take another day off and relax because she doesn't want to give me anxiety medication yet if this is not a reoccurring thing. Thanks, I think. So I did what she said and I took another day off. That would be the 4th substitute for my kids in one week and a lot of missed work....which just leads to more stress. Almost comical eh?

However, today is Friday and I am now feeling normal again and no pain. Jason has taken time off this week to help with Aiden so that I can be in bed like the doctors have ordered and a 3 day weekend is ahead of me. It has been a scary week and the idea of stress taking me down like this is quite unsettling. I need to work on slowing down and working less...we'll see how that goes. But what I know for sure, I have an amazing support system by my side. I may get stressed but I am one lucky girl.