No there is not another baby mama in our lives...I am simply talking about me and my penchant for drama. What can I say? I was born a drama queen. I just can't help it sometimes! Hmm...where to begin?
I woke up at 4:00am on Tuesday morning like always, because I had to pee. However, when I opened my eyes, I was flat on my back. And the room was spinning. Not just little tilts...but honest to goodness spinning like I'd just stepped off an amusement park ride. Drunk. I very slowly maneuvered myself to my left side, thinking maybe the weight of my uterus had been cutting off blood flow to my brain or something. Just rolling over like that I swear I thought I was going to fall off the bed. I tried to steady my breathing and just relax for a minute and as long as I did not move my head, the dizziness was bearable. Despite my need to pee, I laid there on my left side until about 6:30 when Josh's alarm started to go off. I let him know that I was awake and really dizzy and he helped me sit up in bed and brought me a glass of water.
After awhile, I felt okay enough to venture to the bathroom finally. But just the effort of walking that far and trying to stabilize myself left me completely drained. As Josh headed off to work, I got another glass of water and settled myself on the couch. I knew I had to work at 3:00 so I was just hoping the dizzy spell resolved itself. Throughout the morning, I tried everything I could think of that had previously worked to relieve dizziness: eating protein, eating sugar, drinking water, laying back down on my left side. Nothing could stop the sickening tilting of the room whenever I moved my head. It was miserable....but despite the dizziness and a minor stiff/sore neck (which I assumed was from sleeping funny) I felt okay. No nausea. No fever. No headache.
Finally at around 2:00, I felt okay enough to go get ready for work. I made it down to my car with Charlie and I was stuck in the stupid snow again. Instead of freaking out, I called Josh and took Charlie for a walk around our apartment complex. This was no easy task since apparently they don't believe in shoveling or plowing anything. To repay them, I let Charlie poop on the sidewalk and did not clean it up. Hah! Josh said he could be home in half an hour to take me to work.
After this little walk, I suddenly felt much MUCH worse. I came back upstairs and sat down on the couch and closed my eyes to try to stop my head from spinning. I was so concerned with how I was supposed to do my job when I could barely walk for 10 minutes without feeling awful but with my track record the last couple days I was just going to suck it up and go. I heard Josh fumbling for his keys outside and got up to let him in. All I remember after that is him yelling, "honey!" and then I opened my eyes and I was on the floor with Charlie scrambling all over me.
I passed out. But somehow had the frame of mind to set myself semi gently down on my butt before I completely blacked out. My vision was black. I could not see anything. So I just laid there on the floor blinking for a couple minutes while Josh frantically called my doctors to see what he needed to do. Apparently, the doctor working that day was with a patient so she had to call him back. He finally got me up on the couch and my vision was returning a little bit. I had pretty intense tunnel vision and the light seemed soooo bright. Josh insisted I eat a spoonful of peanut butter and drink some water. All I can really say about this whole time frame was that I honestly felt drunk. I was slurring my words, my head would not stay up...my neck kept lolling to the side and my eyes were bothering me so badly.
Finally, my doctor called back and after talking to Josh for a little bit, he handed the phone to me. She asked me a bunch of questions which I tried to answer even though concentrating was really hard. She was just about to tell me to rest and call her if I still felt bad the next day when I mentioned to her that I woke up with a stiff neck. She went on red alert then and told me to get straight to the E.R. I know what she was thinking: meningitis...but I was not worried about that because I knew I did not have a fever. To be honest, I just wanted to go get checked out to make sure everything was okay with Peanut.
Josh and I got to experience the drive to the hospital for the first time. He was so sweet the whole time, always checking in with me to make sure I was okay. And he was the perfect worried daddy/husband...getting mad about traffic lights and bad drivers.
We arrived at the E.R and they already knew I was coming (thanks, Dr. Berenbaum!) so they took me straight back to an exam room. I was still so loopy and out of it during this time period. I know they took my blood pressure (125/75...a little higher than normal for me) and my temperature (98.6...totally normal). Then they had me put on a hospital gown and lay in bed. Before I knew it, I had a team of people surrounding me. They hooked me up to an I.V, took about 6 vials of blood and started putting sticky monitors all over me for an EKG. I remember thinking, wow...an EKG. I thought only old people having heart attacks got those. It all registered, but barely. I think I talked to like 4 doctors about my symptoms and what happened. They brought in a portable ultrasound machine to check on Peanut and everything looked good.We even saw his little legs kicking away...right on my left hip where I'd been feeling him all day.
Just like that, the people all cleared out and Josh and I were left there to wonder what the heck was going on. It was about that time that my mom showed up. I'm sure I gave her a panic attack with my antics. We all just sat there kind of talking waiting to hear something. I know the doctors were testing me for everything: heart murmur, infections, etc. I started to feel a little better as the IV bag emptied into my arm. My head was slowly clearing and I felt coherent again...although definitely hungover. I had a pounding headache and still just felt odd. Eventually the doctor came back in and told me all my labs looked normal and they devised that I was most likely just dehydrated. They unhooked me and sent me on my merry way. I kind of just sat there blinking like, really? A pregnant lady is dizzy all day, passes out and dehydration is all you've got as far as an answer?
We couldn't really do anything else so we left. Josh and I went to Village Inn and got some much needed food and I actually drank a Coke because I felt like it would help my head (it did.) I was told not to do much the next couple of days...just drink and rest so that's what I've been doing. I still feel weird. Just...not right. I'm not dizzy anymore thankfully but I was exhausted and no amount of sleep seemed to help. And that lingering headache just would not go away.
My doctor called me the next day to tell me she was given all my bloodwork and that she was concerned about my iron levels. She thinks I may be anemic. I looked it up and ding, ding, ding...I think we have a winner! Dizziness, exhaustion, fatigue, headache...all symptoms. She told me to go on a high iron diet and told me to go to the lab for my glucose test (which I still had not taken til today) and they would do a hematocrit test too to check my red blood cell count.
I actually felt a little better this morning and went and took the stupid glucose test. The drink made me wired for sound for a few hours and then I crashed. But in the meantime, I walked around Wal-Mart, got some baby shopping done and bought a bunch of spinach. :) One can later and I feel oddly better. So maybe that is the answer after all. Long (very long!) story short: I am high drama. Better safe than sorry I guess!
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