Home, Sweet, Home

I'm home!! I'll be doing IV antibiotics until Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm off to bed. Busy day tomorrow...then rest over the weekend (along with studying and school work).

Going Home

So...the plan is for me to go home tomorrow (Thursday) on home IV antibiotics. YAY!! At least I can go home and rest there. Although there is a lot of stuff I have to do this weekend. I should be back at class Monday. Hopefully my abx schedule will work with my class schedule so I don't have to miss any classes or a part of a class.

I do have a Pathophysiology test Tuesday. So I've got to really study for that this weekend. There is a review session Friday and Monday. I'm going to try to go to both of them, as I'm really behind in this class. It's the only class that doesn't take attendance and it doesn't "kill" you to miss it. I have the notes from friends of mine, but still need to study.

I also have a research paper due next Friday. Guess I better work on that this weekend too :)

So the results of the ECHO...my heart is fine...thank goodness. Nothing to be concerned about right now. My nurse practitioner said I have a healthy and beautiful heart :) My doc said that we will monitor it and if things got worse, I can get a heart cath done to check for the pulmonary hypertension. Evidently, the results from an ECHO aren't all that accurate and you really need other tests to confirm it. But there is nothing that indicates I would have pulmonary hypertension or that I needed other tests. So that is good news.

In the heart rate world...it is still high. It may just be that this is my baseline and have been hanging around this # for awhile. I don't really monitor it that much at home, except when I do an occasional BP check (which is usually at rest). And hopefully my heart rate will get better with another week of IV abx. My O2 sats are hanging around 90% when exercising...which is better. And these #'s should also get better with another week of abx.

So please pray that all goes well with doing home IV's and getting back into a normal routine, especially with school.

Hospital Day #6

Going on day #6 in the hospital. I have cabin fever really bad. As I mentioned before, I had hoped to be back in class yesterday (Monday) or at the latest by today for clinicals. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Hopefully Thursday will be the day. I will still be going home on Home IV's though. I have several things on Friday, including a Nursing School Luncheon that i'm working at and a CFF Young Professionals Board Fundraising Event. I also have a Pathophysiology test Monday.

My Heart rate over the weekend was higher than it had been earlier in the week. On Sunday, my doctor decided to walk me around the nurse's station and monitor my O2 saturation while walking (since my Heart Rate had been higher). He got a reading of 83% (which wasn't good). I'm not entirely sure it was accurate. I re-walked myself, while monitoring it later that night, and it ranged from 87-90%. So it's still too low. I also am having some really low BP readings (one day is was 80/38). They held my BP med yesterday and today. And tomorrow they are starting it back but at a much lower dose.

So the doctor on call this past weekend, suspected that maybe something was up with my heart. So I had an ultrasound to check for DVTs (deep vein thrombosis...blood clots). I also had an ECHO today. The ECHO technicians kept talking (which I hate when I can't see the screen or they "talk behind my back." However, one of the techs asked me if I knew I had pulmonary hypertension. I said no....no one has ever said that and I never have had it. So I'm guessing I might have some now? A little worried about that.

So..my heart rate is still really high...but other than that, everything is going ok. Still need my O2 sats to get better as well. I can tell that they are low, because i'm getting these massive headaches.

I did have a rough day yesterday morning with nausea and throwing up. And then that sent me into tons of pain. So yesterday was definitely not a good day. No sleep at all. And plus I was drugged with so many meds yesterday including pain meds, that today I've been really sleepy.

My clinical instructor from school came by and saw me today on her way to our unit where we do our clinicals. I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be with her coming by. She was really sweet. And it looks like that missing clinicals this week is not going to affect me passing the semester, because I had been doing really well so far. We'll see.

Ok...so I'll update again soon!

Hospital

Ok, so I totally thought I posted Wednesday morning after my doctor's appointment. But I guess not. Needless to say, I got admitted Wed to the hospital (HTICU) after my appointment. I did go home and pack a bag, then came back. So going on day 4 being in the hospital.


The main reason I was admitted is because I wasn't responding to the oral antibiotics with this infection. I'm only sensitive to 1 oral abx (Cipro) and it wasn't doing the trick. So IV abx was really my only option. I really didn't expect to be admitted...seriously..and was kind of surprised that is what they wanted to do.

The original plan discussed during clinic was to come in for a few days, then go home on home IV antibiotics. Plans change all the time, and honestly, I don't know when they are going to let me go home. I have clinicals this week for school (pre-clinical Tuesday then clinical Wed and Thurs) so I really want to be out by Tuesday morning. I'd like to be home by Monday. I thought I would be going home tomorrow, but that's out of the question.

Nothing really different to report other than the same ole stuff. I'm getting IV antibiotics, and just being watched carefully. I had been having these episodes of chest pain, which know one has identified the cause to yet. In some respect, they are monitoring this, but the main doc said I could come for some tests as an outpatient that he didn't want me doing them with an acute infection.

I'm trying to walk as much as possible. Today I've been much more SOB and have had a much higher heart rate while walking. But hopefully that will get better.

I told myself I would study today. Did that happen...NO!! I'm watching the Alabama Football game now. Maybe study tomorrow. I'm so behind :(

I'd appreciate your prayers for a speedy recovery and for everything to work out with school. I'm stressing big time about school.

I hope everyone has been having a good weekend

Random

This is a very random comment....

I figured out a way to make me take a quick shower and not linger.....have a cockroach on the celing above you :)

I HATE bugs...especially cockroaches. I spent the whole time talking to the cockroach while in the shower making sure he wasn't moving any closer to me.

Sorry...I know that was completely random :)

On another note...we have fall Break this week. We get a whopping 1 day off of school. It's technically 2 days, but we are always off on Fridays. This doesn't mean no studying...just no classes. And my Thursday is already booked with appointments. I have my mid-term evaluation with my clinical instructor. I also have a CFF Meeting.

I travel to transplant clinic tomorrow. My health has been holding up, but over the last week or so, I feel like I'm going downhill. I've also started to spike low grade fevers over the last few days. I'm also extremely SOB and more tired than usual. So I'm leaving class early tomorrow (which is a 1st) so I can get to clinic in time. They only have transplant clinic Wednesdays and most of the time they are done by 12 noon. I have to go at 6:00 am to get labwork and chest xray. Then I'm going back to class at 8am until about 10:00 am then hopefully be over at the hospital/clinic by 10:15. Thankfully campus is right next to UAB Hospital, where my transplant center is. And thankfully our instructors are not teaching us anything new tomorrow in skills lab since we are off on Fridays. We are just reviewing what we learned last time. So...I'm hanging on by a string, and I still think it's awesome and feel blessed that I have not been in the hospital since January. I plan to keep that going...but may need a boost of something. I never knew how stressful and exhausting this would be!

I still have the 3 fractures in my foot. They discovered at my last appointment that I have 2 stress fractures instead of 1. I don't really have any pain, but my ortho doc said it would take 6-8 more weeks to heal (and that was 3 weeks ago).

I'm sorry I'm lacking on blogging. Today is the 1st day I've sat and watched TV for a few hours...and that's only because I skipped my morning class and they let us leave early from our afternoon class.

I started watching the news coverage of the Chilean (is that spelled right?) Mine Rescue. I had no earthly idea this had happened. I told my Mom that I need a current event review every few weeks because I never get to watch the news...lol! Isn't this rescue amazing!!

I will post a report from my clinic appointment tomorrow!!