So How Was Your Weekend?

Hope your weekend was good. Ours could have been much better. Could have been a whole lot worse, though, too.

Saturday morning, as usual, I get up with the kids while Meron gets some extra sleep. She woke up around 11 complaining that her back hurt. She just figured she slept wrong--it happens occasionally. However, she also woke up kinda cold, which doesn't happen when we have our AC set at 75 as we did that morning.

As the afternoon progressed, she kept getting worse, having trouble breathing without pain, not able to lay down, etc. Finally, we called my parents to see if they'd take the kids for a bit while we took her to the emergency room.

There was no answer, but knowing my parents and their love of working out in the yard on the weekend (something, obviously, they did not pass on to their oldest!), we packed up the kids and took them out there. Sure enough, they were outside and took Benjamin and Sarah without hesitation.

Then to the hospital. We walked into the ER at just before 5:00 PM and there was maybe one person in the waiting room. They took down the information, then said it'd be a little bit as a couple of ambulances were coming in. Sure, no problem.

Around 7:30, we finally get back to an exam room. The nurse does the basic stuff, then we wait for the doctor. And wait, and wait. I think she took blood, but I can't remember.

Doctor comes in, finally. Asks the same questions that, of course, we've answered twice already. Either he takes blood or has the results of the test. (Sorry, folks, but as you'll see, some recollections of that night are a little hazy.) Since Benjamin has had the bronchitis/pneumonia (which is what we figure she's got), they finally do X-rays as well. (Meron's first time to ever have X-rays, BTW.)

Eventually, doctor comes back. X-rays don't show any illness. He says he thinks it could be a blood clot in the lungs. Fever doesn't usually go with blood clots (and Meron's been running a fever that got up to 101 there in the ER), but it could be that. Need to do a confirm test on the blood. More waiting.

Doctor comes back. Says that the best on the blood had high levels, which does happen in pregnancy, but after 8 weeks he'd have thought they'd go down. So there's another test to do to confirm the blood clot.

By this time (and it's well after 9 PM), Meron especially is getting impatient. We dropped the kids thinking it's going to take an hour or so and it's already taken close to 5. She asks him how bad a blood clot could be. Now, I think the doctor thought she was about to say we'd take our chances and we were leaving, so he says, "Well, potentially life-threatening."

That went over real well, as you can imagine. They decided to do what they call a IV contrast (I believe), where they pump some dye into her and put her in a machine. By this time, it's 10:30. Sarah's slept more for my parents than normal so her bottle situation isn't at the critical stage it should be, but still, we've got to do something.

I talk to the nurse. The test is going to take about 10 minutes, results in 30 after that. If it is a clot, they'll admit her, put her on thinners, etc. Meron and I talk about it and decide that I'll run out to my parents, get the kids and have my parents follow me to our house so they can take care of the kids there (they didn't have the base for Sarah's car seat in their car and weren't comfortable trying to hook it up).

I hurry out there, where my parents decide that they'll just take the kids in my car and I can take theirs back to the hospital. Benjamin wasn't thrilled with his daddy coming and going again, but there wasn't really anything else to do. By this time, it's right around 11:15 PM and I'm hurrying to the hospital to make sure I don't miss anything.

Turns out, there was no reason to hurry. Even though they were getting the IV stuff in here when I left, it took a while before she got the test done. She'd only been back a few minutes when I got there.

A little after midnight (well past the 30 minutes for results, of course), the doctor comes in, says that there's no clot and that he's going to call it pleurisy. He gave us a prescription for an anti-inflammatory and a painkiller and at 12:30 or so we finally were able to leave. After a stop at Walgreens to get the medicine and McDonalds to get some food (since Meron hadn't eaten since her 11:00 AM breakfast and I'd had a small lunch around noon or so), we got home a little after 1:00.

Needless to say, we didn't make it to Sunday School the next morning, though we were able to get around in time to get to church. Nothing compared to my parents, though. These are people that are used to going to bed around 9:30 and were forced to be up to close to 1:30. They did some napping Sunday afternoon, that's for sure!

On the "joy in every situation" front, our copy of the new Harry Potter book came Saturday before we left for the hospital, and I was smart enough to grab it up before we left. That gave Meron something to do during most of our wait and helped keep her mind off of some things, I think.

(BTW, after a weekend of reading, I'm around the 400 page mark and Meron's closer to 300. So no spoilers in the comments if you know what's good for you!)

Thankfully, everything is fine and dandy. Meron's doing better and hopefully will continue to improve. And next time she's sick, I hope it's during the day when we can go to a regular doctor!