Okay so a lot has happened within the past week since I last updated. Remember when I was telling you about Jesse being sick and I thought it was food poisoning? Yeah, no. I don’t think it was food poisoning because I got the exact same thing! My Wednesday morning was going great last week. Woke up, got ready and headed to Ross, Target, and even WalMart! Once I got home, I had lunch (which was leftover curry) and then I laid down for a bit. About two hours later my Dexcom went off saying I was low. I tested myself, my number was 66 so I figured it was the perfect time for a snack. Ate my frozen blueberries with goldfish, and continued to chill on the couch. My stomach started acting up and I was getting a bit nauseous but I thought nothing of it. My Dex went off again saying I was low and I thought that was really weird so I tested again and it was at 40! I used this time to eat a bunch of snacks thinking I’d just get high from it all and I could correct afterwards. I had gummy worms, girl scout cookies, goldfish, and juice. I mean WAY too many carbs to correct but I was feeling really crappy. I decided to go upstairs and lay down because I wasn’t feeling well. Jesse took Wilson out so I was home alone. I started getting extremely nauseous and was having that stomach ache. I felt like I couldn’t breathe or talk or move or do anything. I texted Jesse telling him he should come home. When he got here I tested myself again and I was STILL 40! I drank another juice and he called 911 but they tried transferring us on the phone (???) and were taking forever so Jesse hung up and decided to just drive me to the hospital instead, during traffic hours. Oy Vey. Once we were finally there, they took my blood sugar and it was 37. What the heck was happening?! I was pretty incoherent honestly and felt like I couldn’t talk. Didn’t want to talk to anyone and just wanted everyone to be quiet around me. I ended up vomiting in the ER room, like a lot. Gross (lets just say no more girl scout cookies for me for a while).
They eventually put me into this room to monitor baby’s heart rate, which was doing excellent. They were trying to figure out what was happening to me so they also tested me for the flu, which came back negative. I ended up having to stay in the hospital for four days! The first and last night there were probably the worst. I ended up throwing up again the first night. They had me hooked up to some fluids and also the baby heart rate monitor machine. The nurse that night wouldn’t let me lay on my sides because if I moved, I could move the heart rate machine and mess it up. I was so uncomfortable all night long, especially with him having to prick my fingers every single hour to check my blood sugars. By the way, their lancets are 10x more harsh than mine so all of my fingers have pretty much been through hell and look terrible. I didn’t use my own lancets because I didn’t have enough, and lets be real….what type 1 diabetic actually puts a new lancet on after every finger poke? Not me!
Day two in the hospital I woke up feeling a lot better but eventually started getting a small fever and felt terrible. You know, when you’re really cold but your body is super warm and your head just feels like it’s burning up?? Ugh. So they decided to keep me another night. I was lucky enough to have my mom sleep in the room with me for the first two nights. You might be wondering why I would want my mom instead of Jesse with me, and honestly, who doesn’t want their mom when they’re not feeling well?? I wanted Jesse at home to take care of the animals anyways.
Day three I was feeling a lot better but was also having pain in my stomach (also occurred on day two) and I felt extremely bloated and uncomfortable and whenever I tried to eat, I’d get really full really fast. Like, two bites in and I’d be done with my food. I brought this up to a few different nurses and one of them thought it was gas and others just kinda shrugged it off. But seriously, my stomach felt HUGE. When they weighed me I weighed 166! I was like, wait that can’t be right, how could I gain 10 pounds since the last doctor visit a week ago?? The nurse tried coming up with an explanation. Yea, sure, okay. I was hopeful to get good news that I’d be going home this day until my doctor came in and told me she wanted me to stay ANOTHER NIGHT because I hadn’t gotten my night time dose of insulin the night before and because my numbers were still running kind of low, she wanted me to be watched over night and be pricked every two hours (so fun). I cried. I just wanted to get the hell out of there. The bed was so uncomfortable and I had two IV’s in me and my arms hurt like hell. I was smelly, felt gross, my stomach hurt so bad I couldn’t lay on my sides anymore and they were telling me to eat more but I just couldn’t do it. Luckily during the night a nurse took me off of the fluids. I loved being free to walk to the bathroom without being connected to anything. This night was probably the second worst though because of how uncomfortable I was sleeping. I was hot, but cold, my stomach was huge. I felt gross. I just wanted to go home. I slept alone this night. Woke up around 2AM and couldn’t sleep. Eventually went to sleep but then woke up again around 5 or 6 and just laid there because a nurse came in dragging a scale into the room. Why she would drag this heavy clanky thing into my room at this hour I have no idea, but it pissed me off because it woke me up and I couldn’t go back to sleep. I didn’t want anyone with me that night because I knew how uncomfortable the couch was and I felt bad when my mom had to sleep on it. But I wished someone was with me because it sucked being alone feeling like crap. It was a shitty time.
Day four I was even more hopeful of going home. I mean, this had to be the day right? How much longer did they need me there? Every day that I was there, they did lab work and drew blood in the mornings. My parents came to visit me in the morning and my doctor eventually called me on the phone and said she had good news and bad news. The good news was that my blood sugars were doing a lot better, enough for them to figure out how much to start giving me and figured out a ratio for me to work with when I have my meals. The bad news was that my red blood cell count had lowered a lot since being there. They wanted to run some tests and figure out what was going on but couldn’t draw my blood again until 6pm that night and the results would take about an hour. Since I wasn’t bleeding out from anywhere, she was worried it could be internally. Talk about scary as sh*t. Yeah, I cried. Again. I was scared blood was just accumulating inside me and thats what was causing my bloated stomach or that I was hurting my baby somehow. But I couldn’t do anything about it and had to wait until 6pm to have my blood drawn. So another day spent at the hospital. At least this time I was able to walk around and they told me it would be good for me. They had a little outdoor patio that when Jesse came to visit me, we walked and hung out outside so I could get fresh air. I had him bring me clothes to shower and change and just feel better. I felt a lot better this day despite the bad news. I was trying to stay positive. My body was so swollen from laying down for so long. When I walked I felt like I was a giant whale going down the hallway. I waddled. Literally waddled down the hall. My feet, ankles, thighs, everything was swollen. Once we were done spending time outside I went back into my room to visit with my brother. I started feeling weird again, possibly standing too much. I pee’d like a madman that day since all of the fluids were finally coming out of me. My stomach started to feel much better, too. Turns out, my stomach was so bloated from all of those fluids! At least that’s what I think because I was starting to feel much more comfortable. Anyways, 6pm rolls around and no one shows up from the lab to draw my blood. They showed up an hour late, but I was so excited to get my blood drawn I couldn’t be that upset.
An hour later and a doctor came into the room, smiling, and told us that all the nurses had been saying how bad I wanted to go home (did I make it that obvious?) and so she wanted to be the one to give me the good news. Good. News. My red blood count had risen enough for me to go home and her thought was that the fluids I was on is what dropped it in the first place. My aunt who worked in the medical field had told my mom this earlier in the day so I was hoping that this is what could be happening to me. Thank you Jesus! They prescribed me some Iron and sent me on my way home, at 9pm! You have no idea how happy I was to finally be going home. Look, I know I wasn’t dying or anything but this whole experience was shitty especially being pregnant. I was so scared, and exhausted too.
Sunday went well, with me getting tired really quickly but it was OK. Once the night came though, I suddenly got extremely nauseated and had a stomach ache again. I for sure thought I’d be going back to the hospital and yeah, I cried again. What the hell was wrong with me?? I never threw up but I spent a good amount of time in the bathroom just sitting there trying to throw up. Eventually I went to bed but kept a bag next to me just in case. On Monday I had a doctors appointment and I was lucky that Jesse offered to take me just in case something happened or I didn’t feel good while driving. During my visit we just went over diabetes related stuff and I told them about my nausea and being tired. They prescribed me anti nausea meds and also took me off of the Iron pills because the rest of my labs came back normal so there was no need to be on Iron. I went home, tried to eat lunch, took a nap and just lounged around honestly. I stayed in bed until about 5pm. By the way, if you’re still reading this far into my post, baby was doing great the entire time and seemed to be unaffected by all of what was going on with me. Tuesday I felt the same where I’d get bursts of energy, do something, and then be exhausted afterwards and be a bit queasy too with having a little appetite. I only took the nausea meds the day I was given them. Luckily I just pushed through yesterday and then today I haven’t felt nauseated at all or tired! I feel like myself today and it feels amazing. The weather has been great and it’s so nice to sit outside and just relax and just be grateful that me and baby are OK. This situation could have been worse. I really hope I don’t have to lay in that hospital bed until I’m ready to give birth. Being pregnant and sick is absolutely terrible. Throw in diabetes, or any other disease or illness and it’s even worse.
If you’ve read this far, congrats! I didn’t know I’d be writing such a long post. I have my 3rd trimester ultrasound tomorrow and I am SO excited to see my little one! Oh yeah, and if your curious about the weight thing, I dropped down to 158 at my last appointment on Monday. Which seems to be a good weight to be at right about now. I knew there was no way I could weigh 166 right now. Thats just crazy! Well, I’m feeling better, no more bloat or swollen feet, my health seems to be doing good, and I’m happy. I’ll post an update next week and hopefully it won’t be a crazy one like this one!
Liz With Type One 