I had been airlifted to another hospital. A skilled team of critical care doctors took great care of me when I arrived. A special medical team of pulminologists, perfusionists, and all sorts of other extremely medically sounding professionals, did a procedure on me.
I was put on the ECMO machine. ECMO stands for extra corporeal membrane oxygenation.
When I woke up I knew what the letters in ECMO stood for, but I know I have never heard this term before in my life. Which means that my brain was clearly processing information even though I was in a coma. You don't lose your ability to hear when you are unconscious, it just gets processed in a different way.
My medical team was amazing. They had just had an extremely busy day behind them, including three lung transplants. A surgeon cut two holes in the right side of my neck. Then they placed two tubes in them (think garden hose for size). One tube pumped blood out of my body, the ECMO machine took the carbon dioxide out of my blood and put oxygen into it again, then the other tube put the blood back into my body.
This gave my lungs time to heal because they didn't have to do the breathing for my body. A breathing machine was still pumping air in my lungs, but that was just kept at minimum, I don't know the exact numbers, maybe 6 or 8 breaths per minute, something like that.
Someone had to monitor the ECMO machine 24/7. I was on ECMO for 12 days I think.
At one point I was not doing well at all. They have to have you on blood thinners when you're on this machine and I had just had major abdominal surgery, the emergency c-section. They did an ultrasound and found that I was bleeding internally. I was also bleeding along all my leads, the IVs and everything. Blood just pooling on the floor under my bed. A doctor came and inserted a really big needle into my abdomen, draining off over 4 liters of blood which were keeping me from breathing. I had a lot of blood transfusions. I am grateful for everyone who gives their blood, they truly save lives, they saved mine.
I got a urinary tract infection from the catheter so they put me on antibiotics. I got an allergic reaction. They put me on something else, but couldn't really figure out what exactly I was allergic to.
I was in a lot of discomfort apparently, I would sort of grimace and scrunch up my face, they upped my pain medication and that helped. They needed me to cough, so I would cough up the fluid in my lungs. I was on medication that paralyzed me so I couldn't move, so the coughing was bad to witness I believe. It would just sort of take over my body and I would cough and cough and cough.
I was in restraints because the medicine that induces a coma would wear off very quickly for me. If a nurse didn't administer a new dose every hour on the hour, I would start to wake up...
...and that made for some confusing moments during my coma, for sure, but I'll leave that for the next post.
To be continued...
Showing posts with label emergency c-section. Show all posts
Showing posts with label emergency c-section. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
Emergency C-section
I was laying in the pre-op room in the hospital bed. There was a flurry of activity around me. Lots of people coming in and out of the room. Everyone talking over me, very few actually talking to me. A nurse asked me for my husband's phone number. I gave it to her but thought it was strange that they didn't already have it, I mean what if I were unconscious? They called to tell him that I was having an emergency c-section. He told them that he couldn't come until he had found a sitter for our son. I wondered if I should ask to speak with him but then I thought ''He knows I love him and I know he loves me'' so we don't really have to talk, I'd just get emotional or something.
I wasn't sure if I needed to pee or not and was almost going to ask the nurses if they needed me to go before the surgery but everyone seemed so busy that I didn't want to interrupt them.
Someone came and took my wedding ring, that upset me a bit, but it came off quite easily. I told her not to lose it.
There was a big clock on the wall, it seemed like it was just staring me in the face. All huge and obnoxious, ticking the minutes away. Everything was on hold because we were waiting for the anesthesiologist. I overheard two people talking, one said that sure this guy was on call but he probably wouldn't get here until 8:30pm, and someone answered ''this lady doesn't have until 8:30!''
This startled me because the huge clock was just 7:10pm or something like that. And I thought to myself, why don't I have until 8:30, what is happening?
I was asked some questions I think, I probably answered them though I don't really remember. I do remember nurses talking about who could go off and have dinner first and someone laughing, it was nice to hear laughter. Someone else said there was a chopper coming in with a senile guy with a broken leg, and they were discussing who would go deal with that.
Finally the anesthesiologist came and asked me a whole bunch of questions that I thought he should have known beforehand. He was on my left, holding my hand, and someone on my right was clearly pissed off at this guy and was snapping at him to get a move on already.
I was relatively calm through all this, I knew with an emergency c-section I would be unconscious for the delivery. I wondered how they would put me to sleep, if it was with a mask or with an IV.
They wheeled my bed into the operating room next to the operation table. They then did the whole sliding the sheets maneuver, it was very smooth.
Someone put a mask over my mouth and nose and that's when I really had difficulty breathing. I yanked the mask away and said ''I can't breathe''. This person put the mask back on me. I yanked it away again, struggling and saying ''I can't breathe''. He/she loosened the hold of the mask against my face, I was grateful for that. I wondered if this was just a feeling people got before they had surgery with general anesthesia, this feeling of not being able to breathe.
When I woke up I had tears in my eyes and a big lump in my throat. My husband was on my left, telling me that I had been asleep for a while. I saw the wall behind him, covered with pictures of our son and a little baby I didn't know was a boy or a girl.
I had been in a coma for 3 weeks.
To be continued...
I wasn't sure if I needed to pee or not and was almost going to ask the nurses if they needed me to go before the surgery but everyone seemed so busy that I didn't want to interrupt them.
Someone came and took my wedding ring, that upset me a bit, but it came off quite easily. I told her not to lose it.
There was a big clock on the wall, it seemed like it was just staring me in the face. All huge and obnoxious, ticking the minutes away. Everything was on hold because we were waiting for the anesthesiologist. I overheard two people talking, one said that sure this guy was on call but he probably wouldn't get here until 8:30pm, and someone answered ''this lady doesn't have until 8:30!''
This startled me because the huge clock was just 7:10pm or something like that. And I thought to myself, why don't I have until 8:30, what is happening?
I was asked some questions I think, I probably answered them though I don't really remember. I do remember nurses talking about who could go off and have dinner first and someone laughing, it was nice to hear laughter. Someone else said there was a chopper coming in with a senile guy with a broken leg, and they were discussing who would go deal with that.
Finally the anesthesiologist came and asked me a whole bunch of questions that I thought he should have known beforehand. He was on my left, holding my hand, and someone on my right was clearly pissed off at this guy and was snapping at him to get a move on already.
I was relatively calm through all this, I knew with an emergency c-section I would be unconscious for the delivery. I wondered how they would put me to sleep, if it was with a mask or with an IV.
They wheeled my bed into the operating room next to the operation table. They then did the whole sliding the sheets maneuver, it was very smooth.
Someone put a mask over my mouth and nose and that's when I really had difficulty breathing. I yanked the mask away and said ''I can't breathe''. This person put the mask back on me. I yanked it away again, struggling and saying ''I can't breathe''. He/she loosened the hold of the mask against my face, I was grateful for that. I wondered if this was just a feeling people got before they had surgery with general anesthesia, this feeling of not being able to breathe.
When I woke up I had tears in my eyes and a big lump in my throat. My husband was on my left, telling me that I had been asleep for a while. I saw the wall behind him, covered with pictures of our son and a little baby I didn't know was a boy or a girl.
I had been in a coma for 3 weeks.
To be continued...
Sunday, February 5, 2012
All is well
On Valentine's Day 2011, my husband took me to see my OB/GYN. This was a Monday and I had been really sick during the weekend. Fever, coughing, throwing up and generally feeling like shit. My husband was also sick and our 3 year old son as well. I figured we just all had the flu, but my doctor wanted me to come in to check if I had strep throat. I was almost 35 weeks pregnant with my daughter at that point in time.
I sat on the examination table while my doctor examined me. My husband and son were in the room with us. My doctor told me that I had pneumonia and that I was dehydrated and that he would have to admit me into the hospital. This stunned me, I knew I was sick but I didn't think I was ''hospital'' sick. So I asked the doctor how long he thought I would have to stay in the hospital. He told me two days.
I had been so worried about how my son was going to deal with me being gone for 48 hours when the baby came and now I worried even more about him seeing me in a hospital bed, I didn't like it, but I couldn't do anything about it.
We went through to admissions and they sat me in a wheel chair, the admission process took a long time. I got a room and had to put on a hospital gown. My son did not like seeing me like that, neither did I. I was then wheeled to get an x-ray of my lungs.
This was a new hospital and we were supposed to go on a tour that preceding Saturday, but had to cancel because we were all sick. Being wheeled in a wheel chair through countless hallways was not how I pictured touring the new hospital where I would deliver my baby.
The x-ray technician covered my belly so the baby wouldn't get zapped with too many rays, and took an x-ray of my lungs. My husband and son waited outside. I was then wheeled back into my room.
My son had an appointment with his pediatrician so my husband had to leave to take him there. I asked him to get me some things from home, a book to read and some underwear. I think I watched TV while I waited for them to come back. When they came back, my son did not want to be there, he kept saying ''drive home''. So I asked my husband to take him home, I didn't want to make him stay with me in the hospital.
The next thing I remember is that it's the following day, Tuesday February the 15th, it's evening, and I'm being rolled along the hallways again, but this time I'm in the hospital bed. I see the lights whooshing by me in the ceiling. I don't remember having talked with any doctors but I know that I'm being taken into surgery and that I'm going to be having an emergency c-section. I am all right in this knowledge and am surprised how calm I am and wonder if they have given me that medication that makes you kind of not care about what's happening or not.
To be continued...
I sat on the examination table while my doctor examined me. My husband and son were in the room with us. My doctor told me that I had pneumonia and that I was dehydrated and that he would have to admit me into the hospital. This stunned me, I knew I was sick but I didn't think I was ''hospital'' sick. So I asked the doctor how long he thought I would have to stay in the hospital. He told me two days.
I had been so worried about how my son was going to deal with me being gone for 48 hours when the baby came and now I worried even more about him seeing me in a hospital bed, I didn't like it, but I couldn't do anything about it.
We went through to admissions and they sat me in a wheel chair, the admission process took a long time. I got a room and had to put on a hospital gown. My son did not like seeing me like that, neither did I. I was then wheeled to get an x-ray of my lungs.
This was a new hospital and we were supposed to go on a tour that preceding Saturday, but had to cancel because we were all sick. Being wheeled in a wheel chair through countless hallways was not how I pictured touring the new hospital where I would deliver my baby.
The x-ray technician covered my belly so the baby wouldn't get zapped with too many rays, and took an x-ray of my lungs. My husband and son waited outside. I was then wheeled back into my room.
My son had an appointment with his pediatrician so my husband had to leave to take him there. I asked him to get me some things from home, a book to read and some underwear. I think I watched TV while I waited for them to come back. When they came back, my son did not want to be there, he kept saying ''drive home''. So I asked my husband to take him home, I didn't want to make him stay with me in the hospital.
The next thing I remember is that it's the following day, Tuesday February the 15th, it's evening, and I'm being rolled along the hallways again, but this time I'm in the hospital bed. I see the lights whooshing by me in the ceiling. I don't remember having talked with any doctors but I know that I'm being taken into surgery and that I'm going to be having an emergency c-section. I am all right in this knowledge and am surprised how calm I am and wonder if they have given me that medication that makes you kind of not care about what's happening or not.
To be continued...
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