My pneumonia was what led me to have ARDS. Which stands for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. It is described as a life threatening lung condition that prevents enough oxygen from getting into the blood.
The air sacs in the lungs become full of fluid. They took x-rays every single day of my lungs while I was in the coma. I've seen the first picture and the lungs were completely white, except for a little part on the bottom right. White is fluid. My lungs were shutting down.
About a third of people with ARDS die from the disease. The lucky survivors regain normal lung function, other may have some lung damage. In my last x-ray, taken a month after I was released from the hospital, my lungs were black (healthy), and only a little part on the bottom left, was white. That may be healed now, I do not know.
People who survive ARDS may have memory problems and problems with thinking after the ordeal. This is due to brain damage that may have happened when the lungs weren't working properly and the brain wasn't getting enough oxygen.
I was extremely groggy with all these drugs in my system when they woke me up. This is what I saw on my wall to my left and I was so confused, so very very confused, and it took me many days to crawl out of that confusion.
To be continued...
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...
