Iowa City ER Visit #2 - Breathing Issues - September 29

As I was gently placed into the ambulance, it was then that I was struck by the extreme difference between my ambulance ride in Krivoy Rog early the morning of my birthday (see this post for that story). I did not have to climb up into the ambulance, just slid right in on the stretcher. And I thanked God for the comfort of this experience. While we were riding to the hospital, I shared some of my story with the paramedic.

When the ambulance arrived at the University of Iowa Hospitals, I was wheeled immediately into an ER room, where it was not long before I had medical staff attending to me. I told them about my experience the week before when I could not breathe, and that they had pumped fluid off my right lung (see this post for that story). Rather than doing other testing, they listened to what I told them. They demonstrated this by doing a chest x-ray to verify that I was telling them. (I thanked them later for listening to what I was telling them about what was going on in my body). It turns out that both sides of my lungs were nearly completely full of fluid.

They got me into a hospital gown, and put me on the gurney in the ER room. But even with the warm blankets they gave me, I was so cold and could not get warm. Remember I had been cold at home even fully dressed. To get the x-rays, they had to push me down the hall, which was absolutely freezing, according to my body. Once we arrived in radiology, my body started reacting to the cold. I was shivering. Panicky. My upper legs/hips were cramped from sitting on the gurney. I could not control myself because I was shaking so much. And I was embarrassed and kept apologizing. They somehow managed to get two workable x-rays (that was a miracle) as I shook there, barely able to hang on to the x-ray machine.

Then they wheeled me back to the ER room, and Denise, who had been waiting out in the ER waiting room for them to allow her to join me, finally came. (They told her that I had experienced a panic attack.) I was able to sit on a chair, instead of the gurney, and they gave me a shot of morphine. Within minutes, I was much more relaxed and cooperative again. It is difficult for me to share that because it is so humiliating, and yet that is what happens when our body cannot handle certain stimuli any longer or when we do not get enough sleep. I am so thankful that they allow you to have one visitor with you the entire time that you are in the ER. Denise's presence was a great comfort to me.

Bottom line, the ER doctors decided that they needed to pull fluid off my lungs again, and probably both lungs. This is a procedure that is not often done in the ER, so they had several doctors participate. They had fun (though it was work) pumping just over 2 liters of fluid from the left lung and then about the same amount of fluid from the right lung. And I was glad to be able to breathe again.

More than 4 liters of fluid from my lungs

But there were some risks. The doctor from pulmonology had told me about the risks of doing both sides of the lung at the same time, but I had forgotten (as I was not exactly in my right mind). And even though the ER doctors likely did not know that, God protected me. He always SEES us and is AWARE of our circumstances.

After the procedure was over, they wanted to make sure that I had enough oxygen in my blood. I was very relaxed (mostly from the morphine but also the lack of sleep the night before) and tried to breathe to get my pulse ox numbers up to where they wanted. But it did not happen.

Trying to increase my pulse ox, but my breathing was too light

We saw as high as 93 or 94 but mostly it was 89 or 90. We prayed and worshiped God. But my numbers just did not go up. Then Denise said, "Maybe God does not want you to go home yet." She thought I was whining and begging to home.

They kept me overnight for observation. There was no way I was sleeping on that gurney after the cramping in my legs earlier, so they got me a recliner and I slept on it in the ER room for the night after Denise went home.

In the morning, my pulse ox numbers were better and I fully expected to get released. After the shift change at 7 AM, my new nurse came in and told me that I was being admitted to the hospital. I was in shock, primarily because this came out of nowhere.

I knew that the doctoral staff had a reason for making this decision, but no one could explain to me what that reason was. The lack of understanding was frustrating, and I really had to fight with myself to not become angry. It seems I mostly (though not completely) succeeded.

Some lessons that we learned from this experience:

• Do not wait so long to call the ambulance. We actually should have made the call that morning.
• We should have contacted the hematology team on call at the hospital that evening early in our visit to the ER, or made sure that the folks in the ER did that.
• Keep your expectations low, as you may end up staying in the hospital longer than you expect.
• God has everything under control. When God says "NO", we just need to submit and trust His wisdom and care.