This story is a little embarrassing, and I know some of you (especially any men I know.) Will not be 100% comfortable reading this. Warning: This story does mention female issues such as menstruation and the use of feminine hygiene products! :S
On December 17, 2012 Aunt Flo came to visit me. I used my regular products to take care of it. Tampax tampons. With 3 kids under 3 I have found that it is not easy to remember to change these as often as direction. I would use one and forget about it for 7-8 hrs at a time. 3 days went by and Aunt flo was about to cut off her vacation and return home for another month. I woke up in the middle of the night with EXTREME body aches. I figured I had finally caught the bug that was going around. I took an Ibuprofen 800 and was in so much pain 1 hr later that I took 2 Tylenol as well. I had a restless night and woke the next morning feeling more sick then I had ever felt before. I told my husband and he watched my children while I slept ALL DAY LONG. I was exhausted, weak, cold, and nauseated. After sleeping until 3 in the afternoon I came downstairs to be with the family. I was feeling a lot better. The next morning I woke up and felt pretty good. I was still pretty nauseated but the body aches had subsided and I wasn't quite as weak. I ran some errands until about 1 pm when I started feeling extremely weak and tired again. I came home and took a 2 hr nap with my kids. After waking up i still felt completely exhausted. I decided I better go to the instacare and get checked out. After some x rays and an exam they assumed I had influenza and told me to go home and rest. That night I woke again around 2:00 am with a fever of 104.5. I took Tylenol and Ibuprofen again but the fever wouldn't subside. I lay there for 2 hours feeling like my entire body was on fire! When I finally got up in the morning I felt awful. I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth and looked into the mirror. I looked like I had been sunburned. My entire body was red. At a closer view I could see that it was a rash. I immediately called my Dr to ask if this was normal with Influenza. He told me to go straight to the ER and have them check me for TSS. (Toxic Shock Syndrome.)
When we got to the hospital there were quite a few people ahead of us. The nurse called me back immediately and got the Dr in to see me immediately. Within 15 minutes they were drawing blood for tests and pumping full of 4 different antibiotics. My blood pressure dropped drastically to 75/45. After a VERY thorough exam (I'll spare you the nasty details.) They discovered that I had Pelvic Inflammatory disease and assumed that I had TSS. I was admitted to the hospital on December 23rd 2012. For 20 Hrs I did nothing but sleep. I didn't eat or drink anything. The Dr came in to see me on Christmas eve, and told me he wanted me to stay a few more days to make sure I was out of the woods. I started to cry. I was going to miss Christmas. He came back in 2 hrs later and told me that he would send me home since my blood pressure had gone up, but I would need to come back in if I had ANY recurring symptoms. I went home on a strong antibiotic and rested for about a week. they called me and told me the blood tests came back positive for the staph bacteria, and that I had indeed had TSS. My liver was not at full function and I was exhausted but other then that I walked away very lucky. I thank the Lord every day that I received sch excellent care from such wonderful Doctors and Nurses. I have no doubt they saved my life!!!!!
Here are some statistics for you.
1 in every 100,000 women contract Tss per year. (it is very rare!)
Women who have had TSS cannot fight off the bacteria and are 30% more likely to get it again. Each time it becomes more serious and plays a harder toll on the body
60% of people who develop TSS die from the disease. Most others face extreme consequences such as loss of finger, toes, limbs, and kidney failure resulting in lifelong dialysis.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
October 2012
In September our sweet baby boy Dallas joined our family. He was such a good baby right from the start. We did find that he had acid reflux, like our first two did and put him on prevacid right away.
2 weeks after he was born, he began to spit up quite a bit. It seemed strange to me that all of a sudden he would begin to spit up when he hadn't at all for the first two weeks. I called his Dr. and they assumed it was his acid reflux worsening. They upped his dose of prevacid. A week later the spitting up turned into full on vomiting. Every time he ate, he would vomit up quite a bit. It seemed to me that he wasn't getting any food at all. I took him into the Dr. and they put him on a special formula for milk allergy, assuming this was the problem. Three days later the problem was getting worse. He had started to projectile vomit. We had to lay blankets and towels around him to keep our home clean. I knew something had to be wrong. The Dr again assured me that he was fine. They told me it always looks like more vomit than it really is. They suggested I add rice cereal to his bottles to help keep the food down. Two days later he hadn't had a bowel movement. I called the dr again. He told me to give him a suppository and then try feeding him after he had a bowel movement. 1 hr later he pooped (sorry tmi for some I'm sure!) and it was an extremely small amount. This kid hadn't gone to the bathroom in almost three days and he barely pooped out a tiny bit. I fed him and put him to bed.7 Hrs later on 10/10/2012 I woke around 1:00 am. I went to check on him and see why he hadn't woken up to eat. There was vomit all over his bed and on the floor by the crib. I pulled him from his crib and laid him down to change him. His diaper was completey dry and there was a pink color in the front of the diaper. I called the on call Dr and groggily she told me to take him to PCMC immediately and have him checked for Pyloric Stenosis. (It is a condition where the mussel around the bottom of the stomach swells not allowing food to pass from the stomach to the intestines.) Within 3 hrs of being at the hospital they diagnosed him with Pyloric Stenosis and and started prepping him for immediate surgery. In 2 weeks he had lost almost 2 pounds, barely weighing 9 ounces over his birth weight. My poor boy was starving! They performed a simple surgery through lapriscopy with three incisions in his abdomen. His recovery went great at first. Two weeks exactly after the surgery I was changing him and noticed his belly button looked like it had grown a massive red tumor out of it. I rushed him back to PCMC where they told me he had a surgical site infection. They drained the bubble and put him on an antibiotic. He has now fully recovered and is doing great!!!!!
2 weeks after he was born, he began to spit up quite a bit. It seemed strange to me that all of a sudden he would begin to spit up when he hadn't at all for the first two weeks. I called his Dr. and they assumed it was his acid reflux worsening. They upped his dose of prevacid. A week later the spitting up turned into full on vomiting. Every time he ate, he would vomit up quite a bit. It seemed to me that he wasn't getting any food at all. I took him into the Dr. and they put him on a special formula for milk allergy, assuming this was the problem. Three days later the problem was getting worse. He had started to projectile vomit. We had to lay blankets and towels around him to keep our home clean. I knew something had to be wrong. The Dr again assured me that he was fine. They told me it always looks like more vomit than it really is. They suggested I add rice cereal to his bottles to help keep the food down. Two days later he hadn't had a bowel movement. I called the dr again. He told me to give him a suppository and then try feeding him after he had a bowel movement. 1 hr later he pooped (sorry tmi for some I'm sure!) and it was an extremely small amount. This kid hadn't gone to the bathroom in almost three days and he barely pooped out a tiny bit. I fed him and put him to bed.7 Hrs later on 10/10/2012 I woke around 1:00 am. I went to check on him and see why he hadn't woken up to eat. There was vomit all over his bed and on the floor by the crib. I pulled him from his crib and laid him down to change him. His diaper was completey dry and there was a pink color in the front of the diaper. I called the on call Dr and groggily she told me to take him to PCMC immediately and have him checked for Pyloric Stenosis. (It is a condition where the mussel around the bottom of the stomach swells not allowing food to pass from the stomach to the intestines.) Within 3 hrs of being at the hospital they diagnosed him with Pyloric Stenosis and and started prepping him for immediate surgery. In 2 weeks he had lost almost 2 pounds, barely weighing 9 ounces over his birth weight. My poor boy was starving! They performed a simple surgery through lapriscopy with three incisions in his abdomen. His recovery went great at first. Two weeks exactly after the surgery I was changing him and noticed his belly button looked like it had grown a massive red tumor out of it. I rushed him back to PCMC where they told me he had a surgical site infection. They drained the bubble and put him on an antibiotic. He has now fully recovered and is doing great!!!!!
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