I spent the day in the ER and a couple hours ago I was admitted to the hospital. Here’s my story:
Woke up with a fever. Fortunately, I already had a previously scheduled doctor appointment with my main doctor. By the time I got to the doctors office I felt awful. The 102.4 fever had settled into my neck and was making me nauseous. Because of my recent blood infection episode we decided I needed to go to the ER for cultures, to cover our bases. We also thought I might have an UTI, maybe.
So I went straight from the doctor’s office to the ER. Waited an hour before they called me to the triage room.
When I was triaged, I mentioned the UTI history, which is probably why they put me in the quick care tract. 30 year old woman with an UTI, so treat and discharge her with a week worth of Bactrim. Then the doctor came in and realized that I had a fever and a history of sepsis, so he moved me to the ER acute side. We discussed, at length, my medical history, including my history of sepsis. We had a plan: blood cultures, X-ray, zofran. I was miserable and it sucked.
When they tried twice to get an IV and failed, the ER doc came in to send me home because I “looked fine.”
I thought he was joking. Nope. So I asked if he had looked at my chart or X-rays he had taken, he shrugged and said no. I refused to leave without answers, so he begrudgingly agreed to get a nurse with an ultrasound to get blood out of me. On his way out the door to write the orders, he said, “By any chance do you have a history of sepsis of any kind?”
I really thought my head was going to spin like the girl did in the Exorcist.
They finally got blood and an IV placed, giving me some fluids and the miracle medication, zofran.
My WBC count was 18.
Diagnosis: double pneumonia. The X-ray looked like a bomb exploded in my chest. How I am still breathing without complications is beyond me. Explains why my rib cage hurts. I thought it was from wrenching. Wrong. I’ve already had two doses of antibiotics and my fever is down and I’m already feeling halfway human. They said I’ll be here for several days. I really hope they’re wrong, because this sucks.
But the only reason I was diagnosed was because I persisted. I didn’t take no for an answer. Without treatment, I was probably would have gone septic in a day or two.
I’m so glad I persisted to get the answers to make me better.
