So, hospital week. My left arm looks like it's been run over by a car. There is tape remnant all over it as well as the other arm and my torso from the heart monitor, but my left arm is bruised up from the failed IV attempts. And that tape is nasty crap that doesn't come off but with a hard scrubbing with alcohol. Actually, 5 days out and some of it is starting to pick off, but only just. I try to wear long sleeves so as not to be reminded of my stay. I'll tell you the good things first.
1. Everyone was super nice. That goes from my doctor to every single nurse to the kitchen staff to the lady who cleaned the room. Absolutely stellar. I felt very cared for and I couldn't ask for better.
2. The food was good, tho I had no appetite for it.
3. I had some lovely visits from friends and family, and of course my mom brought my babies to see me every day and sometimes twice.
Everything else about my stay sucked. I threw up a couple of times while we tried to figure out how to best get the DHE into my system. We got it figured out finally, and then had to stay on top of another common side effect, diarrhea. So basically it was coming out both ends. This required meds on meds on meds, which meant all the stuff I brought to occupy me was worthless, as I was a giant med zombie the whole time, stuck in a room, attached to wires coming off both arms and my chest. This is an interesting conundrum because while you're wired and drugged, they want you to "get up and move around" so you don't get blood clots in your legs and die.
So besides having things coming out both ends while simultaneously being covered in wires, then having to keep said wires out of the toilet during clean up, I had to be a giant wired med-zombie, stuck in a room, forcing myself to walk back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. For 5 days. I watched 3 movies, read a few pages of one book that I brought, and that's all. Oh, I did manage to knit a little on my super easiest knitting. Gah, even writing and proofreading about it makes my stomach a little nauseated...
It was challenging to not lose it. The nurses kept trying to entice me to eat and kept asking if I wanted crackers or a starbucks run. I just wanted to go home. It was such a mental battle. Good thing my mentals are used to battling.
Oh, and forget any meaningful sleep while in hospital, so throw that onto the med zombie. So when I got home, I crashed for a couple of days, and kept waking up thinking I was still attached to wires. Then yesterday I had to take Sasha to her follow up at Standford, where I learned we will be upping the dosage of her new useless meds by 50%, in the hopes that somehow THIS time they will work. That was so worth the all night migraine I had. *eye roll*
So anyway, the DHE infusions I endured at the hospital for 5 days can take up to a month to kick in. But already I feel different. More functional to be sure. It's hard to know how to take life at this point since I tend to overdo things the minute I am able. I had to take Sasha to Stanford, so that one's on the universe. It'll be interesting to see how things progress from here. I'm hoping for no more migraines obviously. I'll be keeping up with the physical therapy for now, and waiting for the infusions to kick in. Thankfully it was a one and done situation, where I don't EVER have to go back to the hospital for that. I swear I will never take peeing for granted again.
