Back in the Clink err I mean Hospital

Soooo, regulating my internal thermostat has been a bit tricky over the last week.  I seem to be either roasting or freezing.  Monday evening I was finalizing a paper and realized upon submitting that I had the chills and was achy.  In taking my temperature I did not have a fever, but given the pain meds I was taken it was possible one of them was masking a fever.  I called the nurse triage line and shared my concerns.  She suggested that I wait until my pain meds were on the back end and take my temperature.  If I was running a fever in the morning I should call the doctors office to come in.

At 1:30 am I was running a low grade fever (99-100), but it was gone by the time I got up.  So we just continued with our day.  At about 4:00 I laid down for a 30 minute cat nap and when I woke up at 4:30 I felt like I was on fire.  The thermometer confirmed my temperature was hovering just above 103.

Of course the doctor's office had just closed so I again got in touch with the triage line.  They instructed me to make my way to urgent care.  Since we couldn't crate Isabella the way we could the dogs, we had to quickly come up with a new plan.  My friend Stacy, who lives in our neighborhood, had stopped by the previous morning and had said to call her if we needed anything.  Little did she know we would be calling so soon!  We got everything organized and headed to urgent care.

After hearing my deal:  c-section, fever, no other symptoms, they immediately sent me back to the hospital sight unseen:(.  They gave me Tylenol upon arrival and during the near 2 hours we waited (Evenings are a busy time in ERs apparently!) my fever seemed to break.  So I figured (more like wishfully hoped) that all was well and we could go home.  But it turns out you can't just have a fever without an underlying cause-go figure!

So they did several tests to try to determine the cause.  There was a changing of the guards where my brother came up to stay with me so J.T. could go home and relieve Stacy (I am too chicken to be in the hospital by myself).  And it was almost 11 when, finally, a CT Scan showed that there was an abscess near my uterus which was most likely the result of the c-section.  Damn rabbit hole never seems to end!

They said it could be resolved with antibiotics (phew-no surgery); however, these antibiotics could only be given through IV so I would be staying the night.  They transferred me up to the maternity ward and allowed J.T. and Isabella to come and stay with me...yay!  My brother stayed until J.T. and Isabella got there around midnight.  We settled in and around 3am one of my OBGYN's stopped by and dropped the bombshell that yes IV antibiotics would likely be all that were needed, but that they would be needed for 24-48 hours (likely at least 36) so I was looking at spending at least two nights back in the clink hospital.

Are your freaking kidding me?!?  I have spent more time in the hospital in the month of April than I had in my ENTIRE life and poor Isabella was spending the first half of her short, little life behind bars with me!  J.T. also ended up having to take additional leave from work as he was supposed to return on Thursday.  While I can't stand being in the hospital, being with my little family made it much more bearable.

The crazy thing is that once that fever broke Tuesday night I had no other visible issues.  Nurses kept stopping in and saying you are looking great...I was the healthiest sick person around!  Wednesday was spent watching LOTS of HGTV while they gave me 4 IVs of antibiotics over the course of the day/night.  I was bored and I swear being in a hospital just makes me feel more sick.  Though the good news was that the fever stayed away and no other symptoms emerged.

We got sprung for the second, and God willing final, time Thursday morning around 9.  I don't think they had ever seen someone so excited to leave.  Again, they are an amazing staff, but I don't do hospitals!!!!  Picture the italicized words being said like this:

I will follow up with a week of oral antibiotics and a doctor's appointment next week.  Fingers crossed this is the very bottom of the rabbit hole as I don't want to know what would come next!