Mothers Day Five Years Ago .. Part 1

 
Five years ago on Mother's Day I was in the hospital having trouble breathing. ... That was the beginning.

I thought I was having an asthma attack, not uncommon for me, but the inhalers did nothing. I stalled around for at least two days before I went to my doctor for a refill on my asthma prescriptions and he was about to send me on my way, saying he did not think I had pneumonia when he asked if my leg was swollen and I said yes. I was told to get to the nearest hospital so I got in my car and drove to the hospital. (stupid choice in not getting a cab or asking for a ride). I gave my husband a quick call and told him don’t come, just my asthma was out of control again. They had a long waiting list but did not let me leave the nurses desk once they checked my blood pressure.. I waited for several hours as my breathing got worse and worse with the nurses assuming I was still having asthma issues. Once the doctor saw me all hell broke loose. A quick X-Ray and the doctor told me that the fact that my blood pressure was extremely different from one side to the other and my leg was now very swollen was a bad sign. They called my husband, loaded me in an ambulance to go to a critical care hospital and by that time things were getting pretty fuzzy. I heard the nurse tell the ambulance driver to hurry, she was not sure I was going to make it.

I was found to have had a pulmonary embolism - 5 blood clots in my left lung. They started me on a blood thinner and worked on keeping me stable. One of the things that they found was that my hemoglobin was dangerously low, related to having very heavy periods.
The third day was Mother's Day and I wanted to go home and be with my family. It was decided that they would give me blood transfusions and send me home but I needed to come back to the hospital every morning for a couple of weeks to get heparin injections and to be monitored.

 
The question about why my periods were so bad was still not answered so we went home with a warning that if I started bleeding very heavily with my next period the anticoagulants made it risky so we should get to the hospital as soon as possible.

 
I was just happy that I was at home with my family on Mother's Day.