Fourth of July

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I woke up this morning excited and feeling renewed, despite the fact that I didn’t get any sleep last night. Laura came to wake me up to take my pills and we agreed to go for a walk to 7-Eleven. I figured I had to get some flavored waters to drink and this would be the perfect chance to stretch my legs and see how far I could go, even though 7-Eleven is only a couple of blocks away.

Laura, Robert (Laura’s boyfriend) and I stepped outside, I winced at the heat wave and immediately thought to myself, “Maybe this isn’t a good idea.” With every step that I took my muscles felt like Jell-O and my head spun from the brightness of the sun on my face. We finally made it to the store and I grabbed a rainbow assortment of juices and waters. Before we headed back outside into the heat wave, I made sure to pour water on my extremities and head so my headache wouldn’t come back. We set off again and headed back home.

About a block into the walk my head started spinning and I sat myself down in the shade in front of a nearby church. I put my head down between my hands, hoping to relieve some of the pressure and asked Robert to get the car to pick us up. There was no way I was going to make it back home walking. I remember asking Laura if it would be a bad thing if I threw up in front of the church. I think I spoke too soon. At least I felt slightly better after I rid my stomach of the morning vitamins and fruit juices. I thought to myself how everything probably would have settled better if I had some kind of food in my stomach. Note taken, I will never walk in 100-degree heat with just juice and vitamins in my stomach!

When we got home I decided to call CTCA and speak to my nurse. I have been feeling more nauseous and tired than usual. In fact, I have been feeling extremely lethargic and all I want to do all day is sleep. The nurse spoke with the hospitalist and asked that we come in to see the doctor. Within 45 minutes, we were in the hospital room and I was being stuck with needles and being quizzed on medications that I was currently taking. The doctor ended up giving me 8 mg of Zofran that dissolves under the tongue and a potassium drink because, once again, my potassium was low. He asked if I wanted to be admitted until Monday when the pain doc could see me and we could schedule surgery, but I decided that I had the Zofran and potassium at home and there really wasn’t anything else they could do for me at this point, except run an IV drip and give me meds that way. It wasn’t worth spending the whole weekend there, so we left.

I am praying that tonight I am feeling better and motivated enough to keep our original plans. I feel bad that my cousin and her boyfriend are here and all I can do is sleep. I know her role is to be the caregiver, but I still feel like I want to be a good hostess and show them around Phoenix and make sure they have a good time. Oh well, I’m sure there will be plenty more times for that in the future.

Link to blog: http://themelissawaller.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/4th-of-july/

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We value and respect our HERWriters' experiences, but everyone is different. Many of our writers are speaking from personal experience, and what's worked for them may not work for you. Their articles are not a substitute for medical advice, although we hope you can gain knowledge from their insight.