I got to take a little trip yesterday. We went up to the good ole labor and delivery floor at the hospital! I wish it had been a sight seeing trip, but it wasn't. I had a slight concern.
But it wasn't labor!
Ever since about Thursday, my left leg has been KILLING me! My left inner thigh was throbbing in pain most of the time. The pain only went away maybe 2 or 3 times and it wasn't for that long when it did. Some tylenol helped a tad, but not much.
Fast forward to Saturday night. I've been complaining to Jim that my leg hurts and I don't know why. This starts to concern him because the pain had not gone away or gotten any better. He gets on webMD and pulls up a page about blood clots. I was under the mistaken opinion that you couldn't feel blood clots. Oh, no. There is tenderness, redness, swelling, etc. So we check my leg. I had none of that. But Jim says I should probably have it checked out. I told him it was too late to go to the emergency room tonight and besides I was tired. So we just went to bed. :)
Sunday after lunch, I realized my leg was still hurting SO BAD. I was ready to cut it off. So I called the after hours line of my doctor. Surprisingly, the doctor who was paged called me back in less than 5 minutes! Once I described it, she said I'd better come on in and get it checked out because she can't diagnose anything like that over the phone.
DARN! DARN DARN DARN! I was looking forward to my Sunday afternoon "Sabbath" time.
Getting the 4 of us ready and out the door proved to be a daunting task. It has made me nervous for when the real time actually comes. We will have to have some advanced planning.
At the hospital, Jim stayed with the girls in the waiting room while I was sent back to an actual labor and delivery room. Once back there, they HOOK ME UP TO THE MONITORS! I had a doppler on the baby's heartbeat, a contraction monitor on my belly, a blood pressure cuff, and the finger-thing that monitors your oxygen level and heartbeat. (Or something like that.) I was sitting there thinking "holy cow, this is like the real deal!"
All they did, after asking me a million stupid questions (do you do recreational drugs?) was an ultrasound of both legs and some blood work. Everything came back normal or negative. So thankfully, there was not a blood clot in my leg. YAY! It was nice to know I was not going to be admitted for a life-threatening condition.
But that was my whole Sunday afternoon darn it! Plus, I'm sure they charged us for the privilege of using their facilities. I sat in their bed, watched their tv, rode in one of their wheelchairs, saw an actual ultrasound tech, and had blood drawn. I'm no health care expert, but I'm an accountant. And that stuff ain't free. Jim keeps reminding me that at least we know it was nothing and not life-threatening. I agree. If it had been a real blood clot and I hadn't gone to the hospital, something bad could have happened. So I guess it was worth it for that. It's still annoying though.
It was a good trial run through the whole process, though. We learned a lot. Some parts of it scared me, but it was neat to get to see everything back there under a (mostly) non-stressful time.
Lastly, in a wonderfully ironic twist, my leg today is PAIN FREE! How's that for timing?
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