Of Emergency Rooms, Possible Blood Clots and Cellulitis

Subtitle: I have no cute Easter pics for you.

I know. What a bummer!! Well, you read the title. Guess where I spent Easter morning with my Pastor Husband??? In the E.R.! Thankfully, for the first time ever, this had nothing to do with my pregnancy and baby is great. I however, am a little under the weather.

Last Sunday, I started having a pain in my left foot when I walked. I just figured it had something to do with pregnancy horomones loosening my joints and tendons, blah blah blah. I tried to shake it off and just deal with the pain. But with every day that passed, the pain in my foot got progressively worse. On Thursday I noticed a red patch that was tender to the touch. On Friday, that patch was even larger, and by Saturday, the redness was covering almost the entire left side of my foot. The pain was getting worse but I had things to do so I pressed on, trying to just limp around and ignore it.

Throughout the night on Saturday and into the wee hours of Sunday morning, I was awakened several times by the throbbing in my foot. When it was time to get up and get ready for church on Sunday morning, my foot looked horrible. The side of my foot and now ankle were "angry" red and very swollen, and my toes were turning deep purple when my foot was not elevated. Walking was not just painful, it had become excruciating.

After trying to go about the morning, getting everyone ready, ironing clothes, etc., it was becoming obvious that something was wrong with my foot that could no longer be ignored. I called my mom and she was extremely concerned that I had a blood clot in my foot. She told me to go to the E.R. right away. Well, I called my doctor and left a message with the receptionist and in three minutes a nurse had called me back. (That NEVER happens!) My symptoms also sounded to her like a blood clot and she advised me to head to the E.R. immediately. A minute or so after I hung up with her, another nurse called who had seen the message and I was given the same instructions. This second nurse even put me on hold and called my doctor who gave the same advice! During the time I was on the phone with this second nurse, I received voicemails from two other nurses who had also seen the message and were trying to make sure I was okay. Goodness, I don't think I received that much attention when I was in labor with Lydia and Caleb!!

With that many people telling us that I'd better high-tail it to the emergency room, we figured we'd better listen. Thankfully, there was a man who could preach for my husband and Auntie Amy and Uncle Eric were happy to take our adorably dressed little children to church with them.

I will not bore you with the details of my E.R. visit, but after an extensive ultrasound of my entire leg (which was very interesting to see, by the way!), it was determined that I do NOT have a blood clot. Praise the Lord!! The doctor examined my foot and he believes that I have Cellulitis. (Not cellulite people...although I probably do have that in other un-named places apart from my foot...ahem.) I asked him how I would have contracted it since I had not had a cut or anything on my foot and he said that I could have had just a teeny scrape (micro-abrasion) that bacteria could have gotten through and thus, developed cellulitis. They did lab work and also took blood for four culture bottles. Although my white blood cell count was not very elevated, that number is not always consistent in determining cellulitis. However, the results of the blood cultures will be much more accurate in determining what particular bacteria caused this.

Right now I am being treated with a very strong antiobiotic for 7 days. I also have to limit my activity because they said that walking around and putting pressure on my foot can actually cause the infection to spread. Basically that means I'm doing a whole lot of nothing...a.k.a. I now have time to blog! =)

Steven and I are pretty comfortable in the hospital setting and we actually had a lot of fun on our E.R. date. Oh yeah, my husband told me that the next time that I didn't want to go to church to just tell him and we could talk about it. =P He's a mess! Seriously though, I'm so thankful for a husband that loves me and missed Sunday morning, even though he is the pastor, to take care of me. He's pretty wonderful. I'm one blessed woman to have him as my husband!

Please do pray for me that the antiobiotics will take care of this infection. I believe it is working because as of this morning, my foot was already showing signs of improvement. Hopefully soon I'll be up and about and pain-free. Until then, you'll know where to find me....in the chair with my foot propped up!