My motto at its finest

So, if you are gonna be a bear, be a grizzly! I wrote that post a couple of weeks ago but finally am getting around to posting it. How ironic....as I sit here in the hospital with a crazy eye infection that has kept me here for 5 days! Like my good friend WAP said, I might be a little dramatic :)
I don't do things half-way. Go big or go home. Even my sicknesses follow that motto.

Fast forward a week....I literally fell asleep while typing that. The laptop was still sitting in my lap, my fingers were still on the keys, my head was hanging down and I was snoozing.  Chuck took the computer away from me, to which I popped up and I replied "I'm OK!". He just laughed and is still laughing about it. Ah the wonders of medicine, dilaudid and zophran to the IV, to be precise. I haven't gotten that much sleep in almost four years. I figured I might should wait until I was no longer on meds to finish this post.
Fast forward:

So the Friday before Mother's Day I noticed that my left eye was a little sore. I didn't really think anything about it. As the day went on, my eye started to bother me more. By Friday night, my eye was swollen and really starting to bother me. Saturday morning I woke up and my eye was much bigger. I looked like someone (Chuck) had hit me in the face. My under eye was swollen, too. We had a trip to the zoo in Birmingham with the Morgans planned and I was really looking forward to it, so I just donned my big, dark sunglasses and off we went. All day the pain and swelling just got worse. I felt awful but I still had lots of fun! We went to the zoo, to the Galleria, and to eat and we had a great time! When I went to bed that night, though, I was hurting. By Sunday morning the whole left side of my face was swollen from my nose over across my cheek all the way to behind my ear. My eye felt like it was going to explode. My eyelid was so swollen that I couldn't even open my eye. Off to the emergency room I went while Chuck and the boys went to Thomasville to get something for my Mother-In-Law for Mother's Day. I expected to meet them back for lunch and celebrate Mother's Day....Little did I know, I was going to have to stay in the hospital. I had an MRI and bloodwork done. The boys came and visited for a little while and gave me my Mother's day presents and I had lots of other visitors, too. Friends and family. Monday I went to see an Opthamologist in Montgomery and he admitted me to see an infectious disease doctor at Jackson Hospital.

By Monday night, I was horribly sick! I was in lots of pain and couldn't stop throwing up. The first time, Chuck had run to get some dinner for us and while he was gone I got sick. When he got back, I was in the bathroom floor throwing up and crying slightly. Pitiful looking, I am sure. I quit and started to feel beeter for a little while. A little later, while the Phlebotomist was there taking LOTS of blood cultures from multiple sites trying to figure out what I had, I started to get sick again. I said "Chuck, please get me that trash can." He brought it over and I threw my guts up repeatedly. Poor CHuck just stood there and tried to help while I threw up into the trash can. The Phlebotomist just kept drawing blood and saying "You poor thing. Where is your nurse!?" The truly funny part is that she had to raise my hospital bed all the way up so she would be closer to eye level with my arms, so I was way up in the air while throwing up into the trash can. I apologized to her several times, to which she kept saying, "Don't apologize" Priceless!
After it was all said and done, the Phlebotomist marched down to the nurse's station and brought a nurse back. She let her have it because I had told them when I was admitted that I thought I was going to throw up. The  worst part about it is that with all of the pain and pressure in my eye, puking made it feel like my eye was going to explode out of my face. So, after I finally quit and everything was back to normal, for this situation anyway, Chuck was sitting in the chair across from my bed and I told him how glad I was that he was there with me. I wouldn't have wanted anyone else to see me in the condition I was in. My face looked like Quasimodo (The Hunchback), I had puked until blood vessels had burst around my other eye, I was mercifully, finally doped up to the point that I was loopy and all-around not looking my best. He got a good laugh out of this. He said "So, you are glad that I was the one holding your puke bucket and wouldn't have wanted anyone else to do it?" Well honestly, yes. He replied, "How romantic." Bahahaha. OK, maybe not my finest moment but come on, isn't that what a marriage should be?

To sum up the rest of the 4 day stay:
Chuck would drive back to Camden at 4:30 in the morning to go to work and I would chill out in the hospital bed, hooked to an IV all day. I got lots of phone calls and texted a lot. I watched a few movies on my laptop and spent lots of time on Facebook. I slept a LOT.  After work, CHuck would go back by the house and see the boys, get some clothes and drive back to Montgomery. He also brought me yummy fast food since I am not a huge fan of hospital meals, other than breakfast. (Jackson hospital has the best cheese grits EVER! I am considering faking an illness just so I can be admitted for the breakfast in bed.) Then we would watch a movie or TV shows until bedtime and he would get up the next morning and do it all over again. I kept telling him to just stay home. That I was fine, but he wouldn't do it. He also wouldn't let anyone else be the one to stay with me. We had friends offer, but he wanted to be the one with me. How sweet is that? Meanwhile, throughout the days I am still having tests run because no one can figure out what I have. I had another MRI done one day. It was interesting and got me out of bed for a little while. Of course, I still had to ride in a wheelchair but at least I got out of my room. Oh, did I mention that I am in a quarantine room where the nurses and doctors have to wear masks upon entering? Yeah, there is even a sign on the door. Although, Chuck nor my visitors, WAP and the Morgans never did. It was surreal.
Finally, on day 4 we get an answer. MRSA, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. A highly contagious form of Staph.Yup, my eye had gotten infected with it. I had caught it from my sweet little buddy, Garrison who had it in his ears following his tube surgery (He kept having repeated infections that were finally cultured. He had MRSA for a while before we even knew it, so who knows when I contracted it) The weird part, apparently, is that my white blood count was not up from it. I don't know, but according to the Drs it usually is. I am just a little enigma wrapped in a riddle, now aren't I?

After 5 days on IV antibiotics, I was finally able to go home to my boys. Once home, I was quarantined for like two weeks. That was brutal.
All in all, it was a weird fluke. So random and extreme. But then again, that is how I roll....

I never do things half-way...
My Cup ALWAYS Runneth Over...
~Shana~