ciroccoj | Mitochondrial Line Ends Here

Please Heed TMI Alert

Well, we're done having kids. Biological ones, anyway. And since both my kids are boys, it seems I will be the last of my particular mitochondrial line.

I went off the hormone therapy, and had a few days free of any "bleed reaction". Then my period started a few days ago, nothing too bad.

Then this morning I woke up around 4:30am hemmoraging. How pleasant. Went to the washroom, feeling faint and dizzy and tachycardic. Got a glimpse of my face in the mirror and I was that lovely bright-yellow/grey colour I always get when I'm in shock. Went back to bed, woke up Chris, who took my heart rate (140 lying down) and said I had to go to Emerg today.

Went to sleep.

Woke up feeling better, went in to see Daniel's teacher re. homeschooling - a good meeting, lots of food for thought there - came back home to take Chris to work, got out of the car, climbed up the four steps to get into our house... and had to sit down.

Chris drove me to Emerg - luckily, right next to his own hospital - and in I went.

Failed the SARS screening. They ask about possible contact, then ask about shortness of breath, feeling weak, etc. Well, I had that. So do lots of people going into Emerg. But I was given a mask and asked to sit next to the security desk, and told the triage nurse would come see me instead of me going into Emerg to see her.

Forty minutes later, I was feeling kinda faint. And getting a little worried. It wouldn't have worried me to be left waiting after being seen by the triage nurse - a 4 hour wait is not uncommon for non-life-threatening emergencies - but nobody had seen me other than the receptionist, and I didn't think she was competent to assess me.

I asked when the triage nurse was coming and I must've looked off somehow, because I got wheeled into Emerg to see the triage nurse. Who took my blood pressure and sent me straight inside.

Long story short, my heart rate was 135 sitting down, which worried them enough that they hooked me up to an IV and gave me a litre (1 3/4 pints) of fluid. The IV didn't go in too good - I apparently turned "white as a ghost," according to the nurse, felt nauseated, sharp tingling in my hands and, inexplicably, pressure on my lower legs.

They kept me lying down for a good long time. In all I think I spent about 4 hours in there before they let me leave, on the condition that I would see my gyne the next day. Which I will.

But, yeah, about that "we'll keep trying to conceive unless something goes wrong"? Hemmoraging and ending up in Emerg with an IV and tachycardia falls under the category of "something goes wrong", I think.