November 8th, 2013, my wedding day. It was a perfect day. We had a beautiful honeymoon planned.
Our first step on our honeymoon, a Hanson concert. Yes, our first event as a married couple was to a Hanson concert. I would say this was the perfect start to our marriage, Justin would probably not agree. Don't worry, we did an actual honeymoon that he enjoyed.
The day after we saw my favourite three brothers, sorry Visser brothers, we got on a plane to head to Jamaica. I have a lot of fears, but some are more terrifying than others. Planes are in my top 5 fears. Since you're probably now wondering my other 4 fears; spiders, deep dark water, heights and anything happening to my girls.
I was so nervous to fly, more so than our wedding. I sucked it up, and nervously boarded the big, scary plane. It was a good flight, with very little turbulence. Thank goodness.
We arrived in Jamaica, and it was absolutely beautiful. The ocean, only knee height, and pool were calling my name! We quickly got our bathing suits on and jumped in the pool. As soon as we jumped in, I started to feel some pain in my chest. It wasn't bad, but enough to make me wonder what it was. I put it off as anxiety since I was so nervous to get in that plane. A few days went by, and the pain was still there and only getting worse. We spent a week in Jamaica, the entire time I was taking pain killers for my chest pain. I wish I had known then, take Aspirin for chest pain. Make it a mental note, any chest pain, take Aspirin.
We got home, and my chest pain seemed to go away. I again thought, wow I must have been so anxious about that flight I caused myself pain the entire trip.
Fast forward to January 2014, the exact same chest pain returned. It got so bad. At this time, I worked in child care. I was getting ready for work, and was trying to put my socks on. I was in SO much pain, I sat on the couch crying. I called my boss to say I wouldn't be in, she told me I had to find a replacement. I called around to a couple co-workers to get someone to cover me. No one could. I called my boss back and told her I had no replacements, but was in too much pain I had to go to the hospital now. I was told if I didn't go to work, I would loose my job. So, off I went to work. I have no back-bone, something I really wish I did have.
I got to work, still with tears in my eyes, and trying to put on my indoor shoes. I was trying to breathe through the pain. I worked with some amazing woman, and thankfully one of the best ones were with me that morning. She took one look at me, and told me to get to the hospital. I told her what our boss said about going into work, and she told me she had me covered. Thank god for that beautiful co-worker that day.
So, I went to the hospital calling my mom on the way. I get into the emergency room and tell them what's happening. They took my stats and quickly rushed me into the back room. I had doctors and nurses on me right away. My heart rate was through the roof. They got me hooked up to IV and started fluids, and whatever else. Nothing was helping, my heart rate would not go down. They called an ambulance to bring me to another hospital. At this point, my mom is freaking out (if you know my mom, this would not be a surprise) she called my dad, he left work to come be with me too.
Two paramedic's show up, waiting to take me. No one could go with me, which was so scary. We rushed down the highway to another hospital that could take me. I went into ICU. It was terrifying and not the place for a newly married young person.
I felt so crappy, I didn't want to talk to anyone or see anyone. This time in the ICU was probably some of my hardest days. I had wonderful nurses and doctors, really the best. But being a 25 year old woman, having to go to the washroom in my bed pan with a nurse helping me was just awful. I do not wish that upon anyone.
At this hospital, I met an amazing cardiologist. She was my life saver, like actually. She did an echo-cardiogram, and instantly saw fluid in the sac around my heart.
[Medical information: The heart has a sac surrounding it, with a trace amount of fluid in it. This is so the sac and heart don't rub up against each other causing pain.] In my case however, it was not a trace amount. They started me on medication to take the fluid away. I slept the night in ICU and the next morning, another echo was done. This showed that there was even more fluid around my heart. They transferred me out of ICU and into a room with other heart patients, which always had a nurse in the room.
I was able to have visitors in this room, which was lovely. My parents and husband were there every single day. Justin would work all day, and come straight to the hospital. He would stay until the nurses would kick him up, go home to sleep and get up to do it all over again. My mom ended up taking a sick leave from work so she could be with me. My dad works close to this hospital, so he would usually stop on his way home. My sister was able to come up and see me, but that was when I felt to junky and asked everyone to leave. Justin's dad would have to go to our house everyday after work to let out our dog, since Justin wasn't there. Everyone really stepped up, I am so lucky with my family and friends. I loved having my loved ones with me and helping out, it really helped me mentally.
I was hooked up to everything you could imagine, wires coming from everywhere. They continued me on the meds, and did echos daily. They had mentioned they would most likely have to do a tap, which is where they insert a needle into the sac around the heart to release the fluid. It wasn't yet planned, but we knew this would probably have to happen.
One night, I was sleeping and all of a sudden had nurses and doctors all around me. I had no idea what was going on. Apparently my oxygen dropped while I was sleeping, so they had to hook me up to yet again, another machine. This was pushing air into my nose like a leaf blower.
The next day, the doctor that was with me at night had come in and said we will have to do the tap today. I was so crazy scared. Especially because this one Doctor told us, most deaths are on weekends, and this was a weekday so I will be fine. We joke about this now, but it was not too comforting at the time.They ended up giving me some medication to settle me down, thank goodness.
They had an echo to see where the needle was going, but had realized they can't go in through the front like usual because of the amount of fluid. It was too risky, they were afraid of puncturing my heart. They decided to go in through the side, in-between two ribs. They told me to take a deep breathe, and the amount of relief I felt instantly was a feeling I will never be able to fully explain. The fluid started pouring out, into a medical bag, attached to the needle with a tube. This bag had measurements on it. Do you know how much they got out?
You ready?
Imagine this....
... 2 litres. TWO LITRES!! No wonder I was in so much pain. They were sending this fluid to be tested, to see if it was an infection that caused it.
I had to stay in the hospital, with the tube still in my side, for a few days. After a while, I was released to go home. Yay! Best words you can hear a Doctor say.
I went home, taking it easy. After awhile, I started with chest pain again. I went back to the hospital and it was the same thing, fluid around my heart. I was admitted into the hospital yet again, great. I hated being in the hospital, yes it was the best place for me and they saved my life, but I hated it. Every morning at 7am, someone would come in to take blood. If you were asleep, wake up because they are taking your blood even if you didn't want them to. I'm already a difficult patient to get blood from, but now doing it every day sometimes multiple times, I was impossible. They had to get blood from my feet sometimes, yes it was as awful as it sounds.
I unfortunately couldn't stay at the hospital close to home, as it is too small. They didn't have the proper equipment that I needed. So, off by ambulance again. I went to the same hospital as before, and had my same lovely cardiologist. She put me on meds right away. These meds were awful, they were so hard on my stomach. I lost so much weight during this time. I stayed in the hospital for a few days, running a bunch of tests to see what is causing this. Nothing came back abnormal, even the fluid from before. All normal. They ended up calling it Idiopathic Pericarditis, basically meaning they don't know what is causing it. My cardiologist had the idea that it was viral, and I may have triggered something by the pressure change in the airplane. These are all guesses.
Since we didn't know what caused it, she told me I was unable to return to work, since I worked with children who are virus infused little things.
I got the all clear to head home, and again, after a week or so got chest pains. I was able to stay at my local hospital this time, and they ended up saying I now had fluid in my lung. I needed my lung to be drained, so a doctor came in with all the same materials I saw for my heart drainage. This doctor was not so great, and was full on flirting with the nurse the entire procedure. He told me as soon as he drained it, it would feel better. Well, that did not happen. He drained it and I instantly had horrible pains, worse than before he drained it. He wasn't sure what caused this, so they sent me for another x-ray. Turns out, he punctured my lung during the procedure. He told me he has never done that before, I couldn't help but think if he wasn't so busy flirting with the nurse, he may have not punctured my lung! Oh well, this just mean't more morphine which was the high light of all my illness. That stuff was fun.
I was sent home with some morphine, and to continue my stomach-killing, heart-saving medication.
I was scheduled to see a lung specialist, he did a procedure where he basically vacuumed out my lung. After he did this, my illness never returned. I still think he took something out of my lung that was making me so sick, but we will never know.
I kinda lied, my illness did return when I was pregnant with Isabelle. It only lasted during my pregnancy with her. I have not had a 'flare up' since 2015. I do, however, still get chest pains if I do something using the muscles in my shoulders. Raking is the worst, if I rake I am in pain for about a week afterwards. I'm not too sure why, I personally think something was damaged during my Pericarditis and now it gets inflamed from time to time. I have seen a couple cardiologists, they tell me to just treat it with pain killers. So, if you ever need some pain killers, I have you covered. No, not the hard stuff, but the heart pain killers.
During my health issues, I had some major lows and major highs. I had family and friends supporting me, and praying for me. I had so many worries, like will I ever be able to have my own children? I had the 'old people' pill organizer. I had scars and bruises beyond belief. I met some wonderful people. We have some funny stories, and some not so funny stories.
Having Pericarditis was the hardest thing I have ever been through, but I really feel it made me a stronger person and able to enjoy life a lot more.
I am thankful for my health today, and pray it never EVER returns.
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