"Trauma: Life in the ER" Chapel Hill style

Warning: Super Long Post and written in "talk" form! ha Andrew pointed out to me the other day, that I blog like I speak. When I write formally, I write very differently. Sorry it isn't more formally written, but I actually enjoy not trying to be "fancy," but just telling it like it is! Anywho.... to the saga!


I love all things medical; especially shows about actual Emergency departments (not Greys Anatomy), real births, mystery diagnosis', etc. Well, I guess since Andrew knows how much I like these shows; he decided to star in one; Chapel Hill style!

Insert footnote here before anyone freaks out: Andrew is out of the hospital and doing great.

To start this long story from the beginning; Andrew started having terrible photo sensitivity, redness, and irritation in his eyes about 3 days after we started the antibiotic for Strep. It got to the point that he was wearing sunglasses in the house, with the lights off, and the blinds closed. He could barely keep his eyes open, and he had to ask for an extension on a paper b/c he literally couldn't see the screen to write his paper. I knew this was serious when that happened. He has NEVER asked for an extension of ANY kind or missed a day of work ever. The only days he has ever taken off were the days after Kenan died.

The doctor at student health felt that his eye inflammation was due to either congestion that had backed up behind his eye, a viral infection, or VERY early stages of pinkeye. She gave him an antibiotic drop (for conjunctivitis) to use if they didn't clear up in a few days, thinking it was something that would have to run its course. Well, obviously from our Fall break pictures; you can see that it didn't clear up. Early in the weekend, he also started experiencing chest tightness/pain; especially when he took deep breaths and laid down. He had a follow-up eye appointment on Wednesday morning; and thankfully decided to mention the chest tightness. Though I am still not a total convinced consumer of student health (that story is for another day!), I am so grateful for this particular doctor. She took Andrew very seriously and decided to get a complete work-up, not really liking what she was seeing and hearing from him. They ran an EKG, a chest X-ray, and took tons of blood work. They quickly got the results for everything except a few blood tests, and all the reports looked good. She decided to send him to an opthamalogist, but he came home for a few minutes before his appointment. Right before he left, he got a call from the Doctor's nurse; that she had scheduled an appointment with a cardiologist for Friday. At this point, I started getting a little concerned about that second set of tests.

On his way home from the opthamalogist, the doctor calls and tells hims she has already called the Emergency Department and they are expecting him shortly. Ok, so now I have gone from concerned to freaking out. Apparently, his cardiac enzymes were elevated and they were concerned about permanent heart damage. All this led up to our 6 1/2 hour, "up close and personal," Emergency Department show!

I had to drop him off by himself (frown), until Caitlin could get to our house to watch the bambinos (thank you Caitlin). They took him straight back, so by the time I got back to the hospital; he was already wearing a gown (wink), and hooked up to heart monitors. I have to be honest, even though I could visibly see he wasn't in any distress; it was very emotional to see him with 6 heart leads, an IV, and bruised arms from all the blood that had been taken. His curtained off "room" opened up right in front of the ambulance dock. So between watching people come in from ambulances, and hearing the stories of the people around us; we kept ourselves pretty entertained all evening!

A supervising MD eventually came around and performed a very basic ultrasound on his heart while we were waiting for the cardiologist. He tells us that Andrew's heart is functioning really well, but he is seeing an inflamed pericardium, and what he thinks to be fluid around his heart. FINALLY, two resident Cardiologists "knock" on his curtain; and ask to come in to get some admitting information. Admitting information?! I think we both were a little floored that he was being admitted. I was so shocked she said "admission," that I zoned out for a moment. She had to ask me who I was twice! HA By 11:30pm, he was in a room (with a snoring roommate)and finally being allowed to eat. I REALLY REALLY did not want to leave, but we/he decided it would be better for the kids to wake up to normalcy, especially since we weren't there at bedtime. Thankfully, he has an incredible mother who had come to relieve Caitlin, and she switched places with me for the night.

After the children woke up and ate breakfast, I went back to the hospital to wait on the echo cardiogram results with Andrew. After waiting all morning, his echo showed little to no fluid around the heart, no heart damage; and his blood tests showed his cardiac enzymes still dropping. All of this was/is wonderful news! He is taking Naproxen, which is essentially a high dosage of Ibuprofen to ease the inflammation of his pericardium. Was this all a big deal? Absolutely! In the grand scheme of heart issues though, we are very thankful it was nothing more.

Andrew mentioned to me in the Emergency Department that it is always good to have circumstances to remind us of how fragile life can be, and how thankful we should be for his grace and faithfulness. Though I completely agree; if I'm completely honest, I feel we have experienced enough reminders in our life; and I would like a break (at least for a little while)! I have mentioned this several times, but I truly believe it. God is faithful and good no matter the outcome of all this; but I am SO thankful he showed his faithfulness/goodness with encouraging test results!

Thank you for all your prayers, love, and support during those crazy days!