That sucked

I'm alive but I can't say that I EVER want to go through that again. I honestly went in thinking it was going to be nothing compared to my bone biopsy and ended up surprised at how much pain I was in. From the beginning...

Ryan and I arrived at check-in a little before 10 a.m. Went through the paperwork, then the lab folks came down and drew some blood to check my clotting factor. While we were waiting we looked over the reports by NP B (the one I can't stand). It was obvious she knows nothing of Alpha-1 and again referred to me being anorexic. Whatever. I got a little heated over that. After I got the first poke we went down to radiology and waited a bit. They came and got me, took me into the room, went over everything, and started the scan. During this time they were waiting on the results from the bloodwork so we hung out for a bit. Next thing I know I'm having the IV started, getting more u/s scans done, and the doc comes in. He talks me through everything, scans me as well, marks the area, and we get down to business.

The lidocaine stung a bit as usual then the versed and fentanyl kicked in so I was relaxed. The first couple of punches I didn't feel at all. Just a little click and voila. Around the 3rd or 4th punch the pain hit big time. Tears were flowing and it took all I had not to writhe around on the table. They stopped everything immediately and I was sent down for a chest xray. My arm felt like it was being ripped off and my liver was equally pissed. The only thing I could equate the pain and feeling to was labor--10 cms. labor. I would've done anything to make it stop. I didn't cry during my bone biopsy and I didn't cry when I was 10 cms. dilated in natural labor with Megan. But I cried yesterday. The nurse had given me more fentanyl but it didn't do a thing. For the chest xray they had to sit me upright which was oh-so-fun.

Thankfully I didn't have a collapsed lung and there were no signs of bleeding. Unfortunately they couldn't figure out why I was in so much pain. The only thing they could surmise was that given my liver is enlarged and already causing pain that it was heightened by being poked. Later the radiologist said the bag surrounding the liver may have torn as well which would cause intense pain. The nerves that run up to the right shoulder were obviously angry. Honestly I think the shoulder pain was worse than the liver pain.

I was given morphine which finally allowed me to breathe again and sent down to extended recovery. Typically they keep you for 2 hrs.--I was there for 4. While there I was given another shot of morphine and then followed that up with two vicoden. I don't think I've ever had that many pain meds in me. Ever. The pain was going back and forth between 6-9 and for awhile I thought that moving made the pain come back. I had dropped my vicoden and when I sat up a bit to see where it went, I was in agony again. Tears, "ow's," and more swearing that I would never do this again. Before they released me I was sent down for a CT as my pain level was still 7-8. That sucked big time. Raising my arms above my head and having to breathe was almost impossible. I did it, though. I cussed quite a bit too. Again the CT looked normal which was a relief and again the radiologist said that he must have really irritated my liver and the nerves around it. We agreed that I should go home and see if I could get rest there.

Home at last. Had a few "flares" that brought me to tears and quickly discovered that laying down brought on the most amount of pain. Around 8:30'ish I had Ryan put on a movie for me in our bedroom and attempted to lay in bed. That didn't work out so well. Once again I was crying, saying "ow" over and over again, and in horrendous pain. I had him adjust the pillows and grab another one off the couch which he wedged under my right side and the pain lessened tremendously. Megan hung out with me and watched Steel Magnolias for about an hour. I took a percocet, then waiting a half an hour and took another half. After that kicked in I was able to sleep some. I did wake up quite a bit with an itchy belly or a tweak here and there, but overall it was so much better than I had envisioned.

Ryan took today off so he could take care of the kiddos and help me out. I'm feeling so much better today than yesterday. Still sore but nothing like yesterday--not even close! I really hope they find something from this because I have no desire to go through another liver biopsy. Not without pre-emptive morphine dosing!