ER Visits
I wanted to share this with all of you who may be pregnant since I had to do some Googling after the fact to find out more.
I woke up a Tuesday morning (in the middle of the night) because my chest hurt whenever I breathed in. And when I say hurt, I mean a sharp stabbing pain that woke me up several more times. I didn't think much of it, especially since I was able to go back to sleep every time. When I woke up in the morning, the pain had become more of a constant dull pain that increased when I took a deep breath. Again, I didn't think much of it. I am used to letting things go and ignoring pain, which isn't the best idea.
I told Paris about the middle of the night chest pain and she insisted that I call my OB. The nurse that I originally spoke to told me to take some Tylenol and call my GP if the pain continued/got worse. Since the nurse brushed it off, so did I. Expect, a few minutes later she called me back. She had spoken with the doctor and the doctor said I needed to go to my GP today and if I couldn't get in, got to the ER. Because I am pregnant, they needed to rule out a blood clot. Of course that got me into a panic. Telling a pregnant woman that she might have a blood clot will cause a bit of anxiety.
So I pulled myself together and tried to get a hold of my GP to see if I could come in. I clearly need a new GP because neither of their phone numbers worked! Paris suggested I go to the new ER just up the street. I again, pulled myself together and headed out the door. Chuck pointed out later that if I was having chest pain, I probably shouldn't have driven my manual transmission car...oops.
The new ER up the street was the right choice. I walked in, started the paperwork process at the front desk and before I could finish, a nurse was waiting to take my back to a room. I think I was one of three patients there during the almost four hours I was there. The nurses were happy to have something to do. They were very nice and I saw the doctor within just a few minutes.
Since I am pregnant and chest pain is always taken seriously, the doctor wanted to do whatever they could to rule out a blood clot. The best way to rule out a blood clot is with a CAT scan, but they don't usually like doing that when you are pregnant because of the radiation exposure for both you and the baby. So they did 3 other tests to do what they could to rule blood clots out. They started with a blood clot test that they do with your blood. This can come back as positive, but it doesn't mean that there are blood clots, it can just mean you're pregnant. But if it comes back negative, that is a good sign. My results come back negative. But the doctor still wanted to be sure, so he ordered a ultrasound of my legs and a chest x-ray. Both of these came back negative for any blood clots. They did give my some Tylenol to help with the pain. For those of you that have experienced any kind of intense pain, Tylenol doesn't work for you either...The doctor did say that when you are pregnant, your body can do pretty much anything. They suggested that if the chest pain continued or got worse, I needed to come back in.
After a very long afternoon nap later that day, I felt a lot better. I wasn't anxious anymore and the pain was subsiding. The Husband was anxious about it all day, especially since he was at work when I was in the ER. Luckily one of his friends is doing his residency as an ER doctor and he gave The Husband lots of details and assured him that they wouldn't have let me leave the hospital if I wasn't ok.
I was exhausted the rest of the day, even with the nap. It turns out that being anxious and being pregnant just about wipe you out. I slept great that night and the pain was gone in the morning. So this one has been chalked up to weird pregnancy body. I am now hearing from other woman that I know that they had some chest pain during pregnancy. It is definitely not something to ignore because when you are pregnant you are more prone to blood clots but it is also not uncommon!