Saturday, February 9, 2008 | By: Sara

Follow Up on Oat Lung

So, early this morning at about 3 am I got really bad chills. My teeth were chattering so hard that my jaw is still sore from it. I couldn't get warm no matter how many blankets were on top of me. So I tried to make a sauna in the bathroom by running a really hot shower. That didn't help either. I kept coughing really hard and it was just killing my chest. The skin on the inside of my arms and chest was starting to hurt with just the weight of my shirt. It was really weird. I really didn't know what was wrong with me. I took my temperature to see if I had a fever but the reading was normal. So finally when I threw up blood, that was the point at which I decided to go to the ER.
So Ben drove me to the ER at 3:30 am. I really don't remember everything that happened there. I know they put me on a heart rate and O2 sat monitor and took x-rays of my chest. They said the x-rays were clear with no pneumonia but I had atelectasis, which is basically where the alveoli in my lungs collapsed. They thought my lungs were just inflamed from the oat cluster. They gave me guaifenesin with codeine to help with the pain and the cough and a respiratory treatment with albuterol and ipratropium to open my lungs up. The codeine just made me crazy.
Anyway, I slept the entire day today. I have never slept so much in my life! I am still coughing and in a lot of pain but I am getting better. 

3 comments:

Camille said...

Holy cow, that sucks! We've done the middle of the night/late night ER runs a couple times, it's no fun! I hope that you are able to feel normal soon. And, may I retract all sarcastic comments from before about this horrible situation, as I feel I am now stuck with my foot in my mouth.

Camille said...

p.s. ignore the time that I made these comments. :) It's one of those nights where the baby is up sick and crying, and Marty is in with her, but I can't sleep so I'm doing the next best thing and scoping out the local blog scene.

Britt said...

Wow...I hope you're feeling well now! What an experience!