Around 1:00 this morning, I realized that I couldn’t fight this on my own and I needed treatment.Â? I woke Jon up and he took me to the E.R.Â? Thankfully, Dr. Awesome was there and agreed to see me even though she wasn’t the on-call doctor.Â? (Our chief-of-medicine was on-call and seeing him would have likely resulted in me throwing things and lunging at him with sharp, pointy objects.Â? He has no bedside manner, a god complex, and he is incapable of dealing with women who have mental health issues.)

Dr. Awesome spoke with the psychiatrist on call in Great Falls and they decided to give me some Zyprexa to calm me down.Â? She also admitted me for observation and had them put me on an IV to give me fluids as I was throwing up from the panic attack.Â? The IV was pretty traumatic because it took two tries to get it in and both were excruciatingly painful.Â? (I started just weeping after the first try and they had to wrap my hands/arms in warm blankets to get a vein up for a second try.)

I didn’t really sleep well until this morning after my meds and my shower.Â? (Yes, I got to shower.Â? It probably helped more than anything else.)Â? After I ate breakfast (which turned out to be fairly good), I just crashed and slept for the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon.Â? They discharged me around 4 with instructions to come back if the panic returned.Â? Dr. Awesome also put me back on the Effexor XR and after taking it this morning at my pre-pregnancy dose, I started feeling much better than I had for the last week.

I have to go see Dr. Awesome this week to discuss the risks of the Effexor and figure out what to do in terms of the pregnancy.Â? It’s a Class C medication which means that it *might* cause birth defects (in my case, a congenital heart issue) but I think everyone is agreeing that for me, the benefits outweigh the risks.

So… please continue to pray.Â? I need to say thanks to Dayna, Krissy, and Cheryl who have sent emails and Facebook messages in addition to Rich’s wonderful comment on the last entry.Â? I really appreciate y’all.

I was coughing a little bit when I was trying to go to sleep on Tuesday night.Â? I didn’t sleep well and when I woke up feeling crappy on Wednesday, I thought it was just lack of sleep and nothing was wrong.Â? Ummm… not quite.Â? I had crap in my chest and was having coughing spasms.Â? My head was killing me and I was feeling seriously feverish.Â? (How did I know that I might have a fever?Â? The area where I work is so warm that I’m usually stripped down to the least amount I can wear and be decent and I was having major chills.)Â? I pondered going home at lunch but we were short-handed and I didn’t want to leave my two co-workers alone.Â? Around 4:45, I started coughing up blood.Â? I decided that it would probably be best to just go home, have some chicken soup, and go to bed.

Needless to say, work was NOT on the agenda today.Â? I went to see my doctor (and had to wait an hour because she was the only provider there — the head of medicine chased off one of the other ones, another is on vacation, and my doctor’s husband was headed to a rural clinic) and she confirmed that I definitely have some kind of respiratory infection.Â? My temperature was in the 99’sF which is a fever by normal standards and a pretty decent one for me because I tend to run around 97.5F.Â? If it was that high today after Aleve and Robitussin, I’m not sure I want to know what it was yesterday.

We also looked briefly at my neuro FNP’s report.Â? As she thinks some of my headaches might be caused by a blood sugar drop, she gave me a glucometer and had her nurses teach me how to use it.Â? (It’s true… pharmacies do kill you on the price of strips.)Â? We’re going to track it and see if there’s a pattern.

Right now, it feels like my fever might be breaking.Â? I’m going to go shower and see if that helps.Â? (OK… I know it will help.)Â? I’m just still kind of amazed and a bit scared that I got hit with this level of bronchitis this quickly and I’m hoping it has nothing to do with my hospital visit on Tuesday.