Friday, January 25, 2008

Jeremy's Trip to the Hospital

So last weekend we had some excitement in the Hermann household. After church on Sunday we went to the Christensen's to watch the NFL playoff games. We had a great time with them, but Jeremy was pretty disappointed that the Packers lost. Toward the end of the game he started complaining that his shoulder hurt and his back hurt. I didn't think much of it because we had pretty much sat on the couch all afternoon and evening, so I figured he just had some sore muscles or something. We were getting ready to leave and he was still acting like he was in a lot of pain. He didn't want to make a big deal out of it so we got our stuff in the car and headed home. On the way home his pain was getting more intense and he was saying his chest hurt, it was hard to breathe and his left arm was going numb. I called my parents to see if they could direct me to a closer hospital, but while I was on the phone with them Jeremy said, "We need to get somewhere fast!" That is not what you want to hear from your husband, especially when you think he could be having a heart attack. So I got off the phone with my parents and called 911, while still driving. We pulled off the freeway and into a hotel parking lot. Police and an ambulance met us there within a few minutes. The ambulance ladies were SO NICE and they were able to at least let us know that it didn't look like it was related to his heart. We took the ambulance to the hospital and spent a few hours in the ER, where they determined his left lung had partially collapsed. Evidently this can just spontaneously happen, and it's more common in tall, thin males. They admitted him so they could keep an eye on him overnight. He wanted me to stay with him all night, but they wouldn't let me since he had a roommate. So I left at 3:30AM and went home to sleep for a few hours before going back to the hospital in the morning. When I got there Jeremy seemed more like he was in a hotel than a hospital. He thought the food was great, his nurse was very nice, and he had his own DVD player so he had me bring a season of Seinfeld for him to watch. They did more x-rays in the morning and said he didn't look any worse, and since he was feeling pretty good they discharged him monday afternoon. He's still experiencing some discomfort, but he's on the road to recovery. He'll have x-rays every few days until it looks like it has healed itself. If he's not all healed in a few weeks he'll have to go back to the lung specialist and possibly have surgery. We're praying that doesn't happen. The surgery isn't a real big deal, but we'd like to avoid it if possible. So...that was our exciting weekend. Hopefully this coming weekend is less eventful. We figure all the bills from last weekend will probably blow through our deductible, so this would be a great year to have a baby! We'll keep you posted if there is any news on that front. :)