Trip to the ER

Lee took me to the ER early yesterday morning. Nothing baby related, thank goodness. But it was my arms. Something was seriously wrong with my arms.

At our OB appointment on Thursday, I noticed that my left forearm hurt. It was throbbing, like it had been punched. I'm a super-klutz, so I didn't even bother to mention it to my OB - I figured I had run into something or strained it somehow.

But later that night, the pain was in both forearms, and creeping up towards my shoulders. It was horrible. I'm too young to have a stroke or a heart attack, but it still had me worried. My tendons felt like they were being pinched all the way up both arms. I wrapped a heating pad around both arms and tried to get some sleep.

Around 3am on Friday morning, I woke Lee up. The throbbing was almost unbearable and my grip strength felt weaker in both hands. He made me an ice pack, suggesting that alternating between heat and cold might help. I fell back asleep and woke up at 5am to more throbbing and aching.

(How wussy does "My arms hurt" sound?! If it didn't happen to me, I would have a hard time believing that arm pain could be that bad.)

We were wondering whether I should just wait until Urgent Care opened at 8am or to head on the ER. After about 20 minutes, I decided that I couldn't wait until 8 - I had to do something. So off we went to the ER at Baptist Hospital.

They drew blood, checked my vitals, and even called my OB to ask her some questions. They checked the baby's heart rate to make sure everything was fine (it was). Final verdict: unknown. How frustrating.

They said they weren't sure what was causing it. They didn't think it was a blood clot, since I didn't have any swelling or redness in my arms, and I didn't have a fever. They said it could be carpal tunnel, but weren't 100% positive. One nurse suggested that the baby might just be sitting on whatever nerve in my back that connects to my arms. I got a prescription for Darvocet and was told to make an appointment with my OB next week.

So no known cause and I made Lee miss a half a day of work. I felt like a world-class schmuck.

Thankfully, when I woke up this morning, my arms felt better. They still ached a bit, but nothing close to how bad they hurt on Friday. Maybe the nurse was right - mabye GB was just sitting pretty on a nerve.

She's totally grounded if she does this again.