One Year Ago Today...

I was 32 and a half weeks pregnant. I woke up that morning with a bad side pain. I was at Target with Avery and these pains just kept getting worse. I kept having to go into the clothing racks to hide and bend over, it hurt so bad but i figured i had just overdone it a bit because i was still serving at Chilis 3 nights a week. Once i got home the pains just kept getting worse so i called Susan and she convinced me to call the dr. They told me to go up to labor and delivery, and with several phone calls of prodding me to go, i finally went ( i was just sure they would say "you are fine" and send me home and i would feel silly). I was in so much pain by the time we got to the hospital i could hardly walk, they got me checked into a room and put the monitors on to see what was happening. I was having pretty good contractions but not dilating much more. After awhile they came in and said "you have a fever so we are going to do some blood tests".

Suddenly my room became very chaotic with doctors coming in and out of my room pushing on my belly and asking if it hurt, "YES it hurt!" My white blood cell count came back high and after ruling out that i was not abrupting and from the symptoms i was having they decided i was going to have my appendix out.They decided that it was safer to go ahead and take it out than to wait and do ore tests to see if that was the problem.

From then on it seemed like a whirlwind of stuff happening, the surgeons were there talking to me, the neonatologist was doing a sono on me, the regular on call ob dr was there assuring me everything was going to be ok. They gave me a shot to help mature Ethan's lungs, because there was a strong possibility that he would be born that night. The sono showed that Ethan was already 5 lbs. so the neonatologist assured me that he would be just fine if he was born probably just a short stay in the nicu, but of course this all scared me to death and i was so worried that something was going to happen to our little miracle baby that we had prayed for for so long!

I opted for the epidural ( safest for baby) for the surgery so i was awake which totally freaked me out. I remember telling them that they were going to have to move those mirrored lights above me cause i could see them down by my stomach...i got very groggy after that so i'm sure they gave me a little something special in my iv after that. I got a nice big incision in my pregnant belly because they can't do laproscopic when you are pregnant. Everything went smoothly with the surgery, i don't even know what time i went to surgery but it was late in the evening and the rest of that night felt like an eternity! I was in soo much pain, the side pain was still there and i was having contractions all night (which they expected, they thought it might put me into full blown labor) plus i had a huge incision in my big belly! I was on an iv so of course i had to keep getting up to use the restroom and they were coming in what felt like every hour giving me shots in my patutie!

The next day i was still running a fever and Ethan's heart rate was still very high (it had been in the 200's since i arrived at the hospital), and i remember the neonatologist coming and doing a sono and talking about taking me for a c-section (that they just needed to get the baby out)....i have no idea how much time passed but i came to to hear my fever was down, Ethan's heart rate had calmed down to where it should be, and my side pain had subsided. Our little one was going to stay put and grow some more. Thank you Lord!

After 4 days in the hospital i was very happy to get out on Labor Day and spend time with family even if i was just sitting in a chair most of the day!Later that evening i started having a lot of pain every time i took a breath which just kept getting worse the longer the night went on so we headed back to the emergency room at the suggestion of the on call doctor. After hrs of being told they thought i had a blood clot in my lung and a zillion (ok not quite that many) tests,scans, pokes, prods, and scariest of all for me shot in my belly, my scan came back fine, i didn't have a blood clot after all, so was sent back up to the antipardem (sp?) floor where i had just gone home from, to monitor Ethan again. Finally at 4 am we were able to go home.

What i had was pluresy (sp??) where the lining of your lungs swell, whatever it was it was the most painful thing i have experienced in a long time. I could not hardly breathe without horrible pain let alone move around the house. After i think 2 days and one evening of forcing myself to keep walking and moving (was told that's what would help) i woke up to the pain being gone! What a relief!!

So that is my saga of a year ago today and the excitement i had towards the end of my pregnancy with Ethan. "Thank you Lord for keeping me and Ethan safe and for allowing Ethan to continue growing awhile longer"