It's been a crazy week. Good in so many ways, but worrisome and stressful and downright exasperating in others.
Here's the frustrating part. They were so busy in labor and delivery they parked me in an ultrasound room strapped to a blood pressure monitor. As we were headed to the hospital, I knew they'd want a urine sample so I didn't go before we left. The blood pressure monitor kept beeping alarms every 15 minutes because of elevated numbers but nobody came to turn it off because they were busy. An hour later they said I should get blood drawn, but nothing about a urine sample and I had to go!! Two hours after we got there, they still hadn't taken my blood and I was still in that dumb ultrasound room. Finally, after 2 1/2 hours, I disconnected myself from the monitors and went to the bathroom. Guess what happened next? Within 5 minutes, they came in to check on me and asked if I could give a urine sample. Grrrrr!!
Around 8:00 pm they said they would admit me and I would be here for a 24-hour treatment. They would give me magnesium through an IV to help my blood pressure drop.
Rick went home to pack up some stuff and get the kids settled while I waited in the ultrasound room. My head hurt and I was pretty worn out so I dozed off in the chair for a bit. When I woke up, my head felt better. I thought I might get out of having to be medicated since it was taking them so long to get me a room, but no--another blood pressure check confirmed preeclampsia. At about 11:00 pm, they took me to a room. They left me there for another hour before a nurse came in to start an IV. She thought it would be hard to find a good vein, so called anesthesia to do it. I think I finally got an IV around 1 am. The intent of the medication is to drop my blood pressure which makes people feel loopy so I'm not allowed out of bed. Because I'm confined to the bed, Rick had to stay the night too so he can get up every three hours to bring me the baby to feed and change his diaper. They wouldn't let me stay here with the baby without help which makes sense. And because I'm on bed rest, I'm not even allowed to get up and pee, so I also have my favorite thing--a catheter. Here's another fun thing--because of the risk of seizure I'm not allowed to eat anything while on the treatment. Yep, I love this stuff!! That's why we keep coming back.
So, two more lovely and special nights at the hospital for me. My medication should be done at 1:30 am which means I probably won't be discharged until later tomorrow morning. This is me and Gavin waiting in the ultrasound room.
I look like I feel good, but trust me when I say my head hurts. I have dealt with headaches all my life so I'm fairly adept at trying to distract myself from the pain.
I want to write about how we welcomed our newest baby boy into the world and his story, but first I should write about why I have the time to do that--I'm confined to a bed in the hospital for 24 hours. Yay! ---- No, not yay, but here's a cute picture to admire before I get on with the story.
I was admitted to the hospital last night to be treated for postpartum preeclampsia. Here's a good link with information about the condition.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/postpartum-preeclampsia/basics/definition/con-20035395
Here's what happened-- I was feeling pretty good and proud of myself for not needing to take the Percocet I have been prescribed for pain after the C section. Emily drove me and Gavin to the Dr for his weight check and jaundice check. He was doing better and I was glad. We went home for lunch and I started getting a headache. I thought maybe I had been over-confident with my pain meds and being up and about so I took some medicine and tried to take a nap. I was able to rest a little but my head still hurt an hour later, so I took more medicine and tried to sleep again. My head was hurting so bad I dreamt I was researching causes for postpartum headaches. I thought I might have a spinal headache from the spinal block for the C section. It turns out that those headaches are much worse when sitting or standing and better when lying down. Mine was the opposite, so the other thing to check for was high blood pressure. I pulled out the monitor and sure enough it read something over 140/90. I can't remember exact numbers now because I wasn't feeling great and still don't feel great. I thought it was a bad reading so checked back in 20 minutes and it was around 150/100. I called the doctor and they said I should go in to Labor and Delivery at the hospital to get checked out. So, instead of Rick taking the boys to Back to School night to meet their teachers, we headed hospital at 5:00 pm.
Here's what happened-- I was feeling pretty good and proud of myself for not needing to take the Percocet I have been prescribed for pain after the C section. Emily drove me and Gavin to the Dr for his weight check and jaundice check. He was doing better and I was glad. We went home for lunch and I started getting a headache. I thought maybe I had been over-confident with my pain meds and being up and about so I took some medicine and tried to take a nap. I was able to rest a little but my head still hurt an hour later, so I took more medicine and tried to sleep again. My head was hurting so bad I dreamt I was researching causes for postpartum headaches. I thought I might have a spinal headache from the spinal block for the C section. It turns out that those headaches are much worse when sitting or standing and better when lying down. Mine was the opposite, so the other thing to check for was high blood pressure. I pulled out the monitor and sure enough it read something over 140/90. I can't remember exact numbers now because I wasn't feeling great and still don't feel great. I thought it was a bad reading so checked back in 20 minutes and it was around 150/100. I called the doctor and they said I should go in to Labor and Delivery at the hospital to get checked out. So, instead of Rick taking the boys to Back to School night to meet their teachers, we headed hospital at 5:00 pm.
Here's the frustrating part. They were so busy in labor and delivery they parked me in an ultrasound room strapped to a blood pressure monitor. As we were headed to the hospital, I knew they'd want a urine sample so I didn't go before we left. The blood pressure monitor kept beeping alarms every 15 minutes because of elevated numbers but nobody came to turn it off because they were busy. An hour later they said I should get blood drawn, but nothing about a urine sample and I had to go!! Two hours after we got there, they still hadn't taken my blood and I was still in that dumb ultrasound room. Finally, after 2 1/2 hours, I disconnected myself from the monitors and went to the bathroom. Guess what happened next? Within 5 minutes, they came in to check on me and asked if I could give a urine sample. Grrrrr!!
Around 8:00 pm they said they would admit me and I would be here for a 24-hour treatment. They would give me magnesium through an IV to help my blood pressure drop.
Rick went home to pack up some stuff and get the kids settled while I waited in the ultrasound room. My head hurt and I was pretty worn out so I dozed off in the chair for a bit. When I woke up, my head felt better. I thought I might get out of having to be medicated since it was taking them so long to get me a room, but no--another blood pressure check confirmed preeclampsia. At about 11:00 pm, they took me to a room. They left me there for another hour before a nurse came in to start an IV. She thought it would be hard to find a good vein, so called anesthesia to do it. I think I finally got an IV around 1 am. The intent of the medication is to drop my blood pressure which makes people feel loopy so I'm not allowed out of bed. Because I'm confined to the bed, Rick had to stay the night too so he can get up every three hours to bring me the baby to feed and change his diaper. They wouldn't let me stay here with the baby without help which makes sense. And because I'm on bed rest, I'm not even allowed to get up and pee, so I also have my favorite thing--a catheter. Here's another fun thing--because of the risk of seizure I'm not allowed to eat anything while on the treatment. Yep, I love this stuff!! That's why we keep coming back.
So, two more lovely and special nights at the hospital for me. My medication should be done at 1:30 am which means I probably won't be discharged until later tomorrow morning. This is me and Gavin waiting in the ultrasound room.
I look like I feel good, but trust me when I say my head hurts. I have dealt with headaches all my life so I'm fairly adept at trying to distract myself from the pain.
I feel bad for the kids at home. This has been a rough week with the sudden admittance to the hospital last Thursday, the C-section, the NICU, and now this. I missed Back to School Night which isn't that big of a deal, but I know it eases the kids' anxiety when they know I know their teachers and have been to their classrooms. They went with friends and met their teachers but didn't get to take their school supplies because my head hurt so bad that I couldn't organize them in time. I really want to talk to them about what they thought of their teachers and who else is in their class but I guess they will just have to do their best to show up Monday without being too nervous.
Here's another fun twist. Sean has a staph infection on his leg that requires antibiotics. The stuff he's supposed to take makes him gag and it is a huge fight to get him to choke it down. I was supposed to take his medicine in to the pharmacy to get some flavor added but got taken hostage. I don't even think he will like the medicine with flavor and the pills are pretty big to swallow. We might have an adventure trying to get him his medicine.
Life is so much unpredictable fun right? But in the end it is worth it.
Here's another fun twist. Sean has a staph infection on his leg that requires antibiotics. The stuff he's supposed to take makes him gag and it is a huge fight to get him to choke it down. I was supposed to take his medicine in to the pharmacy to get some flavor added but got taken hostage. I don't even think he will like the medicine with flavor and the pills are pretty big to swallow. We might have an adventure trying to get him his medicine.
Life is so much unpredictable fun right? But in the end it is worth it.
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