David has been so wonderful....just like normal. He always has such a good attitude, and is so willing to help with anything and everything with me and Bryan even though I know he is extremely tired and exhausted! This is his week of vacation time he took off to be home with us, and he gets to spend it in the hospital instead. Not much of a week of "vacation" I will say.
After having another abdominal surgery, I think my body kind of "freaked out" a bit. For days after the surgery I was extremely nauseous and couldn't eat anything whatsoever. I was getting weaker and weaker, and feeling so bad. Doctors didn't really know why I was so sick, but just thought it was from the surgery and that it would just be a matter of time for it to go away. With having a new baby though, and being very sick it was also resulting in me getting zero sleep. I was getting to the point that my body was so tired it wouldn't let me sleep when I had the chance. My doctor and I agreed on Saturday afternoon finally that even though I was still feeling very sick and not eating, it would be better if I could go home to sleep, and stay on some meds at home. So we did. I went home Saturday late afternoon. By the time I got home from the car ride I ran straight to the bathroom almost ready to throw up. I fell in bed, and pretty much stayed there as my body started to crash.
Through the night, I got up over and over spending so much time trying not to throw up and take my anti-nausea. I fell in bed after each time being up. Feeding Bryan was barely even an option for me because I couldn't even sit up long enough to feed him. David was up all night with him and me. He did everything to take care of him, and he even helped me feed him while I laid down since I couldn't sit up. Then it hit. My body started attacking my muscles, and I started having major cramping. If you have had a "charlie horse" before you will kind of know what I mean. It was kind of like that, but 10x worse. It would hit 3-4 major muscles from my feet, calves, toes, thighs, hips, hands all at one time, and the pain would be so much more than I could bare. My head would start spinning and I would start blacking out because the pain was so bad. I would maybe get a 5 minute break between each attack that lasted at least 15 minutes at a time. This was quite wearing on David as I lay there hour after hour crying out in pain as he is each time rubbing and massaging trying hard to give the cramps some relief for even just a short time. He would go from me crying in pain to Bryan crying in hunger, and then back to me. The next morning, I ended up calling my friend Veronica out of church to come help because things kept getting worse, and we needed help. It didn't take long for David and Veronica to realize that I needed to go back to the hospital. David decided this, and then tried for 30 mins to try and get me dressed and in the car, but with no luck. Finally he called and ambulance, and we were rushed to the hospital right away. It just couldn't have worked more perfect with Veronica being there, because we were able to just abandon baby Bryan and leave him in her hands. He had a full day back and forth between all his family who loves him. He ended up spending his first night away at Grandma Rice's house when he was just 6 days old. He did so good! The Lord really has blessed us with a very content little boy! Back in the hospital that night things continued the same till finally I was given a strong muscle relaxer and some morphine but not till around 3 o' clock in the morning. We don't really know why it took them so long to give that to me, but some times it just doesn't make sense the way they do some things in the hospital. Right away when they wheeled me into the ER they started me on a bolster of plain salt water through my IV. I was very dehydrated, and they said that nothing was really going to "help" all the cramping till that electrolyte imbalance was fixed. I still continued to ask every doctor that came in for some kind of a muscle relaxer to give me just a little bit of relief. I got it finally, but not till hours of waiting. After getting some relief, David and I slept that night for 5 straight hours which was the longest stretch of sleep both of us had had since before I had the baby. The next day they couldn't pump enough fluid, salt water, potassium, magnesium, vitamins, and so much more into me fast enough. I couldn't even take a shower because I couldn't be unhooked for that long. I did find out that one of the main things that through my body down the drain so fast was how low my sodium levels got. The normal counts # is around 140. Mine were around 110, which I guess to what I was told was VERY low.
This all happened Sunday night. They worked and worked and worked through the night Sunday, all day Monday, and through Monday night. By Tuesday, they were really starting to worry when most of my counts were just staying the same, and they weren't seeing any of them come up. I still wasn't eating because of the bad nausea, and continued to be on constant anti-nausea to keep from throwing up. This is when they start to tell me that they are going to have to start giving me PTN which stands for Total Parenteral Nutrition. This was something the doctors always used as a last resort, because it has to be started slowly and then build up in your system, and then once things are doing better it can't just be stopped right away. Basically this meant if they had to start this it would have put into concrete a for long stay at the hospital, which I absolutely dreaded. The doctor told me that morning around 7 about their decision, and my body had just hours to make a change for itself. The 4pm blood draw would be the deciding factor, and if things hadn't changed they would start that night. She left the room, and my heart dropped. My body had only hours left to start making a change by itself which up to this point it had failed to do. I called the nurse in right away and asked for a dose of anti-nausea, and then called my brother-in-law to bring me some food with protein in it and lots of sodium. The doctor had told me that I needed to eat (for a while) a diet very high in sodium. So I did....eggs with Velveeta pored on them with salt added to each bite. Even if I did throw it up I had to try. I had to force food down me all day long with hopes that it would help.
It was a long day of taking anti-nausea, and then eating. I did this at least 4 times before that 4pm blood draw. I also drank as much as I could of just Gatorade and no water. It was of the Lord that when the results of that test came back that evening my levels had come up barely enough for them to "pose pone" starting the TPN. I was so very happy, and made up my mind that no matter how sick I was I would continue to try to eat at least something at every meal. This went on for 2 more days of making myself eat. All my levels in the mean time continued slowly to rise and I continued to feel better and better each day. It was on Friday morning when I woke up that I noticed a huge change. I was hungry!! I hadn't felt "hungry" in over 2 weeks, and any food digested was forced. It was such a good feeling to feel hungry. I made a breakfast order that morning that would have been enough for 3 people! :) Of course I didn't eat it all, but if it sounded good, I ordered it!
The next morning I found out I was going to be able to go home....(again). :) David and I were so excited. We started packing up right away and were ready to go hours before the hospital had released us. It was such a wonderful feeling to come home that night! Bryan was just shy from being 2 weeks old, and we were finally able to bring him home. David had so sacrificially given his weeks vacation time to be with us in the hospital instead of the nice "1st week at home together" we had thought it would be. It was ok though, because we were all home and healthy and just fine now. We were very thankful that the Lord was so good to us!
Maybe I had a few set backs along the way, but we did it! We have our healthy baby boy who is just so dear to us it would be impossible to put into words the love that our hearts have wrapped around him! The Lord blessed with something so precious!
It has been a little over a week now since we have been home, and we are all doing so well! I am off my anti-bio tics and back to nursing again which I am very thankful. Bryan and I miss daddy every day so much, but look forward to him coming home every night! I have to fight over getting to first kiss now! :) Bryan is in a routine of eating every 3 hours almost like clockwork. He has had a few bad nights, but all in all I can't complain because he is a pretty good sleeper and a happy baby! Thank-you Lord once again for your goodness to us!!
