Feels Good to be Home!

The roller coaster ride continued on Wednesday after the most amazing time with Landon.  Landon was doing great, but I on the other hand was going down hill fast.  Tuesday night I noticed I had a low grade temperature and didn't think anything of it thinking that it was due to the natural recovery of labor.  For the majority of the day on Wednesday I felt just fine as well, but it must have been that my energy was focused all on Landon during our visit to even notice any additional symptoms.

On the way home we were still on an emotional high after holding our little guy for the first time that we stopped at Babies R Us to pick up some additional breast-pumping supplies for at home and at the hospital.  We got home, settled down, and I had a great chat with my cousin Ang too (thanks for the "boobie care" package!).  Shortly after hanging up I realized how worn down I really was.  I was beginning to feel weak and have severe chest and upper abdomen pain, my temperature was also creeping up over 100 as well.  I recalled that the doctors told me at discharged from the delivery that if I experience a fever above 100 to call, so I did and they instructed me to go to the ER right away.

We should have been more prepared this time around, but again not thinking much of it, I didn't pack an overnight bag as I thought we would only be there a few hours tops.

Checking into the ER was quite an experience too as they were about to take me up to Labor & Delivery.  When I heard them dispatch to the upstairs nurse team saying that they are bringing me up for labor, I had to let them know that I had already delivered on Sunday.  They were utterly confused, which I didn't have the patience for at the time due to me feeling like my heart was going to explode out of my chest.  The nurse tried to laugh it off, which didn't make it any better for me and in hindsight I feel bad about the short fuse that I had as I know that their job isn't easy.

After finally settling into the ER room, the doctors initially weren't sure what was wrong due to the symptoms that I was having - fever, chest/abdomen pain, shortness of breath, coughing, and on top of it all my blood pressure was through the roof bouncing around in the 180's/100's ranges.  They performed all sorts of tests on me over the next few hours beginning with an ultrasound of all of my organs followed by an x-ray of my chest and lastly a CAT scan in order to test for pulmonary embolisms (blood clots to the lungs).  All of the tests came back with minimal answers so they decided to solve for my outrageously high blood pressure first so they gave me a few doses of medicine to control my numbers, but because my heart rate was low they needed to investigate further so they consulted with the OB/GYN team upstairs.

What seemed to be like an angel from above, who shows up but Doctor Dennis herself!  We were so relieved to know that we would also be in her care.  She reviewed my exam results and decided to check my reflexes and declared very seriously that I was going upstairs immediately and staying overnight.  Her response was due to my wild reflexes as that indicated that I was at a high risk of experiencing seizures. I was not emotionally prepared to stay overnight as I knew that wouldn't allow me to see Landon the next day.  It was very difficult to come to the realization that I needed to focus on myself to get better.  Lance and I were both scared, but knew that now that we were back in Dr. Dennis' care that everything was going to be alright. 

After going upstairs, Dr. Dennis let me know that my placenta results came back with an acute infection and that I had undiagnosed preeclampsia, which was now in full force.  Preeclampsia is a form of high blood pressure and excess protein in the urine, which left untreated it can lead to serious even fatal complications for both the mother and the baby.  The only cure of preeclampsia is to deliver your baby, so as I mentioned in my first post, it is clear that our little Landon is a smarty-pants and knew he had to make a run for it on his own!

I was put on a strong magnesium sulfate drip for 24 hours in order to minimize my risk for seizures, stroke and heart attack, while we were working to get my blood pressure under control.  The magnesium sulfate made me feel so groggy it was like I had the flu.  The flu-like symptoms literally forced me to get some rest and I'm pretty sure I slept for the next 30 out of 36 hours.  The nursing staff was wonderful as always and we even shared some laughs.  After one of the shift changes, my new nurse wanted to bathe me and I guess after recently seeing how long my dad went without a bath in the hospital I got concerned that she wanted to bathe me because I smelled... I asked her and she nearly lost it from laughing so hard!  Apparently you get much better service being on the labor and delivery floor!

My blood pressure was continuing to bounce around in normal ranges and then would spike to the high ranges again.  The nurses began to realize that it was usually when I had company or was talking about Landon when my blood pressure would spike again.  I had a wonderful visit with my cousin Dana, but after a while the nurses nearly kicked her out because I needed to get my blood pressure in control again.  Dana bought Landon the cutest nautical footies and mittens, but I couldn't help but laugh at how big the mittens are compared to how tiny his little hands are now!  He will just need to grow into them over time!

Shortly after Dana left I got a visit from Dr. Dennis, who always seems to magically appear at the most appropriate times.  She just wanted to check in as she was about to head out at the end of her shift.  She filled me in on a sweet moment she had with Lance when he went up to her and gave her the biggest hug to thank her for taking care of his little family.  She said he melted her heart and after having a night like she did, it was exactly what she needed at that moment.  Another reminder how I am the luckiest girl in the world to have him in my life!

Later that night I had finished the magnesium drip and could have been discharged, but the nurse staff decided to keep me another night in order to monitor my blood pressure since it hadn't leveled out just yet.  It was tough to be away from Lance and Landon for another night, but it was the best thing to do for myself.  Lance began to tease me that I was trying to be like Landon by stealing all of the attention and by being hooked up to so many monitors!  Any way to find humor in the situation is what we needed at this point as it was so tough for the both of us.

After about 36 hours being admitted into the hospital again I was finally discharged this morning and was able to head back home.  My blood pressure has begun to stabilize and I am also now on blood pressure medicine.  Despite having to go through all of this, it was a blessing in disguise to take a step back and a reminder that taking care of myself is the best possible gift that I can give to Landon.

Needless to say I cannot wait until tomorrow to go visit my little bubba! :)

Exhausted "big brother" - he has no idea what he is in for!