Friday, March 09, 2012

Valentine’s Day Part 2

Warning: TMI following! Lots of talk of womanly issues. Male readers beware! :)

Towards the end of our Valentine’s party I started to feel really crampy. (I had felt crampy the day before at church as well, and took some Ibuprofen…so I thought. In my pained stupor I took a prenatal vitamin out of habit. Those don’t work for pain, FYI. Someone gave me an Aleve, which didn’t do anything either.) So after I put the kids to bed I laid down to try and take a nap but couldn’t really sleep because I was in so much pain. I dozed on and off for maybe 20 minutes and then felt fine. I made dinner and we put the kids to bed and I settled down to watch some Bachelor. Derrick went to bed at 9 and around 10 I started to feel a little achy again. I made my way to bed around 11 after taking some Ibuprofen hoping it would die down and I could sleep. Well, that never happened. It started to get worse and I laid writhed around in pain for an hour and half or so with what felt like contractions. They were every couple of minutes or so and felt just like contractions in intensity and pain. I was on my period at the time so I thought maybe I was just having those crazy cramps I sometimes hear about from other girls. In between contractions I googled my symptoms but couldn’t find anything conclusive. I finally had to wake Derrick up and tell him I thought we should go to the ER. At this point it’s 1:30 am. I don’t think I can drive myself, so we call our good friend Ann to come stay with the kids while we go to the hospital.

After being stopped by the Menomonee Falls police for a burned out headlight, we make it to the ER, which was thankfully dead, and I was taken right back. I got an IV and some morphine and the doctor came all within like 10 minutes. It was amazing. The doctor does a pelvic exam and says he sees something protruding out of my cervix and that he’s never seen anything like it. Comforting, right? He says he’s going to call my doctor and see what she says. Thankfully, my doctor was on call that night and she came to see what was going on. She confirmed that there was indeed stuff stuck in my cervix. “Products of conception” she called it, leftover from my miscarriage back in NOVEMBER. She used forceps and ridiculously large Q-Tip looking things and pulled out half a specimen jar full of stuff. Leftover placental tissue, likely.

Even though she was pretty sure she got everything, we decided to go ahead and do the D&C just to make sure. By this time it’s Tuesday, her day set aside for surgery. Another blessing. I was admitted to my own room and my surgery was scheduled for 9:30 am. Since I was in a bed this whole time I slept on and off while poor Derrick was stuck in a stiff chair, trying to sleep in any position he can. I felt horrible for him.

I had to leave my glasses in my room while they wheeled my bed to pre-op, which I hated. I’m practically blind. But everyone was so nice and comforting. In the OR the anesthesiologist told me I might feel a little bit dizzy, and I told them I still had on my underwear, which I guess I was worried about, and then the next thing I know I’m waking up in my room. Craaaazy.

Meanwhile Ann got Summer ready for Joy School and sent her on her way and was totally taking care of everything back home. I was going to send Valentine’s for her friends but that didn’t happen obviously and my friend noticed Summer didn’t have any to give while everyone else did and helped her make some really quickly. I don’t know why, but that little act of kindness STILL makes me cry thinking about it!!

After recovering for a bit I was discharged, and back home by 2 pm. I felt fine, no pain, just really tired. I took a nap and Derrick took the kids and let me rest. My amazing friends set me up with dinners for the week and just took good care of me. I had beautiful flowers delivered from sweet girls at Derrick’s work. I was feeling very loved, for sure.

Since November I’d been having my blood levels drawn to make sure my pregnancy hormones were dropping like they should. And they were, just soooo slowly. But they were still falling so my doctor wasn’t concerned. Who knew my uterus was a hoarder????

This whole thing is just a big frustrating mess. I feel like I am wasting so much time by not being pregnant! If I were going to have another baby spaced the same as Summer and Hannah I would be having a baby in 9 days. CRAZY!! So it’s so weird to me to not even be close to pregnant. And while I thought I would be able to start trying now, now I have to wait ANOTHER 2 cycles, so that I can have a better chance at getting and staying pregnant next time. I know in the grand scheme of things it’s really nothing, but I really just wanted to crank out all my kids and get it all over with, as horrible as that sounds. I’ve come to terms with it though, and am really enjoying my two girls and where they’re at now. They are both a great, predictable age, and both are starting to do and say some fun things. So I’m just trying to focus on the NOW, instead of on the what could have been.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

6 comments:

Rose said...

Oh, honey! That sounds really scary. I'm so glad you have such an amazing group of people around you that love you so much.

You're in my prayers and I know that the Lord will bless you with another little one when the time is right. You're such an amazing family and this is just a bump in the road.

Much love.

Lindsey said...

Holy moly girl! What a horrible ordeal! I am so sorry you had to go through all of that. I hope that you are doing better.

Leslie said...

I'm so sorry you had to go through that. And on Valentine's Day too! How awful! You are a wonderful mom and have beautiful girls. Take some time for yourself in the next little while, you deserve it.

Maria said...

Sounds miserable and painful. Big hugs from WA.

Samantha said...

That honestly sounds like such a miserable experience, I'm so sorry. I'm so glad you had that Ann- she sounds like a wonderful person and a good example for me of what I would like to be like. So thoughtful. I hope you're feeling better. Take your time with your body and take care of yourself! You will have another bebe soon enough!

lanni said...

karen! so sorry that you've been through all this. this really does sound so super sucky. but seriously, you shall be snuggling another baby in your arms soon enough -- good luck to you!

{at least you're getting lots of practice, huh? haha. that was such a man joke - sorry...}