To Hell and Back

These past couple of days have felt like a whirlwind of pain, scaredness (if that's a word), and hospitals. I was hoping my next entry would be to tell you about the sex of our baby. Which I will write a seperate entry on, but this one is about the worst pain I've EVER experienced in my life.


I feel like so much has gone on, I don't know where to start. So, I guess I'll start from the beginning. This past Wednesday, I was at my admin work Christmas party over at a coworker’s house. From the beginning of the party I felt sharp pains that would shoot across my stomach. I didn't think anything of it because I had been reading that as my baby grows (now gaining about a pound a week) so would my ligaments and there would be times that I would feel sharp pains because of my stomach and ligaments stretching. As the party went on I was feeling not only the sharp pains in my stomach but in my side and back. I still wasn't too alarmed, but excused myself from the party early so I could get home and off my feet.
Driving home the pain got worse and worse to where it was becoming uncomfortable to sit and breathe. I got home and tried using the bathroom thinking maybe it was a bad bowl movement or something. Since I had never experienced this before I didn't know what was going on. The pain then moved to an excruciating pain that would come and go about every 2 minutes. I started getting scared that I was going into early labor so I decided to drive myself to the emergency room.

Where was John you may ask?? Well, he was actually visiting some friends in the hospital that had just had a baby that was in the ER because of complications at birth. I called John on the way to the ER trying to fight back tears and told him I thought I was in labor and was going to the hospital. He said he would be on the way, and I couldn't believe how quickly he got to me. I had enough time to get into the ER and begin the check in process and he was there. The entire time hospital staff was asking me questions the pain was getting worse and worse to where I couldn't even catch my breath. They wheeled me over to labor and delivery and the whole time I was praying that God would make this go away and for our baby to be ok. The nurses in labor and deliver did some test to see what was going on with me. About 30 minutes later they ruled out premature labor which put me at some ease but didn't explain this horrible pain I was having. They finally told me I had a urinary tract infection and released me with some antibiotics.

I wish I could say everything ended there, but that was only the start of the downward spiral. That night at home, I didn't get any sleep. I still had the horrible pains shooting across my stomach and back. I couldn't even sit or lay down because the pain was so bad. Even the shirt I was wearing touching my stomach felt like it had a million pins in it. I can honestly say I have never felt pain that bad, I felt like my body was being ripped in pieces. The next day I continued to take the medicine the hospital had given me and out of sheer exhaustion I fell asleep. Then on top of everything, I got the bad case of the chills. I had sweatpants on, a hoodie w/ the hood up, the heater going full blast, and was under the bed covers and still couldn't get warm.

John came home from work around 2:30 and came in the room where I was and knew right away something was really wrong. I lay under the covers teeth chattering, but he said I felt like I was on fire. He took my temperature and saw that it was 102.4, which is all he had to see. He got me in the car and rushed me to the ER once again.

This time after checking in they admitted me right away. They did more tests and took more blood and urine and determined I had a severe kidney infection along with severe blockage in my kidneys. The next couple of days in the hospital were a blur. It was like a roller coaster. I would be ok one minute and the next I would have a high fever, with my pulse rate way above normal (130) with my blood pressure dropping. Being pregnant the doctors couldn't treat me the way they would a normal patient. They could only give me antibiotics and fluids through an IV. I was absolutely miserable. I couldn't sleep because every hour some doctor or nurse was poking me and taking more blood, or my blood pressure, or doing an ultra sound to make sure our baby was ok. To make matters worse I completely loss my appetite because of the high fever and nausea so they had to give me food via the IV as well. I felt horrible because I didn't want to hurt my baby but felt like there was nothing I can do.

The only good thing through my whole ordeal was that the doctors kept telling me our baby was fine and healthy. This gave me some peace of mind. Finally after 4 days in the hospital I started to get stable and the doctors felt they had pumped enough antibiotics in me they could release me. I was so happy to get home, but I'm still not 100%. I will be on antibiotics the rest of my preganancy because my kidney's still have blockage in them. I'm still experiencing shortness of breath and I've gained 10 pounds in 2 days of nothing but water. My ankles are the size of grapefruits, but each day is better and better.

This whole ordeal made me realize that life is truly a blessing and nothing should be taken for granted. The small things that upset you should be let go because in end they don't matter. I couldn't have gotten through any of this without my wonderful supportive husband. He was by my side every minute and took care of me through it all. He was my hero in this tough time, and this only brought us closer. This also made me realize who my true friends are, and how many people out there love and support me. So, in closing I want to say to look around and count your blessings. Even going through all of this, I have so many things in my life to be thankful for. I will definitely go through these holidays with a new perspective on things and enjoy each and every minute of it.

My swollen feet and ankels

Close up of my ankle. It almost doesn't look like my foot.