Hospital Stay

It really has been an interesting week. Monday I started to feel really awful at work. As the night progressed I felt worse and by about 10 pm decided to call my OB doctor to ask if she thought I should go into the ER. She agreed since the pain was in my lower back so we headed over to the hospital. I'm extrememly hesitant to visit the ER since visits there, even late at night, mean lots of waiting, which is hard to do when you don't feel well.

Since I am 30 weeks along this week I checked in with Labor & Delivery instead of the ER. They tooks some samples and after a couple hours sent me home with a couple pain pills and said to take the antibiotic the doctor had prescribed earlier in the day and call again if I wasn't better by the next day. Monday night was awful between being uncomfortable and being sick I barely got any sleep. When I called the doctor the next day she said to go back to the hospital right away.

The initial tests indicated I had kidney stones and a very bad kidney infection and I was very badly dehydrated so I was admitted and they started me on morphine & antibiotics. That helped but after doing an Ultrasound & CT Scan they could not visibly see the stones. Wednesday night I started to have trouble breathing but the nurses on the Labor Unit felt like that was due to the lack of space since the baby is getting big. I also had a few minor contractions but I didn't really feel them, probably because of the morphine I was on. When my breathing got more troubled the nurses called the doctor and at some point they decided I should be transferred to the Medical Unit which is kind of like ICU. As soon as I got to the new unit they determined I do not have kidney stones, instead I have pneumonia and most of my lungs are infected.

Since then I have been on oxygen and lots of different medications. Finally today I am able to take longer and occasionally deeper breaths. It is hard to get up and walk around but I am supposed to walk around the unit twice a day which will help my lungs get rid of the fluid around them. Lastnight I did feel quite a few contractions so the Labor Unit sent over a nurse to monitor them and see what was going on. They intensified and were getting closer together so they gave me several medications to get those stopped. They can only use those for a couple days so if the contractions start up again we may be headed for a very early delivery. Although that is a possibility I am very hopeful we are able to make it at least 6 more weeks.

As much as this experience has been very difficult and I've had to spend my birthday in the hospital this year it has given all of us a chance to slow down and pay attention to some of the warning signals and how possible an early delivery could be. I am hoping to be released from the hospital by Sunday so I can finish recovering at home. In the meantime I'm resting in between the multiple needle sticks throughout the day & the daily visit to get x-rays. The best part is when they monitor the baby and I get to hear her heartbeat, such a beautiful sound.