Lucy and mama
Now for the true update, it may be a bit graphic for some people so read with that warning: things have been crazy in our house and not in a good way. Evidently I retained placenta after this c-section just as occurred after my first (very rare, shocking to have it happen twice with c-section deliveries). Unfortunately, this time it became infected and I didn't realize that all the abdomin pain I had a couple weeks ago was an infection (because I had no other symptoms) instead of just gas/constipation/bloating from the c-section surgery. So I went about my business and it improved (my body fought it but didn't win). Then the sunday right after my birthday I woke up with cramping and had some major bleeding. After talking with the dr. by phone I was ok to wait til Monday to see a dr. she referred me for an ultrasound which I had Tuesday morning and sure enough I had retaiend placenta. They couldn't get me in for surgery until Friday (which was a big disappointment to have to wait so long) but the good news is the surgery on Friday went well and we have had tremendous family support (Jeremy's mom was in town, then my mom came back up, then my sister, and now my mom and Nancy are up again). We were discharged right away and I was home no problem, I even told my sister I was fine and didn't need her to come up. Ooops, I guess I was wrong, thankfully she was able to come Friday night anyway and care for us, mostly my kids as I couldn't do it and Jeremy was caring for me. On Friday late afternoon I developed a fever, we called the dr. and he prescribed some anti-biotics and said we would check in by phone Saturday morning. Sat morning I had spiked to 102 but then decreased with Tylenol so he said I had one more chance to stay fever free. Unfortunately that didn't happen and around noon on Saturday I went back up to almost 103 and won a trip to the hospital. Saturday afternoon was the worst in the hospital, I developed chills and fever and the chills would not go away for over an hour so I was really bundled which made my fever a bit artificially high at 104.5. My true fever was probably more like 103.7 because that is what it dropped to when we got the extra warm blankets off of me. I was told I had to be fever free for 24 hours to go home and my fever did break Saturday night. Unfortunately, Sat afternoon I also developed the really severe abdominal pain, I couldn't cough, roll over, or have anything on my tummy. All day Sunday I had pretty severe pain but no fever. The dr. came to talk that night and I had been fever free for 24 hours but since I was feeling so much pain we decided to wait to see what I was like Monday morning. Good thing we stayed because I got a fever again Sunday around 10pm (not high but high enough to count and give me another 24 hours to stay). Monday morning the pain was decreasing but still there so we did a CT scan that found gas in my uterus and some thicker lining but nothing to be too worried about. I guess it will just have to work its way out and that is one of the side effects possible from the surgery. This whole time I was on heavy anti-biotics and yet while my body had an infection my white blood cell count was normal. What we have discovered is that the blood work was in the normal range because they had already tried elevating a couple weeks earlier to fight the infection and just ended up thinking my current state of infection was 'normal.' So through Monday I did stay fever free and by Tuesday morning I was doing better, I am still not great, and it is so hard to not be well enough to care for my family but I am recovering.
Another bad thing is that the whole family got colds and that in turn means that Lucy has developed her first good cold. She was a tiny bit stuffy over my hospital stay (Jeremy would bring her to visit during the day on Sunday and Monday and then take her home at night) but when I arrived home Tuesday she has gotten a bit worse. She is having a hard time sleeping which isn't great when I am supposed to be getting some additional sleep to recover. We are on extra alert because she is so young but we are doing ok. I just feel bad for her but she is handling it as well as can be expected and I really hope we can avoid something more serious or another trip to the dr.
Jeremy has been truly wonderful through this traveling back and forth from home to hospital to try caring for all of us. He has developed the cold as well and unforutanately he has had to do quite a bit of work (his boss is with him today) and then he has some major school assignments due by Friday because it is the end of his semester this Friday. He is burning the midnight oil and the dawn oil so I just hope he can manage to not get more sick and need help from us because we all still need help from him.
So there is our story, any prayers, positive thoughts or well wishes are appreciated. We are on the road to recovery and I know this will pass but it sure has not been an easy period of time. Thanks for reading and being part of our lives. And yes, I will get more fun pictures of both kids posted sometime, not to mention getting out the birth announcements that have sat in my home for 2 weeks because I just haven't gotten around to addressing them and mailing them. Soon, I hope!
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