Hospital Food

After staying a week in the hospital, I've come to enjoy hospital food. It really isn't as bad as everyone says it is. Some meals were a bit bland, but not anything a little salt couldn't fix. I even had a choice of two different dishes so I wasn't just brought whatever and expected to eat it. I thought it was great.

Not only am I going to tell everyone the events that took place the day Luke was born, it will also serve as a journal entry for me to remember down the road.

Chris and I checked into the hospital so I could be induced Sunday night, the 6Th, around 8:30pm. After waiting all weekend to get in, we were pretty excited to finally be there. After settling into my delivery suite, which was really nice, I was given medication to soften my cervix before they would start the petocin. Lucky for me, I started contracting on my own around 5:00am so I didn't even need it. With less then an hour of pushing, Luke was born at 5:01pm. I was only in labor 12 hours. I was so glad it wasn't longer than that. That was the part that I was scared the most about and it didn't turn out as horrible as I imagined.

That's the first part. Everything went pretty smoothly until Luke's little shoulders were out....that's when I tore. The doctor who delivered him spent the next 2 1/2 hours stitching me up. I got to hold Luke for a little bit and then Chris took him out to show our waiting family. Plus, Chris couldn't stay in the room with all the bleeding that my parts were doing so Christina came in and talked to me while I sat with my bottom half uncovered for the world to see. The doctor didn't talk much, but I did notice that she shook her head a lot. That was not a good sign. She did finally say that every time she put a stitch in I'd bleed more and that was not good. The main concern was to get me to stop bleeding and stitched up. Once the doctor was finished and she felt she had the bleeding under control is when she learned about my blood problem, pancytopenia. She seemed pretty upset that she wasn't told before, but now realized why I was bleeding so bad and was worried with the amount of blood I had lost. I guess I never thought it was that serious.....boy, was I wrong.

By Wednesday morning I was doing good. I wasn't bleeding anymore and my stitches were looking still holding up. Even though I wasn't on any epidural medication, I still had the IV line in my back and they wanted to take out. I was glad I couldn't feel it. They gave me a transfusion of platelets before the anesthesiologists removed the IV line. He made it sound very scary so I was really freaked out. He talked about having to go into emergency surgery if I ended up having a clot in my spine or something like that. Luckily, I could still feel my legs by the end of the day so it all went well.

Just when I thought I was getting better everything changed Wednesday afternoon. My heart rate went up and I started getting a fever. By the end of the day it was to 103. I started getting my blood every 6 hours to see what was going on and to see what my blood levels were doing. It wasn't looking very good and my arms were starting to look like I was a drug user. Sadly, my white blood cells were decreasing and that was a main concern with the on-call doctor. That night, Luke was discharged from the hospital into Chris's care, but they could stay in the hospital with me. Thursday morning, my OB came in and told me they were transferring me to another hospital and to the ICU. Even though the doctors at the Pacific campus were doing everything they could, they felt I needed to be placed in special care with doctors who dealt with this kind of thing every day. I cried since I would be separated from Luke and I already felt like we had not yet bonded. I felt so helpless, but Chris was doing a great job with the mom duties during our hospital stay together.

First thing that happened when I arrived at the Colby campus of Providence was a blood transfusion. I received two units of blood to see if that would help me. I spent all day Thursday and part of Friday in the ICU. I still had blood draws, but they were only once a day and at 4:30 in the morning. Who does that? Shouldn't patients be sleeping at the time? I was being pumped full of antibiotics so it wasn't that bad since the machine beeped when the bag was empty so I didn't sleep the whole night through anyway. Finally, the doctors had a verdict of what was wrong with me and had discovered I had somehow contracted a bacteria in my blood. They had some theories of how it came about, but nothing to important to mention. My mom brought me a receiving blanket that smelled of Luke and some pictures of him. I cried a lot not being with my baby, but I knew he was in good hands with his dad, Chris, and my family.

Before I was moved from the ICU on Friday I finally got to take a shower. I had gone way too many days without washing my hair. Boy, did I look terrible when I hit the bathroom and took a look in the mirror. Why didn't any of my family mention that to me? I hadn't walked anywhere since Sunday night so taking the walk to the bathroom wore me out. That afternoon I was moved to a regular floor and I was lucky enough to get my own room. I must be loved...I even had my own bathroom with a shower. That day my temperature was steadily dropping. I was at 99 degrees all day and by Saturday my temp was normal. A new doctor had come in to tell me that they are taking cultures of the bacteria to find out what antibiotics would cure me. Still I wasn't told I could go home yet. Saturday I was getting up and around more and feeling good, but by that night I was tuckered out. Chris came and brought a game for us to play, but I kept falling a sleep during his turn so I finally called it quits. I didn't like that hospital room much because I thought it gave me bad dreams. I had to sleep with the light on the night before and didn't want Chris to go home that night either. It was probably from all the stuff they were pumping me full of. I was getting an antibiotic every 6 hours and a different one every 8 hours. Plus I was getting doses of iron every morning.

Sunday morning my doctor came in and told me the bacteria was sensitive to a certain antibiotic and asked me if I was ready to go home. Heck yes I was. He did tell me that I would have to take the antibiotic intravenously for a few days and then it would be a pill. So I was going home finally. I called Chris since he hadn't gotten to the hospital yet. He was so excited and so was I. I cried again since I would finally be able to hold my little baby boy and do all the mommy things I hadn't gotten to do yet.

There you have it. I'm now a seasoned mother of two weeks and loving it. Luke is such a good baby. He doesn't cry unless he is hungry, has a dirty diaper or a bubble in his tummy. I am so lucky he is that good. I think I'd be more exhausted if he weren't. Chris and I are adjusting to baby life and I'm thinking my maternity leave is getting eaten up too quickly. Before I know it, I'll be back to work and it makes me sad to think I won't get to be with him all day any more. I've got to soak it up while I can.

He is so adorable!!