a trip to the hospital

First off, I want to apologize if you are finding out this way or via Facebook: I tried to update as many people as I could last night and today, but there just was a lot going on.

Second, we are fine.  Just wanted to get that out there, too.

So what happened.  I began experiencing some lower abdominal pain on Sunday afternoon.  I thought it was weird, but just wrote it off as nothing because it went away before too long.  However, the pain came sporadically for the next few days, but never stuck around.  Thursday morning, the pain came again and this time, nausea came with it and the pain was at least a 9 on the 0-10 scale.  Maybe even 9.5.  I was at work when this bout of pain hit, and sent Jesse a message, asking if he thought I should go to the doctor.  He thought I should, so I called to try and set up an appointment.  They unfortunately didn't have any openings for that day, but felt it important enough that I should either go to the ER or an Urgent Care.  Hoping to avoid any hospitals, I opted for the Urgent Care.

When I got to the Urgent Care, they took my vitals, collected a urine sample and asked if there was any possibility of pregnancy.  I told them I supposed there could be a chance.  When I was finally seen by the doctor, she was mainly concerned that this could be my appendix which kind of made me nervous.  She said that my urine looked fine as far as kidney functions and everything went, but that she was going to schedule me for a CAT scan at the hospital to check out my appendix.  The doctor went off to work on that, and I sent Jesse a message, explaining about the scan and appendix.  When the doctor came back in, she said that my urine had in fact tested positive for pregnancy and that she was going to go ahead and rule out the appendix theory.  I was excited but definitely nervous when she told me because of all the pain I was having.  We discussed possibilities as far as the pain went, and the one that seemed most probable was that it was an ectopic pregnancy.  She then left to try and schedule an ultrasound instead of the CAT scan.

The hospital was really slow and pokey about getting me back to the ultrasound, which was just annoying because they made me drink 32 oz of fluid beforehand so my bladder would be full.  If doctors are going to require that, they should be speedy about the procedure!!  The ultrasound tech finally came and got me and took a few pictures.  She let me have a bathroom break before continuing.  After she got everything taken care of, she went to review them and call the doctor from the UC while I waited.  I ended up talking with the doctor from the Urgent Care twice: I don't remember what exactly was discussed the first time, but the bottom line was that I was 6-8 weeks pregnant, but they couldn't see any sign of a baby in my uterus or Fallopian tube, and so she was getting in touch with the on call OB/GYN at the hospital and that I was going to be admitted overnight with the possibility of surgery.

At this point, everything kind of hit me at once: I was concerned about what Jesse and Lily would do without me overnight and overwhelmed with the emotions of the day so far.

I got checked in and shown to my room.  I was just sitting down and trying to keep the tears back when Emily text me and asked if I had time to text and how I was doing.  Really, she couldn't have text at a better time: I was alone in a hospital waiting for probable surgery where I would lose my baby and Jesse hadn't arrived yet.  Thank you Em.

Jesse arrived shortly later and we talked and I cried for awhile.  Several hours passed and we spoke with the doctor who would be conducting the surgery and he said there would be a bit of a wait because of some other surgery that was underway already.  More time passed and we found out that I'd be going in for surgery around midnight.  Jesse made arrangements with Betsy to keep Lily overnight for us and took Lily off to her house and then came back to be with me overnight.  We tried to relax and keep friends and family updated on what was going on and had dozed off for a little bit when they came in to take me down to the OR.

The surgery went well.  I got back to my room and Jesse told me a bit of what the surgeon had come up to tell him: they had gone in with scopes in 3 different incisions on my stomach and found the pregnancy in the right Fallopian tube and removed it, cauterizing my tube and leaving it in tact.  We both went back to sleep, or as best we could for the night.  Recovery today seemed slow and annoying, as I just wanted to go home and cuddle with my Lily, but we were eventually released and came home.  Julia came over to babysit me while Jesse went to fill my prescription for pain, and Betsy came with food and my little girl.  We had decided it would be best for Lily to spend another night with the Partin's so Jesse and I could get some rest tonight, but it was so good to see and cuddle her for a few minutes.

That's about it, I guess.  We're doing ok: glad that this was discovered before my tube burst and made the situation much worse and thankful that this happened within a few hours of finding out I was pregnant versus several months, which we both feel would be so much harder to handle.  I know I feel emotionally drained right now, but we'll be fine.  We both believe that everything happens for a reason and that God is in control of this and knows why it had to happen.  As sad as we are to have lost a baby, we are blessed with an adorable little 10.5 month old that makes us so happy and incredibly blessed to have such a great support group of family and friends.  Thank you to everyone who sent me texts, emails and prayers yesterday and today and for everyone who has helped out out and offered to help.

I'll post a more cheery post soon, promise!  I'm going to bed now, though :) thanks for bearing with me as I wrote a book, and probably was much more scatter-brained than normal.  Please continue to pray for us if you think of us.

g'night!

xoxo